Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR SUICIDE In your issue of October 27, you published a comment I made in regard to the advent of suicide in Russia. Since then, you have printed two thoughtful letters from George...
...conditions of individual defeats—that is, the gap between his dreams and his attainment...
...It seems to me that I did not make my point with sufficient clarity, and I welcome the observation of these other correspondents...
...In Russia, I found a heartwarming demand •of parents and children for higher education...
...I was told that, until recently, a student who failed felt no personal blame and suffered no personal frustration...
...etc...
...I might add that tliis entire approach, dealing with personal frustration and suicide, was discussed with officials of our Federal Government in its effect on our basic foreign policy toward peoples possessed by dictators, including the people of backward countries, who, without literacy or communication, must of necessity be unable to elect their own rulers...
...I was not at all concerned with suicide through pain, excessive brutality, etc...
...This meant that people were taking the first step toward freedom in the sense that they had the right to individual ambitions and the sad concomitant of individual frustration...
...DEAR EDITOR SUICIDE In your issue of October 27, you published a comment I made in regard to the advent of suicide in Russia...
...Since then, you have printed two thoughtful letters from George Gibian and Peter Swoger...
...As your readers know, India is concerned (to the extent of conferences) with this problem of suicide, even though the suicide index seldom if ever exceeds 25 per 100,000 people, including suicide resulting from physical pain...
...When I was in Russia, it was clear that the Government was concerned because students were starting to blame themselves : "Why did I get drunk the night of the exam" : <{Why didn't I work harder...
...His defeat was washed over as part of the Communist Revolution, Stalinism or some other societal pattern...
...Only Japan, Switzerland, Scandinavia, England, France, Germany, the United States and a very few other countries give evidence of any suicide of this nature...
...If he gained admission, his income would rise from double that figure to 5,000 rubles a. month...
...This shift to personal responsibility seemed to me to be of a profound cultural significance...
...In brief, while in Russia I became concerned with the increase of juvenile delinquency and the advent of what I was told was a new type of suicide...
...For example, before Gandhi, priests for thou sands of years had told the people of India that they would die at age 20, would go blind, and would remain poor and that they should look for their reward in Nirvana...
...Although it may sound macabre, a clue to man's development as an individual requires consideration of man's behavior under extreme THE NEW LEADER welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...New York City MORRIS ERNST December 15, 1958...
...Interestingly enough, suicide of this type is only evident in cultures of substantial individual freedom and high standards of living...
...At the risk of annoying your correspondents, may I point to the fact that there is practically no coronary in New Mexico and that ulcers seem to be a monopoly of vice-presidents, located as one would expect in New York and Hollywood...
...I was deeply interested, however, in the fact that the Soviet officials admitted a quandary in their minds arising out of a new type of suicide...
...Gandhi and Nehm, in effect, said, "y° u can improve your lot on earth...
...It was obvious that if a student failed of admission to a university, he would be shipped to a farm, a factory or a mine for life at approximately 600 rubles a. month...
Vol. 41 • December 1956 • No. 45
