Theory of mental disorder

4. Theory of Suicide

Suicide means the act of intentionally destroying oneself or a violent self-inflicted destructive action resulting death Smith 1983: 129. In the modern observation that is done by Baumiester, he says that suicide is the result or effort by individuals to escape from the fault Baron 1995: 558. According to Freud, suicide is a form of built up aggression or tension that causes inward animosity or in the other word; it represents a psychological conflict, which cannot be worked out due to the great force of melancholy and depression Freud, 1927: 21. Wilson states that most people commit suicide because they see it as the only solution to an unbearable situation; they experience intense psychological pain that completely frustrated in their attempts to meet their psychological needs, and have fallen into a state of hopelessness form which they see no other means of escape Wilson, 1996: 206. James C. Coleman, Professor of University of California at Los Angles in Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life states that there are four causes of suicide and Coleman calls it as stress factors in suicide. Stress factors in suicide according to Colman are interpersonal crises which mean interpersonal conflict and disruption that often found within the marital conflict, separation, divorce or the loss of love through death may result in severe stress and suicidal behavior, failure and self-devaluation, inner conflict, and lose the meaning and hope. The second stress factor according to Colman is failure and self-devaluation which means the feeling of having failed in some enterprises which often involving occupational aspirations and accomplishment. Then the fourth stress factor is inner conflict. It happened when a person situated on a debate with his own mind and usually a person feels anxious and confused, struggle with the meaning of life and death, and decides that he should not continue the struggle any longer and the last stress factor is loss of meaning and hope which means when a person has no desire to live Coleman, 1976: 607-608. Davidson and Neale, in Abnormal Psychology mention that there are numerous motivations for suicide. Davidson and Neale state that those motivations are desire or need to escape from stress, deformity, and pain or emotional vacuum Davidson and Neale, 1996: 251. In Abnormal Psychology also states that death is not the only purposes of suicide and the common purposes of suicide are to seek solution and a cry for help Davidson and Neale, 1996: 252.

C. Theoretical Framework

Theories of character and characterization are taken to explore what kind of person Lisbon’s daughters and their parents. Lisbon’s daughters’ behavior in the beginning of the play and also in the end of the play before committing suicide is a good reason why some theories of character are important in this thesis. Theory of psychoanalysis is applied to know the psychology condition of the Lisbon ’s daughters after experiencing many things in their life. The theory of psychoanalysis is also used to know the change of attitude and way of thinking. Theory of mental disorder is used to analyze the causes of Lisbon ’s daughters