ABSTRACT
The ways in which we think about self harm and suicide are influenced by a number of factors including the religious and cultural context in which we have been raised. For example, for a committed Roman Catholic, killing oneself would be considered a mortal sin; this, it might be argued, is one reason that verdicts of suicide are rarely delivered in Southern Ireland (Kirwan, 1991).1 For a traditionally raised Japanese person on the other hand, self killing is required in certain circumstances. Since the sixteenth century, seppuku, the ritual self killing of Japan, better known in the West as hara-kiri, has been expected of people of the Samurai or warrior class, who have offended or failed in certain ways. It is a means by which the individual can redeem himself to others. There is a striking degree of similarity between seppuku and the renowned death of Socrates by drinking hemlock, in both of which it is at least questionable whether what we have is suicide.2
