Durch eine ungewöhnliche Karte mit der Auflistung der beliebtesten Stellen auf der Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, von denen der letzte Sprung ins Wasser von diesem Leben heraus begangen wurde: "Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate Jumpers", bin ich auf den unten zitierten und überaus interessanten Artikel gestossen. Mehr als 1200 Menschen beendeten ihr Leben seit der Eröffnung der Golden Gate Bridge im Jahre 1937...
Bild unter GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation: Appell an der Golden Gate Brücke an die Suizidgefährdeten (Photograph und copyright: David Corby, 2006)
"Tho the dark be cold and blind,
"Tho the dark be cold and blind,
Yet her sea-fog's touch is kind,
And her mightier caress
Is joy and the pain thereof;
And great is thy tenderness,
O cool, grey city of love!
Poet George Sterling wrote those words in 1923, and the late Chronicle columnist Herb Caen was fond of quoting the last line. Sterling's words effuse romantic notions of San Francisco, its generous spirit and the "tenderness" of its residents. In a city defined by loss and impermanence -- settled by gold speculators, razed by earthquake and fire, notorious as an open port where anything goes -- Sterling found forgiveness and redemption, a balm for loneliness.
We like to feel good about where we live -- to believe that San Francisco retains its warmth and charitable heart. But the "cool, grey city of love" has for 68 years neglected an epidemic of death. Whereas officials at the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building and other suicide landmarks recognized a crisis and erected suicide barriers, the Golden Gate Bridge still offers a welcome mat to someone in search of a quick exit.
We sense the tragedy but view it in the abstract, rationalizing the deaths with a laissez-faire attitude: "They have a right to end their lives if they choose." During the months of reporting on this series, the majority of people interviewed voiced this sentiment, often in glib terms. "If they didn't have the Golden Gate Bridge, they'd just kill themselves another way." (...)
THE WERTHER EFFECT
In January 1933, two classmates from a Tokyo school jumped into Mount Mihara, an active volcano on the Japanese island of Oshima. Weeks later, six more leaped into the volcano. Soon tourists were gathering to witness the suicides, which totaled 140 that year, 160 the next. Barriers were erected; it's no longer a suicide destination.
"Various places develop a reputation as suicide landmarks," says suicidologist Seiden. "Hanging trees and lovers' leaps and places like the Golden Gate Bridge start to get a notoriety. They develop a self-propelling momentum."
In 1974, sociologist David Phillips gave a new name to suicide contagion. He called it the Werther effect, taking the name from "The Sorrows of Young Werther," an 18th century German novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The story of a young man's suicide by pistol after a failed romance, "Sorrows" inspired a rash of copycat suicides -- many of whom dressed for death in the style of the novel's tragic hero -- until the book was banned in several countries.
Newspaper and media accounts are believed to contribute to the Werther effect, which is why The Chronicle stopped reporting each Golden Gate Bridge suicide more than 20 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology issued guidelines urging the media to downplay the suicides. Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes said he went to the local media when the number approached 850. "We weaned them," Holmes told the New Yorker magazine. But, he added, "the lack of publicity hasn't reduced the number of suicides at all."
The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State Building in New York, the Arroyo Seco Bridge in Pasadena and the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto were notorious suicide magnets until barriers were erected. Tellingly, when a suicide barrier was appended to the Bloor Street Viaduct -- after 480 deaths in 85 years -- people didn't drift to another bridge and create a new suicide magnet.
"When suicide becomes difficult," Meyer says, "people do not switch to another method. They tend to get help. This is what happened in England when the formula for gas ovens was changed" -- carbon-monoxide levels were reduced -- "and it became harder for people to purchase certain over-the-counter drugs. The suicide rate went down. England has a suicide rate half the size of ours because they're so aggressive about it. (...)" weiter lesen
Sleater-Kinney "Jumpers" [Aus dem Album "The Woods"]
"Mehrfach wurde in den amerikanischen Medien darüber diskutiert, ob es nicht möglich sei, wie an anderen hohen Bauwerken eine Barriere zu errichten, die Selbstmorde wenigstens erschweren würde. Es gilt als erwiesen, dass es sich gerade bei Selbstmördern, die von Brücken springen, um sogenannte Impulsselbstmörder handelt. Diese unternehmen mehrheitlich später keinen zweiten Versuch, wenn sie beim ersten Mal am Sprung gehindert wurden. Dennoch scheiterte der Bau einer Barriere einerseits an der schwierigen finanziellen Lage der Betreibergesellschaft (der Zaun würde rund 50 Millionen Dollar kosten) und andererseits an ästhetischen Bedenken.
Es sind mehrere Telefone angebracht, die es einer suizidalen Person ermöglichen sollen, Kontakt zu professioneller Hilfe aufzunehmen. Aufgrund des Verkehrsaufkommens und des damit verbundenen Lärms sowie den oft heftigen Windgeräuschen sind Telefonate jedoch in der Praxis nicht führbar." wikipedia
Bild unter CC-Lizenz: Die Golden Gate Brücke in San Franzisko, gesehen vom nördlichen Ende der Baker Beach. (Photograph und Copyright: Christian Mehlfuehrer)
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