Introduction
The task for sociologists attempting to understand
suicide – one of the most individual of acts – is to
link ‘private troubles’ (Mills, 1959) with ‘big
structures’ and ‘large social processes’ (Tilly, 1984),
and to find ways of doing so that are historically and
culturally sensitive.
This report takes as its focus not the act of suicide
itself – the ultimate manifestation of ‘private
trouble’ – but the broader emotional culture within
which that act takes place, and the ways in which
that may (and may not) be changing. It is not directly
concerned with the aetiology of suicide among
middle-aged men in low socio-economic groups – in
other words, with tracking backwards from that act