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Undoing Suicidism: A Trans, Queer, Crip Approach to Rethinking (Assisted) Suicide
In Undoing Suicidism, Alexandre Baril argues that suicidal people are oppressed by what he calls structural suicidism, a hidden oppression that, until now, has been unnamed and under-theorized. Each year, suicidism and its preventionist script and strategies reproduce violence and cause additional harm and death among suicidal people through forms of criminalization, incarceration, discrimination, stigmatization, and pathologization. This is particularly true for marginalized groups experiencing multiple oppressions, including queer, trans, disabled, or Mad people.
Undoing Suicidism questions the belief that the best way to help suicidal people is through the logic of prevention. Alexandre Baril presents the thought-provoking argument that supporting assisted suicide for suicidal people could better prevent unnecessary deaths. Offering a new queercrip model of (assisted) suicide, he invites us to imagine what could happen if we started thinking about (assisted) suicide from an anti-suicidist and intersectional framework.
Baril provides a radical reconceptualization of (assisted) suicide and invaluable reflections for academics, activists, practitioners, and policymakers.
Undoing Suicidism questions the belief that the best way to help suicidal people is through the logic of prevention. Alexandre Baril presents the thought-provoking argument that supporting assisted suicide for suicidal people could better prevent unnecessary deaths. Offering a new queercrip model of (assisted) suicide, he invites us to imagine what could happen if we started thinking about (assisted) suicide from an anti-suicidist and intersectional framework.
Baril provides a radical reconceptualization of (assisted) suicide and invaluable reflections for academics, activists, practitioners, and policymakers.
334 pages, Hardcover
Published May 26, 2023
21 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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March 7, 2025despite agreeing with every point alexandre has made so far, this is chalking up to be one of the most performative books i've ever read
over and again, he repeats every ism in the leftist toolbox, saying we must be wary of classism, racism, colonialism, sizeism, ableism, sexism, cisgenderism, sanism, cognitivism, and it feels so disingenuous
if your analysis is intersectional it will speak for itself
like there are queer women of colour who don't fucking beat around the bush, and when they talk about intersectionality they give examples from their lives, because they live it every day
if you want to be an ally, actually say something meaningful. fuck virtue signalling, your actions should signal enough
my partner made a point that trans men tend to emerge from tumblr, so their need to quality every single statement reflects the toxic space they were in, the sea of leftist cops who will tear you to shreds for not considering every petty intersection pertinent to their lives
and i get it, when you've been through invalidating bullshit you lash out, but also fuck those people, they're vampires who want to tear things down, including their own allies, rather than build things up and actually change the world
and it's like, alexandre, babe, you need to heal, you owe these fuckers nothing, they're the ones who went out of their way to misunderstand you, and it is not up to you to cover every single one of your bases for their sakes
because the consequence is terrible writing and pointless abstractions, when what we need are concrete fucking analyses of the material oppressions we face
and it's a fucking shame because the book begins with a haunting sequence where alexandre talks about his medical bracelet with DO NOT RESUSCITATE engraved on it and i wish he'd just kept writing about his personal experiences
but instead he starts talking about foucault and it all goes downhill from there
because you don't need to talk about governmentalities, and somatechnics, and biopower, to say 'suicidal people are being imprisoned and gaslit and kept alive against their will, and this makes them more suicidal'
like, who are you trying to reach? who are you writing for? do you really think foucault scholars need more material on madness and imprisonment? they've had fifty years of that
no, it's suicidal people that need these thoughts. it's their loved ones who think selfishness is wanting to die, rather than forcing someone to live in agony for their benefit. it's suicide preventioners who don't see the inhuman suffering they cause by surveilling, medicating, imprisoning, and invalidating the experiences of suicide survivors
maybe my anger is misplaced, but i swear to god I've seen the best minds of every generation destroyed by critical theory rot, where instead of elucidating experience, it obfuscates it in a semiotic morass, a vertiginous death spiral of references bereft of vitality and power
how many hours wasted editing a chapter that could have been spent educating and organising? how many students needed their voices heard, stuffed dead on the mantelpiece of academia?
over and again, he repeats every ism in the leftist toolbox, saying we must be wary of classism, racism, colonialism, sizeism, ableism, sexism, cisgenderism, sanism, cognitivism, and it feels so disingenuous
if your analysis is intersectional it will speak for itself
like there are queer women of colour who don't fucking beat around the bush, and when they talk about intersectionality they give examples from their lives, because they live it every day
if you want to be an ally, actually say something meaningful. fuck virtue signalling, your actions should signal enough
my partner made a point that trans men tend to emerge from tumblr, so their need to quality every single statement reflects the toxic space they were in, the sea of leftist cops who will tear you to shreds for not considering every petty intersection pertinent to their lives
and i get it, when you've been through invalidating bullshit you lash out, but also fuck those people, they're vampires who want to tear things down, including their own allies, rather than build things up and actually change the world
and it's like, alexandre, babe, you need to heal, you owe these fuckers nothing, they're the ones who went out of their way to misunderstand you, and it is not up to you to cover every single one of your bases for their sakes
because the consequence is terrible writing and pointless abstractions, when what we need are concrete fucking analyses of the material oppressions we face
and it's a fucking shame because the book begins with a haunting sequence where alexandre talks about his medical bracelet with DO NOT RESUSCITATE engraved on it and i wish he'd just kept writing about his personal experiences
but instead he starts talking about foucault and it all goes downhill from there
because you don't need to talk about governmentalities, and somatechnics, and biopower, to say 'suicidal people are being imprisoned and gaslit and kept alive against their will, and this makes them more suicidal'
like, who are you trying to reach? who are you writing for? do you really think foucault scholars need more material on madness and imprisonment? they've had fifty years of that
no, it's suicidal people that need these thoughts. it's their loved ones who think selfishness is wanting to die, rather than forcing someone to live in agony for their benefit. it's suicide preventioners who don't see the inhuman suffering they cause by surveilling, medicating, imprisoning, and invalidating the experiences of suicide survivors
maybe my anger is misplaced, but i swear to god I've seen the best minds of every generation destroyed by critical theory rot, where instead of elucidating experience, it obfuscates it in a semiotic morass, a vertiginous death spiral of references bereft of vitality and power
how many hours wasted editing a chapter that could have been spent educating and organising? how many students needed their voices heard, stuffed dead on the mantelpiece of academia?
August 14, 2024
made me rethink and realize things about myself. changed the way I talk about suicide.
Read
November 22, 2024This is a quality academic work on the subject to which I was serendipitously drawn through a favorite youtuber's story highlight.
I must thank the author for putting this intricate work of research and original thought for free readership. Suicidism, as Baril suggests, is a culture which opposes one's will to suicide, silences the suicidal person's voice, forcibly intervenes to stop the person from enacting on their will through a litany of 'help-lines' and 'circles', functions on 'compulsory aliveness' through its injunction to life and futurity thereby completely denying the autonomy of the individual. This culture gets exacerbated as it co-opts with the other -isms like ableism/sanism/sexism/racism/hetereosexualism/cisgenderism/neo-liberalism etc.
Baril critiques a huge body of literature around suicide and proposes four models (medical model, public health model, social model and social justice model) through which suicide is normally perceived. He shows how each model in its isolated functioning does not address the complex nature of suicidality and on the contrary exacerbates Suicidism.
He critiques even the right to die movements and the medically assisted deaths that a few countries offer. The medically assisted deaths which refrain from calling themselves medically assisted suicides are gate-kept and are firmly rooted in ableism /ageism /sanism where they declare the degree of disposability of these bodies. The culture of disposability is in itself ingrained in a neo liberal capitalist items culture where bodies are valued on the basis of their productivities.
Similarly, the right to die movements, even if they recognize the individual will, still work around the principle that suicide is the 'last resort' of a person who has been 'failed' by the society.
In the same measure, Baril talks about the over-representation of queer/trans /disabled people in the suicide figures which exacerbate the idea of 'being failed by an oppressive unaccepting society'. This narrative thus erases the other complexities surrounding a queer/ trans/disabled suicidal person.
He talks about how the help-lines and other emergency services invade into the suicidal person's agency , often subjecting them to violence, coercion detention and other oppressive somatotechnologies to 'save' them while the individual will is rescinded.
He therefore proposes a holistic model where suicidal people can freely talk about their desire where their narratives are heard and acknowledged, their will and identities respected and they are assisted to build an informed decision, where suicidal people will not be abandoned while treading on perhaps the most difficult trajectory, where they will be with their loved ones or in a space of empathy and compassion. A model that centers on harm reduction both for the suicidal person and the people who care about them.
Baril does not romanticize this idea but offers a very pragmatic solution which he knows will require much more deliberations to implement. The implementation part although comes much later. For that, the culture of Suicidism has to be erased. Undoing Suicidism can possibly lead to saving more lives (though that's not what Baril's goal is) but the suicidal person definitely deserves to be informed and assisted. He talks not just of negative rights (the non intervention of the somatotechnologies) but of positive rights where the state assists suicidal people through a space of compassion.
You may find the arguments, on certain occasions, repetitive but it completely makes sense when Baril keeps on clarifying his position and defining his own situatedness. The book is an important resource and should be read with a receptive mind to grasp its complete potential.
I must thank the author for putting this intricate work of research and original thought for free readership. Suicidism, as Baril suggests, is a culture which opposes one's will to suicide, silences the suicidal person's voice, forcibly intervenes to stop the person from enacting on their will through a litany of 'help-lines' and 'circles', functions on 'compulsory aliveness' through its injunction to life and futurity thereby completely denying the autonomy of the individual. This culture gets exacerbated as it co-opts with the other -isms like ableism/sanism/sexism/racism/hetereosexualism/cisgenderism/neo-liberalism etc.
Baril critiques a huge body of literature around suicide and proposes four models (medical model, public health model, social model and social justice model) through which suicide is normally perceived. He shows how each model in its isolated functioning does not address the complex nature of suicidality and on the contrary exacerbates Suicidism.
He critiques even the right to die movements and the medically assisted deaths that a few countries offer. The medically assisted deaths which refrain from calling themselves medically assisted suicides are gate-kept and are firmly rooted in ableism /ageism /sanism where they declare the degree of disposability of these bodies. The culture of disposability is in itself ingrained in a neo liberal capitalist items culture where bodies are valued on the basis of their productivities.
Similarly, the right to die movements, even if they recognize the individual will, still work around the principle that suicide is the 'last resort' of a person who has been 'failed' by the society.
In the same measure, Baril talks about the over-representation of queer/trans /disabled people in the suicide figures which exacerbate the idea of 'being failed by an oppressive unaccepting society'. This narrative thus erases the other complexities surrounding a queer/ trans/disabled suicidal person.
He talks about how the help-lines and other emergency services invade into the suicidal person's agency , often subjecting them to violence, coercion detention and other oppressive somatotechnologies to 'save' them while the individual will is rescinded.
He therefore proposes a holistic model where suicidal people can freely talk about their desire where their narratives are heard and acknowledged, their will and identities respected and they are assisted to build an informed decision, where suicidal people will not be abandoned while treading on perhaps the most difficult trajectory, where they will be with their loved ones or in a space of empathy and compassion. A model that centers on harm reduction both for the suicidal person and the people who care about them.
Baril does not romanticize this idea but offers a very pragmatic solution which he knows will require much more deliberations to implement. The implementation part although comes much later. For that, the culture of Suicidism has to be erased. Undoing Suicidism can possibly lead to saving more lives (though that's not what Baril's goal is) but the suicidal person definitely deserves to be informed and assisted. He talks not just of negative rights (the non intervention of the somatotechnologies) but of positive rights where the state assists suicidal people through a space of compassion.
You may find the arguments, on certain occasions, repetitive but it completely makes sense when Baril keeps on clarifying his position and defining his own situatedness. The book is an important resource and should be read with a receptive mind to grasp its complete potential.
June 6, 2023
Undoing Suicidism is a high-quality book. Baril’s arguments throughout the book on positive rights for suicide are well-structured and well-supported with many different theoretical bases, scholarly literature, grey literature, and experiences of those who are suicidal or have died by suicide. While unable fully reach the level of plain language, Baril does a good job of explaining jargon and complex concepts to those who may be unfamiliar with the field. The book starts with a theoretical introduction that is extremely helpful in understanding the rest of the book, and each portion of the book flows well into the next.
I cannot say that Baril’s book changed my opinion on suicide. However, it’d be dishonest to say I walked away from the book unchanged. The description and discussion of suicidism and its effects, the critiques of current suicide prevention and active rescue compared to the successful, alternative approaches of the Trans Lifeline and DISCHARGED, and the introduction to critical theories with which I was unfamiliar has given me a lot to think about.
I cannot say that Baril’s book changed my opinion on suicide. However, it’d be dishonest to say I walked away from the book unchanged. The description and discussion of suicidism and its effects, the critiques of current suicide prevention and active rescue compared to the successful, alternative approaches of the Trans Lifeline and DISCHARGED, and the introduction to critical theories with which I was unfamiliar has given me a lot to think about.
Read
June 6, 2024As a cisgender, old, white guy, I have no doubt that I come from a different place than Alexandre Baril in Undoing Suicidism: A Trans, Queer, Crip Approach to Rethinking (Assisted) Suicide. I’ve had the honor of sitting on a few diversity panels as an ally. Despite my honest attempts to understand, I recognize that I am falling short. The good news is that my friends � and fellow panelists � are often gentle in nudging me into a more understanding position.
March 7, 2025
At best, Undoing Suicidism is a cautionary example of how critical theory can go too far—losing sight of material reality in favor of ideological purity. At worst, it is an outright dangerous work that, if taken seriously, could cause real harm by undermining suicide prevention efforts and reinforcing fatalistic narratives among vulnerable individuals. Either way, it is a book that will not—and should not—stand the test of time.
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