(Ed note: Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It has written extensively about suicide here. In this piece, published yesterday in the New York Daily News, she cautions that celebrity suicides can trigger more deaths.)
Losing Robin Williams hurts. Many millions of people loved him wholeheartedly. Others saw him as brilliant but a little too earnest, which now seems like a lovely offense.
So the pain is widespread. It makes sense that we are talking about it in the media and on the Internet.
But it is also a real problem. Mass celebrations of people who kill themselves, even beloved people, can send the wrong message and influence others toward hurting themselves.
