Suicide as a “Disease of Civilization”: A Tool for Westernization Critique in the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Empire

Authors : Esra Abaoğlu

Pages : 2944-2960

Doi:10.15869/itobiad.1760424

View : 56 | Download : 190

Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article focuses on a specific subset of archival materials: suicide-related news reports published in nineteenth century Ottoman Turkish newspapers, identified through digital tools such as Wikilala and Müteferriqa. Among these, the study selects only those articles that provide statistical data on suicide rates in Europe or offer a critique of Western civilization. The analysis reveals that the Ottoman press was well aware of the increasing suicide rates in the West and familiar with emerging European claims that associated these rates with civilizational development. In some cases, the reports not only relayed but also echoed such interpretations. Interestingly, the lack of similar statistical efforts within the Ottoman Empire (and the absence of critique regarding this gap) suggests that suicide was largely perceived as a Western phenomenon. The Ottoman press employed suicide statistics as a rhetorical and discursive tool for expressing broader critiques of Western modernity. Since Ottoman intellectuals were already engaged in debates over the adoption of Western civilization, especially concerning its moral and cultural dimensions, suicide became integrated into this wider framework of scepticism and critique. Rather than presenting suicide as a domestic issue, Ottoman newspapers largely reported on it as a problem confined to Europe, reinforcing the notion that it was a byproduct of Western modern life. This article aims to demonstrate how suicide functioned as a symbolic site for articulating anxieties about civilization and moral decline. By analysing these reports, the study contributes to broader discussions about the Ottoman engagement with modernity and the selective appropriation of Western ideas within the empire’s public discourse.
Keywords : intihar, Osmanlı Basını, Medeniyet Eleştirisi, On Dokuzuncu Yüzyıl Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Ahlaki İstatistikler, Batı Modernitesi, Medeniyet Hastalığı

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