Discussing Suicide in Film with Author, Dr. Alessandra Seggi

Note to the reader: This interview contains discussions of suicide. 

Resources for people in a crisis:

If you or someone you know is in a crisis or is feeling suicidal, please talk to somebody.

Call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential support. 

The depiction of suicide and mental health in film has always been a subject I have held close to my heart. I know firsthand how much a piece of media can impact how one sees the world. This week I had the privilege of speaking with Sociologist, Dr. Alessandra Seggi, of Villanova University who just published her first book: "Youth and Suicide in American Cinema," a text about a topic very close to her heart.

Rua: "Hi, today I'm here with Alessandra Seggi, would you mind introducing yourself for us?"

Seggi: "So I'm Dr. Seggi, I have a PhD in sociology and so my interest is in people and relationships and how the world works and people in it. I also have an interest in anything and everything visual, of course movies included, and I have a Master's in media studies. So this book is really the combination of my interests, both academic and life interests, in people, in social connections, social relationships, and in films. I also love to draw, my book contains a few of my own drawings."

Rua: "Outstanding! And congratulations on your book, it's such a big accomplishment. Walk me through the journey of this project, where did your inspiration spark from?"

Seggi: "Unfortunately, I learned about suicide as a kid, because people in my life were either suicidal or literally died by it. So that was something that I was exposed to, and that left me really puzzled. And by that I mean, sometimes the suicide would come out of nowhere. And so not only was there this lack of explanation, so to speak. Of course, today, I know that is extremely complex, there's not just one single reason. But anyway, once the person is gone, the main person that can guide you through their experience is not there. And on top of that, although there were quite a few suicides, the people left behind also wouldn't talk about it, there was this sort of a double silence. So that was my first early experience with suicide. And as a sort of fairly extrovert person, my interest in sociology developed. One of the founding fathers of sociology is Émile Durkheim, a French sociologist laid down the groundwork for sociology as a sort of legitimate academic discipline by studying suicide in Europe. His thesis was how by looking at suicide from a sociological point of view, we can understand much more than what we already know in terms of philosophical discussions or psychological treatments of suicidality. My dissertation has what was sort of the seed for this book, it goes way beyond my dissertation, not just in terms of depth, but also directions and breadth of research.

Rua: "Interesting. That' something I can unfortunately relate to, I was the first person in my family to deal with suicidal depression openly, and I come from a culture that puts a lot of focus on "sucking it up" and putting on a brave face. So I can absolutely see how confusing it must have been for you as a kid to experience all of that with no explanation. In your book, you dedicate a lot of time to Archie's Final Project, do you have any other examples of films that do a particularly good job representing suicidal ideation?"

Seggi: "There's this one movie from 2014 called Beyond The Lights, but I could even go as far back as to say A Slender Thread from 1965. Archie's Final Project is a film that does a good, accurate job of showing the multifaceted nature of suicidality and depression. In general, the research that exists on suicide and media has been focused on the negative effects of media-- and for good reason because we want to protect vulnerable individuals. In other words, when media portrayals may under certain circumstances potentially encourage suicidality, we talk about the Werther effect. Instead, when media portrayals of suicide discourage suicidality, we talk about the Papageno Effect. This effect started to be investigated in recent decades (as opposed to the Werther effect whose scientific study began in the 1960s)—Austrian researcher Thomas Niederkrotenthaler coined the term and together with his team has contributed a great deal to the study of this effect. All in all, when we are able to create media portrayals that acknowledge the pain and suffering of those in crisis as well as offer help and hope for recovery, we model behaviors for our audiences that are overall life-affirming."

Rua: "Archie's Final Project was such an important film to me when I was struggling with suicidal depression because it portrayed someone suicidal who is not just sad all the time but is majorly self-destructive and angry and...kind of an asshole. I know firsthand, depression makes you an asshole it makes you short and irritable with those around you and I think that's why a lot of people don't want to help those who are struggling."

Seggi: "That film was so important to my studies because of the complexity it offers in terms of suicidality and depression. I see that film as a game changer because it adds a lot of intricacy to suicidality as well as the overall teen experience. We see this not only through Archie but also the character, Sierra who is portrayed as a perfectly normal popular girl but we learn that she self harms in secret. The movie is sort of asking itself and the audience: 'what is pushing these people to want to kill themselves?' It's not just about the teen condition, I make it a point in my book not to portray the teen condition as a monolith, but there are consistent experiences between us all. When I interviewed the director, David Lee Miller, he referred to the fast-changing world and how kids are exposed to all this unfettered media."

Rua: "On the flip-side, there's also a wealth of bad representation of suicide and depression in media. Most notably, 13 Reasons Why around ten years ago when the show came under fire for showing an extremely graphic scene of the main character, Hannah Baker slitting her wrists. Could you explain exactly why that scene was so harmful?"

Seggi: "It's glamorizing suicide. The show makes it seem like Hannah Baker was cooler dead than she ever was alive, and that's not okay. When it comes to media literacy, I would encourage people to embrace movies but also to think for themselves."

Rua: "I remember in middle school when that came out, there was a girl in my grade who struggled with depression and she got her hair cut like Hannah Baker. It just scared the hell out of me because I knew if she was willing to replicate the character in that way, she would probably try to replicate her in other ways as well."

Seggi: "Yeah, and that's exactly the power of media representation. It's not about censoring things but we need to be careful and do our homework as media creators, we need to understand the potential consequences of showing these sensitive topics. Through those tapes we see her get the respect she never got in life, which is a very dangerous proposition."

Rua: "I think even just from a filmmaking perspective it can be much more impactful not to show the worst of it. Alien is so terrifying because you don't ever really see what the alien looks like. Like if they just showed a shot of maybe Hannah closing the bathroom door with a razor in her hand, the audience could come to their own conclusions without being exposed to that insane graphic, triggering imagery."

Seggi: "Exactly."

Rua: "Well thank you so much for appearing on our site today, Dr. Seggi, it was such a privilege to talk to you and learn from you."

Seggi: "Thank you for having me, ciao!"

All of Dr. Seggi's work can be found on her website, including her book, "Youth and Suicide in American Cinema." We hope you learned something today, thank you for tuning into Cinemasters.net and remember to never stop watching!