Suicide in sculpture: qualitative thematic analysis and psychiatric perspective

BJPsych Open. 2026 Apr 24;12(3):e116. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2026.11029.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Although clinically framed as a public health concern, the meanings of suicide are fundamentally shaped by cultural narratives and visual representations.

AIMS: To examine the evolution of sculptural representations of suicide from antiquity to the present, and to interpret these works through psychiatric and sociological lenses relevant to contemporary clinical and public health discourse.

METHOD: A structured search across PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (up to August 2025) was integrated with museum archives and art-historical catalogues. Selected sculptural works were analysed as interpretive case studies using iconographic, semiotic and contextual approaches. Interpretation focused on affective and relational processes such as psychological pain (psychache), shame, entrapment and social disconnection prioritising cultural formulation over retrospective diagnostic attribution in historical cases.

RESULTS: Sculptural representations frame suicide through shifting moral and social logics: from honour-bound self-death in antiquity and virtue-coded narratives in the early-modern period to interiority and estrangement in modernity. Contemporary public installations shift this focus towards visibility, urban space and prevention. These works externalise private suffering and structural conditions (e.g. isolation, stigma), actively shaping collective imaginaries of self-destruction.

CONCLUSIONS: Sculpture provides a unique medium for the translation of individual suffering and the collective meanings of suicide into public form. An interdisciplinary reading of these works supports culturally informed clinical reflection and contributes to ethically attentive public communication and prevention strategies.

PMID:42027022 | DOI:10.1192/bjo.2026.11029