Backgrounds of higher suicide rates among "name university" students: a retrospective study of the past 25 years.
Cases from the past 25 years of 143 students who committed suicide at Kyoto University, a "name university" in Japan since 1956, were investigated retrospectively. Then the total trends of the suicide rate were reexamined in comparison with a control group, and the recent trends after the student strife (1970) were confirmed in comparison with the 15-year period before the strife. Thus, using a longer time span, the total pattern of suicide could be reidentified as the "performance type" within an "achievement-oriented culture." Seemingly healthy students from normal homes have suddenly committed suicide in this recent "pupa within a cocoon" syndrome, resulting from "unbalanced personality development" in the context of modern mass higher education.
D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010553:Personality Development; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012922:Social Change; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013405:Suicide / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D000092864:Suicide Prevention