Suicide in a South African Town: A Cultural Psychological Investigation

Abstract

Paarl, a large South African town, has experienced a dramatic increase in suicide among young, professional Coloured men during the period 1990 to 2000. Interviews were conducted with surviving family members and friends, and subjected to a qualitative, interpretative analysis. Theoretically and methodologically, cultural psychology is presented as a critical alternative to mainstream academic literature on suicide within psychology and sociology. Hence, the suicides of the young men are read as a cultural phenomenon within a particular post-Apartheid context. Cultural certitude and identity are presented as organising dialectic and phenomenological hermeneutic.

‘Drinking with respect’: Drinking constructions of men who live in a Cape Winelands farm community in South Africa

“…In line with other researchers (e.g. Gossage et al, 2014; Laubscher, 2003), we believe that the term has significant historical and socio-economic-political meaning and could be useful in tracking the post-apartheid socio-economic and health development of a group of people who have been deprived under colonial and apartheid governments.…”

Stigma and HIV service access among transfeminine and gender diverse women in South Africa – a narrative analysis of longitudinal qualitative data from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial

“…Coloured was originally a racial classification used during South Africa's Apartheid period, but it is used today to describe a racial and cultural category, typically referring to people of mixed raced descent. We use the term sensitively in a South African context and people would rather be asked whether they identify with the term or not, than just assuming their racial category[30]..…”

Safe sex and constructions of young male sexuality in one semi-rural Western Cape community

“…Under the Apartheid system it was used to categorise people of mixed racial origins and currently it is still used to refer to race or ethnicity. Both of these uses have been controversial and there is agreement that Coloured identity is contested and unstable (Grunebaum & Robins, 200 I ;Hendricks, 200 I ;Laubscher, 2003). Grunebaum and Robins, for example, state:…”

“…In this article our use of the term supports Laubscher's (2003) comprises all the social and cultural experiences that shape us as people. It is a set of embodied dispositions, inclusive of a material form of life 'turned into second nature', it is recursive in that it is both a product of early socialization and continually modified by experiences of the outside world; it reflects the social and cultural position of its construction, as well as its transformations in current circumstances; it is mindful of the inter-relationship between individual action and group mores (p. 134).…”

“…Although important work has been done on African and South African men and masculinities (e.g. Luyt, 2003;Morrell, 1998;200 I), Coloured young men in a Western Cape township (Sale, 2002), and Coloured professional men in a large Western Cape town (Laubscher, 2003), both masculinity and sexuality research on Western Cape Coloured rural men communities are conspicuously absent. Since rural Coloured Western Cape communities have unique histories, findings based on research conducted in other communities cannot be generalised to these communities.…”