Suicide/Definition

The act of killing oneself. the etymology is from the Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, to kill oneself. According to the philosopher Spinoza in the Philosophy of Spinoza, the basic motivation of every living being is to survive, so any idea about destroying oneself has to come from an external source. In modern times, it is thought to result from a mental disorder such as schizophrenia or depression or bipolar disorder, but scientists, including biologists and psychologists, are not sure of what prompts people to take their own lives. There have been instances in Greek tragedy when a character in a drama such as the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus in which the character Ajax commits suicide because of shame that he wasn't awarded the shield of Achilles.