The article (Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide
within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study: BMJ
332) presents society at large with an interesting challenge. Self harm
has been popularised by the media to exist amongst such youth subcultures
through numerous films and documentaries which has not often been
thoroughly evidence based.
This article despite studying a relatively small cohort of youth in
an environment that is not at all throroughly representative of the
country has qualitatively demonstrated an increased bond between self harm
and attempted suicide to those young people who engage in Goth cultural
practices.
The challenge that such an article presents is that in an era where
individualistic mind sets and world views reign supreme how can society be
reconciled to such people who through such practices are a significant
threat to their own existences and thus society at large?
Surely anyone reading this article would wish to decrease the
incidence of self harm and attempted suicide amongst those so young. To do
so one would have to discourage the number of young people becoming
enveloped in such a culture especially when one considers that the strong
connection to the above two disadvantageous scenarios is not weakened by
removing any cofounding factors.
But can such a quest be executed to any success when personal
liberties reign supreme (e.g. you cannot even smack a child on the
underground these days so although society may show concern about Goth
culture who are you to discourage anyone to be caught by its attraction?)
It would be interesting to compare the rates of self harm and
attempted suicide to other youth subcultures whom society shows concern
toward (e.g. hip-hop youth culture). Further it would be interesting to
ascertain any steps that have been taken (i.e. medical and political)
through the decades to discourage the youth from becoming members of some
of the most supposedly destructive clubs around and how effective they
have been.
Although such research is interesting it should be more than an
academic discipline. What problems does such research hope to solve?
Ultimately how does such research hope to improve society? The reason for
my questions is that it has now been known for many many years although
maybe not conclusively shown that such links exist and nothing apparently
has been done at both a medical and political stage. Thus is this research
just purely academic? If so then it is not worth pursuing!
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
08 May 2006
Simon P Lammy
3rd Year Medical Student: Medical Students' Officer: University of London Union
Royal Free & University College Medical School WC1E 6BT
Rapid Response:
Does Youth Subculture Research Have An Aim?
The article (Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide
within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study: BMJ
332) presents society at large with an interesting challenge. Self harm
has been popularised by the media to exist amongst such youth subcultures
through numerous films and documentaries which has not often been
thoroughly evidence based.
This article despite studying a relatively small cohort of youth in
an environment that is not at all throroughly representative of the
country has qualitatively demonstrated an increased bond between self harm
and attempted suicide to those young people who engage in Goth cultural
practices.
The challenge that such an article presents is that in an era where
individualistic mind sets and world views reign supreme how can society be
reconciled to such people who through such practices are a significant
threat to their own existences and thus society at large?
Surely anyone reading this article would wish to decrease the
incidence of self harm and attempted suicide amongst those so young. To do
so one would have to discourage the number of young people becoming
enveloped in such a culture especially when one considers that the strong
connection to the above two disadvantageous scenarios is not weakened by
removing any cofounding factors.
But can such a quest be executed to any success when personal
liberties reign supreme (e.g. you cannot even smack a child on the
underground these days so although society may show concern about Goth
culture who are you to discourage anyone to be caught by its attraction?)
It would be interesting to compare the rates of self harm and
attempted suicide to other youth subcultures whom society shows concern
toward (e.g. hip-hop youth culture). Further it would be interesting to
ascertain any steps that have been taken (i.e. medical and political)
through the decades to discourage the youth from becoming members of some
of the most supposedly destructive clubs around and how effective they
have been.
Although such research is interesting it should be more than an
academic discipline. What problems does such research hope to solve?
Ultimately how does such research hope to improve society? The reason for
my questions is that it has now been known for many many years although
maybe not conclusively shown that such links exist and nothing apparently
has been done at both a medical and political stage. Thus is this research
just purely academic? If so then it is not worth pursuing!
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests