Jumping with the desire to end one’s life – attempted suicidal jumps – share certain things in common with free-falling and similar leisure-oriented thrill-seeking jumps. On a simple structuralist level then, there could be two strands of jumps. On the one hand you have the person who wants to feel life at its extreme, i.e., jumping off a cliff for the pure rush and exhilaration, and on the other is the person for whom life itself has become too extreme.
The notions of performance and appearance play an important part, both involving a considerable amount of planning, preparation and determination. In the cases of jumping to celebrate life and those of jumping to die, the jumper is taking a risk of failure – the extreme sports enthusiast runs the risk of failing to execute the jump properly, for its proper enjoyment. These are persons who are hoping for extreme life experiences. They want to prove to themselves that they are fully alive, that they are in control of contingencies, the elements, themselves – mind and body. Some of their main exhilaration comes as they survive and master the perils, during those moments once they realise that they have executed the task correctly and perhaps even in their own novel way.
Suicidal individuals also run the risk of failing to kill themselves, thus facing an unbearable humiliation as well as serious injury and/or other psychological harm. These are persons for whom life itself has become too extreme, so much so that they can no longer stand to be alive. That is, they no longer want anything to do with the ‘extremity of life’ and are searching to opt out. At the heart of each individual action there is another meeting point – the rush. Indeed, many failed suicide attempts report a kind of release and euphoria that comes over the faller with the knowledge that life is ending. Extreme sports jumpers equally articulate their experiences in terms of searches for freedom and adrenaline rushes. The free-fall of jumping experiences can therefore quite literally be an end in itself as well as without end – endless. Consequently, at the heart of each individual action there is a meeting point – existential extremity.
(Patrick Laviolette "Extreme Landscapes of Leisure: Not a Hap-Hazardous Sport")
The notions of performance and appearance play an important part, both involving a considerable amount of planning, preparation and determination. In the cases of jumping to celebrate life and those of jumping to die, the jumper is taking a risk of failure – the extreme sports enthusiast runs the risk of failing to execute the jump properly, for its proper enjoyment. These are persons who are hoping for extreme life experiences. They want to prove to themselves that they are fully alive, that they are in control of contingencies, the elements, themselves – mind and body. Some of their main exhilaration comes as they survive and master the perils, during those moments once they realise that they have executed the task correctly and perhaps even in their own novel way.
Suicidal individuals also run the risk of failing to kill themselves, thus facing an unbearable humiliation as well as serious injury and/or other psychological harm. These are persons for whom life itself has become too extreme, so much so that they can no longer stand to be alive. That is, they no longer want anything to do with the ‘extremity of life’ and are searching to opt out. At the heart of each individual action there is another meeting point – the rush. Indeed, many failed suicide attempts report a kind of release and euphoria that comes over the faller with the knowledge that life is ending. Extreme sports jumpers equally articulate their experiences in terms of searches for freedom and adrenaline rushes. The free-fall of jumping experiences can therefore quite literally be an end in itself as well as without end – endless. Consequently, at the heart of each individual action there is a meeting point – existential extremity.
(Patrick Laviolette "Extreme Landscapes of Leisure: Not a Hap-Hazardous Sport")
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