-Caveat Lector-
A man falls headfirst after jumping from the north tower of the
World Trade Center.
A death better than fate's
Why some chose to leap
from World Trade Center
By Gene Weingarten
and David Von Drehle
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sept. 13 - A couple stepped out in tandem, holding hands.
One man went headfirst, captured freeze-frame on film, arms loosely
at his side, one leg akimbo in a graceful passé. A woman jumped
while primly clutching her handbag, as though she might have to
hail a cab when she alighted.Among the most heartbreaking images in
a day of haunting imagery were the dozen or more people who took
stock of where they were and what was happening to them, and leapt.
Some were on fire. Most were not.
'It is taking charge of a situation rather than letting the
situation take charge of you.'
- RONALD MARIS
forensic suicide expert WHY JUMP from the 90th floor of a
burning building, to certain death?
Possibly because they could.
"In a way, it was a healthy response," says Ronald Maris, a
forensic suicide expert and director of the Center for the Study of
Suicide at the University of South Carolina. "It is taking charge
of a situation rather than letting the situation take charge of
you. The primary motive of all suicides is escape. What are they
fleeing from? In this case, they have escaped from terrible
thoughts of being crushed to death, or burned to death, by
annihilating their consciousness in a way that is nearly
instantaneous."
In the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York
City, more than 50 people jumped to their deaths from the ninth
floor. The year before, nearly 20 people leaped from a burning
tenement in Newark, N.J. In each case, some people survived, or
survived long enough, to explain why theyhad chosen the window.
Several said it was to make sure their bodies would be identified,
and not incinerated beyond recognition.
'ISSUE OF CONTROL'
"It's an issue of control," says Lanny Berman, executive
director of the American Association of Suicidology. "All people
want to have some control over their lives, and that includes the
nature and timing of their deaths. The notion of having death
happen to you is less viable than being in charge of it."
According to Maris, there have been cases of people about to
jump off the Golden Gate Bridge when a police officer pulls up and
says, "Get down or I'll shoot." Usually, the jumper gets down. He
may want to die, but he wants to control how.
In this case, the issue of control may simply be choosing
the less odious of terrible alternatives. Psychologically, there's
no competition.
Says Berman: "People who have jumped from the Golden Gate
Bridge, and survived, report that the fall was experienced as
almost transcendent, that it went in slow motion, that the
experience was almost mystical."
Maris says he can understand how the Trade Center victims
must have felt, standing at the window. On one side of them was
unbearable heat, and roaring flames, and acrid smoke, and screams
of the suffering. On the other side, fresh air.
"Many years ago, I sat on a window on the 34th floor of a
building in San Francisco with this 16-year-old kid who was
thinking of jumping. We looked out, and it was very romantic, we
could see the bay, we could see cumulus clouds. It was all
beautiful, and jumping, well, it would seem a little like flying."
It is unlikely that at the moment of their decision, any
of the jumpers saw beauty in their plight. Their decision may have
been an effort to seek control, or to choose the better of two
awful alternatives. Most likely, says Calvin Frederick, former UCLA
psychiatry professor and an expert on traumatic stress, the choice
was unconscious, impulsive, a reflex more than a decision.
'ANIMAL RESPONSE'
"There's smoke, there's a fear of horrific pain, it's
imminent," Frederick says. "You can't breathe, and here is an
escape. Your response is very primitive. An animal response. You
become a human animal at that point, and an animal will flee."
Years ago, Frederick says, a colleague of his set up an
experiment where he subjected laboratory animals to excruciating
pain. They could go into another chamber to escape the pain, but if
they did they would get their heads chopped off. Other lab animals
were allowed to observe this, so they knew what would happen. They
they, too, were placed in the pain chamber. They leaped out of it,
into the killing one.
"The urge to escape the pain," said Frederick, "overrode
everything else."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
begin 666 A death better than fate's.url
M6T1%1D%53%1=#0I"05-%55),/6AT=' Z+R]W=W<N;7-N8F,N8V]M+VYE=W,O
M-C(X,S,T+F%S<#\P;F$],C(Q-S-),2T-"@T*6TEN=&5R;F5T4VAO<G1C=71=
M#0I54DP]:'1T<#HO+W=W=RYM<VYB8RYC;VTO;F5W<R\V,C@S,S0N87-P/S!N
I83TR,C$W,TDQ+0T*36]D:69I960]13 V-3<U,$)!.#-#0S$P,39"#0H`
`
end
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
