Viktor Frankl—a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camps—writes about something similar in his book Man's Search for Meaning in the chapter Experiences in a Concentration Camp:

Quote:

The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his lost of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate. We all feared this moment—not for ourselves, but for our friends. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick-bay or to do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him any more. [...]



Frankl goes on to explain that the death-rate at the camp sky-rocketed the week after Christmas one year because the prisoners had heard a rumour that they were going to be rescued and believed—hoped—that they would be home for Christmas. According to Frankl, they died of disappointment.

Some of what he's describing sounds similar to Diogenes syndrome —which is basically extreme self-neglect. The difference is, Diogenes syndrome can occur as a result of senility or brain damage, but I'm looking for the term for "psychogenic death", or spontaneous death caused by an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.

Last edited by Hydra; 11/27/06 06:03 AM.