mass suicide

the deliberate ending of the lives of all or most of the members of an intact social group or aggregate by the members themselves, either directly through self-injurious behavior or indirectly by choosing a course of action that will likely be fatal. Examples include extremely hazardous missions undertaken by combat units (see altruistic suicide) and the suicides of the more than 900 members of the People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978; the 70 members of the Order of the Solar Temple in Europe and Canada between 1994 and 1997; and the 39 Heaven’s Gate followers of Marshall Applewhite in San Diego in 1997. Mass suicide often occurs at the command of a charismatic leader and may be provoked not by despair but by the desire to seek a “higher state of existence” promised by the leader. Also called collective suicide. Compare cluster suicide.

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

mistress

n. a woman with whom a married man has a continuing sexual relationship, usually without the knowledge of his wife.