Nishi Misra

By Nishi Misra, Harshita Jha and Komal Tiwari

Incidents of mass suicides have been reported since ancient times wherein a large number of people killed themselves at the same time. These suicides occur for different reasons and goals. Historical perspective has revealed the presence of religious inspiration, death pacts and cults. Out of the various methods adopted for deciphering the psychological state of a person prior to committing suicide, plus a host of emotional, social, economic and cultural reasons, psychosocial autopsy is a promising one. It helps in investigating and analyzing the relevance of these interacting factors in self-inflicted deaths and provides an answer to the family members and friends of individuals who have died this way. A look into the literature reveals that there has been a change in pattern and motive of mass suicides across generations. An understanding of the decedent’s personality, behavior patterns, motives, presence or absence of mental illness helps researchers in unearthing the suicidal risk factors that mitigate or aggravate suicidal behavior in masses. The present chapter discusses the change in pattern of mass suicide with the advent of computers and social media by citing some case studies from India and abroad.

Part of the book: Neurological and Mental Disorders

By Nishi Misra and Shobhna Srivastava

There are three feelings that prompt a person to take their life: hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness. Studies have found that the risk of suicide increases with decreasing happiness. In the recent past, people have been left clueless when celebrities and successful people ended their lives despite appearing overtly happy. What prompted them to do so? Modern society today highlights the importance of success over failure. Although we are motivated to be successful in life, it should not become our main gauge of happiness. In the same way we should not let success be our main goal in life and get discouraged by failure. Happiness has been viewed in two ways: as concerning the well-being of a person, and as the opposite of depression. Each one of us has different ways of measuring happiness. The quality of one’s happiness depends on one’s priorities in life. Happiness is not merely something that can be quantified with how much success and failure one has because such metric is very much subjective. How do we prevent a young life from extinguishing? How do we identify suicidal behavior among successful people and help those around? The present chapter covers the possible reasons why successful people commit suicide. Role of media in preventing suicide and measures for preventing suicide by successful people has been discussed.

Part of the book: Suicide

By Nishi Misra and Shobhna Srivastava

Modern human beings spend their maximum amount of time in the work setting. Hence, how they feel at the workplace has a direct influence on their overall quality of life. Therefore, understanding what makes us happy or unhappy at work is very crucial. Surprisingly, there is an absence of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding the concept of happiness from the organizational perspective. For developing a conceptual framework for happiness at work, two components are relevant -the external work environment and the internal mental mapping. The concept of happiness in psychology has been equated with pleasure, a mixture of pleasure, engagement and meaning, or with the concept of well-being. A precise definition of happiness is missing. There have been numerous studies on the contributions of positive psychology to happiness and its influence on employees’ well-being and productivity. Most researches concentrate on the external happiness of individuals. But in the future, organizations need to focus on the intrinsic happiness of employees as well, to get the best outcome at the workplace. This chapter covers the causes and consequences of happiness in the workplace. Ways of inculcating happiness at the workplace to increase organizational productivity and create happy employees have also been discussed.

Part of the book: Happiness and Wellness