Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the crisis of identity among the French Canadian population due to rapid and stressful social changes – from 1970 onwards both at local and global level – as an explanation of the high rates of suicide in Quebec. I will discuss it through some theoretical and ethnographical examples.

Paper long abstract:

The suicide rates in the Canadian province of Quebec are currently among the highest rates globally. However, suicide rates are neither distributed equally in all areas of the province nor in all social groups within the general population. A startling fact is that the suicide rate among male French Canadians is the highest in the province. It is generally argued that this is related to a crisis of male identity resulting from the rapid and stressful changes in the French Canadian society from 1970 onwards. The main changes are the following: secularization of education and health care, decline of industrial economic activities, and profound changes in gender roles. The aim of my paper is (1) to view suicide as a new plague in post-industrial societies which the Quebecois government intends to limit through a network of prevention centres, (2) to critically analyze the widely held argument that the high suicide rates are a result of the collapse of male identity due to rapid social changes, and (3) to look at social change as a solution rather than a cause of distress.