Marx on Suicide

In 1864 - two years before the publication of
The Communist Manifesto
and 21 years before the publication of
Das Kapital
- Karl Marx published an essay titled
Peuchet on Suicide.
The essay was originally presented as a translation of excerpts from the memoirs of Jacques Peuchet (1758-1830), a leading French police administrator, economist and statistician. Plaut and Anderson reveal that Marx’s
Peuchet on Suicide
is not a straightforward translation, but is an edited version in which Marx adds passages of his own, altering the emphasis of the text from a moral and psychological focus to a profoundly social one. Thus, the essay very strongly reflects Marx’s own position on this controversial subject. Sociologist Kevin Anderson provides an extensive introduction situating the essay in the context of Marx’s work, especially that on gender; Plaut’s essay focuses on the psychological aspects of the work, in particular contrasting Marx’s thoughts on suicide with those of Freud and Durkheim.