Is it really the case that anyone case of suicide presents too many indeterminate and imponderable featuresto be socially significant? The authors of this book takea unique and unusual look at thepolitical and cultural implications of a number of acts of suicide committed between2010-2014, in places where social and economic pressures appeared at that timeto be of paramount public interest. Contrarily to almost all examinations ofsuicide however, this book is not concerned with the individual dispositions thatmay cause a person to commit suicide. Instead, the focus lies firmly on the reception of these acts of suicide. Howdoes a particular act of suicide enable a collective significance to beattached to it? And what contextual circumstances predispose a politicisedpublic response? Converging on specific actsof suicide with political resonance which cannot be pinned on particularideological formations or political organizations, the authors argue that theindividuality of the act is also that which enables its collective purchase, challengingthe principles of individuality, freedom and the value of life and posing aparticularly disturbing symbolic conundrum for the dominant liberal order ofthe present.