Copy cat drama
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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It is necessary to be sensitive to the mood swings and behaviour of children. And also to any show of morbid curiosity.
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This year, Jatras (travelling theatre groups) of Bengal who planned to depict Dhananjoy Chatterjee in their productions during Durga Puja, were banned from doing so.
Dhananjoy who was convicted of raping a 16-year-old schoolgirl, was hanged recently.
Sadly, soon after the incident, a few children both in the urban and rural areas of West Bengal tried to hang themselves or were put through the traumatic process by their peers. A few of them died sending shock waves across the country.
What is it that makes children try to enact such a ghastly act? How did they view Dhananjoy and why did they literally play with the noose?
It is a "copy cat" syndrome according to psychiatrists, child psychologists and sociologists. "Suicidal behaviour may precipitate other such attempts within a peer group via identification... so called copy cat syndrome," say psychiatrists Harold I. Kaplan and Benjamin J. Sadock in their book Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences, Clinical Psychiatry.
Says a psychiatrist, "I found my daughter and her cousins, then aged three, running up to the roof one evening in order to be Peter Pan. `That means they want to fly!' I rushed up and brought them back."
Negative hero
The Shaktimaan serial telecast a few years ago had children trying to dive down buildings resulting in fatal accidents. "Learning by imitation is a method followed frequently by people and children are no different," says Calcutta based clinical psychologist Dr. Rajyasree Bandhopadhyay. "The children who imitated the hanging got identified with the character of Dhananjoy... who was portrayed as a negative hero."
There are two aspects to a child's approach to death, say experts. They may really want to take their own life or they do not know the significance of what they are doing. Generally very young children don't know what death actually means. But graphic descriptions of death in the media influence a child. They begin to think of it as an option. The media's blow-by-blow account of the Dhananjoy hanging was such as to kindle the curiosity of these children. There was far too much written and depicted about the incident in the media, they feel.
Often children may not know the implications of imitating the deed.
"It is like the games they play, pretending to be `mummy-daddy' or `teacher-student', says clinical neuro psychologist, Dr. B.S. Virudagirinathan. "The media did not focus enough on the girl's family. Their feelings and reactions were not given enough importance. We do not provide good role models for our children. Teachers too need to be sensitised about the way they handle students."
"We teach children how to deal with success but not with failure," points out Sankaranarayanan of Sneha, a helpline for suicide prevention. "Boys generally bottle up their feelings more than girls."
Attempts at hanging can cause irreversible damage: a tracheotomy where the windpipe is reconstructed is very painful and can lead to loss of speech and difficulty in eating. Dr. V. Viswanathan, paediatric neurologist, talks of a case where a 10-year-old underwent the procedure and despite wanting to live did not survive. He points out how important it is to have counsellors in school.
Playacting gets real
Children often watch films that require parental supervision and get the wrong ideas, says teacher and sociologist Sara Cherian. "The justice system too is skewed in the country and children form the wrong impression when actors and other celebrities walk away after committing crimes," she adds.
Although the problem has to be tackled at the family, school and societal levels, experts enumerate some guidelines for guardians:
"In our society as long as a child is studying well, his/her emotional needs are not looked into. The situation worsens when parents have no time for their children," says Dr. N. Rangarajan, psychiatrist.
"Parents have to know their children well and be sensitive to their mood swings and behaviour, including morbid curiosity and discuss what is happening around them. They have to tell their children that these deeds are not to be imitated," he adds. "They should inform them about the implications, in terms they can understand, for instance... You can hurt yourself so badly that you can't play anymore." Also about how the family would be affected if the playacting becomes real.
Parents should monitor the risk factors of suicide in their children... and if they find any (sign of) depressive attitude or impulsive behaviour, they should seek professional assistance, adds Dr. Bandhopadhyay.
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