Denys deCatanzaro

Denys deCatanzaro’s largely forgotten ideas from the early 1980s—indicating that human suicide is an adaptive behavioral strategy that becomes increasingly likely to occur whenever there is a perfect storm of social, ecological, developmental and biological variables factoring into the evolutionary equation. In short, deCatanzaro has posited that human brains are designed by natural selection in such a way as to encourage us to end our own lives when facing certain conditions, because this was best for our suicidal ancestors’ overall genetic interests. deCatanzaro’s “mathematical model of self-preservation and self-destruction” (circa 1986):

Ψ_i = ρ_i + Σb_kρ_kr_k

Where Ψ_{i =} the optimal degree of self-preservation expressed by individual i (the residual capacity to promote inclusive fitness);
ρ_i = the remaining reproductive potential of i;
ρ_k = the remaining reproductive potential of each kinship member k;
b_k = a coefficient of benefit (positive values of b _k ) or cost (negative values of b _k ) to the reproduction of each k provided by the continued existence of i (-1 ≤ b ≤ 1);
r_k = the coefficient of genetic relatedness of each k to i (sibling, parent, child = .5; grandparent, grandchild, nephew or niece, aunt or uncle = .25; first cousin = .125; etc.).