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):
Ψi = ρi + Σbkρkrk
Where Ψi = the optimal degree of self-preservation expressed by individual i (the residual capacity to promote inclusive fitness);
ρi = the remaining reproductive potential of i;
ρk = the remaining reproductive potential of each kinship member k;
bk = 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);
rk = 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.).
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