Lessons from Robin Williams and Suicide

"What Dreams May Come"

In "What Dreams May Come," written by Richard Matheson (novel), Ronald Bass (screenplay) and directed by Vincent Ward in 1998, when Williams’ character dies in a car crash, he crosses the boundary between heaven – a place of sheer creativity – to enter a place of darkness and lost hope to find and restore the soul of his wife (played by Annabella Sciorra) who had committed suicide.

In the film, the message is not that our souls are punished FOR any negative thing that we’ve done, but rather BY our own consciousness, by our belief that we aren’t good enough, and therefore from that place of pain, we choose to do something we know isn’t right. We ourselves are haunted by what we do when we know it’s not for the highest and best possible outcome, until we allow love to heal us.

"Joe Versus the Volcano"

There are a few movies that point a different direction, and offer an alternative to suicide.

"Joe Versus the Volcano," starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan written and directed by John Patrick Shanley in 1990: In this film, Joe believes his health diagnosis is a death sentence, so he accepts an offer to “live like a king, die like a man” by jumping into a volcano as a human sacrifice to appease an island tribe, in order for his benefactor to gain mineral rights. His choice isn’t necessarily to save the world or make it a better place, but to have a colorful, meaningful, heroic exit with dignity. In light of this, someone choosing to end her own life, seems pointless.