Are suicidal people rational

Answer 1

It depends on the state of mind, Culture, and Religion. Lets take a look at someone who has absolutely nothing to live for: No Family, no Friends, treated poorly through their lives, their Atheist so they assume a blissful nothingness awaits them, never had a Lover, just lost their job, you get the idea, their pretty depressed and most likely feeling worthlessness/hopelessness. If they contemplate suicide, it's probably rational. You can't even say it's selfish in this scenario because who would it be selfish to?

Now killing yourself suddenly out of an argument with your Boyfriend/Girlfriend would be irrational because it's something that you'll easily deal with with a few months of time or so. Emotions are running high and in the heat of the moment, you might do something stupid. You'd be hurting everyone around you, and be destroying your future/dreams.

Now lets look at Culture. Go back to World War II, some Japanese soldiers were actually EXPECTED to kill themselves if they had lost the War. Irrational? Maybe to a Western. If you were Japanese living 70 years ago, you'd think much differently than you do now.

In the end, it's only irrational if they have some sort of mental disorder, or their flooding with strong emotions all at once. Suicide is simply thought to be an evil, selfish, irrational act by so many people because the word "Suicide" doesn't give anyone else gain. It can only lose.