Life is never a fixed or static condition; it is a ceaseless dynamic, a continuous struggle, a restless balancing act between the opposing forces of preservation and dissolution. To exist is to live within tension, to be suspended between cohesion and decohesion, between the impulse to hold together and the possibility of falling apart. Every living being, from the simplest cell to the most complex consciousness, carries within itself this fundamental contradiction: the will to endure, to protect its fragile coherence against entropy, and the counter-force of release, the temptation to dissolve into nothingness when the strain of contradiction grows unbearable. On one side stands the instinct for self-preservation—a cohesive force woven into the very fabric of life, defending integrity, ensuring continuity, and sustaining resilience against the pressures of disintegration. On the other side, however, lurks the possibility of self-destruction, where the cumulative weight of unresolved tensions may push the organism toward voluntary dissolution, toward an end that is at once terrifying and liberating.
Conventional science often approaches suicidal tendencies as if they were anomalies, mere malfunctions in the machinery of the brain or psyche. It frames them as chemical imbalances, distortions of cognition, or failures of adaptation to the demands of the environment. These explanations, while valuable in identifying mechanisms, remain fragmentary and reductionist. They fail to grasp the deeper logic at play—the universal dialectic that governs not only the living but all of matter in its becoming. When seen through the lens of Quantum Dialectics, the paradox of self-preservation and self-destruction is no longer an aberration but a necessary expression of life’s contradictory nature. It reveals itself as a universal law of becoming, unfolding across multiple layers: biological, psychological, social, and philosophical. Suicidal tendencies, in this view, are not alien intrusions upon the instinct for life but inverted expressions of it—moments when decohesive forces overwhelm the cohesive ones, when the tension of contradiction can no longer find resolution within existing forms of synthesis.
It is within this framework that the present article undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the paradox. To understand why life both clings to itself and contemplates its own negation, we must move across multiple dimensions of existence, recognizing that each layer illuminates the dialectic in its own way. At the neurobiological level, we encounter the molecular and neural architectures that both sustain life and, under strain, incline it toward collapse. At the level of existential philosophy, we find the human burden of consciousness, which opens onto both meaning and absurdity, both the desire for permanence and the lure of non-being. At the level of Marxist social analysis, we see how alienation, exploitation, and the erosion of solidarity act as decohesive forces that can fracture the instinct for life itself. And finally, at the level of therapeutic praxis, we seek ways of mediating these contradictions— biologically, psychologically, socially, and philosophically—so that the impulse toward self-destruction can be transformed into a deeper affirmation of life. Each of these perspectives, integrated through the method of Quantum Dialectics, allows us to grasp suicide not merely as pathology, but as a window into the dialectical truth of existence.
At the biological foundation of life, the instinct for survival is not an abstract tendency but something inscribed into the very wiring of the brain. The neural architecture of self-preservation is distributed across key regions such as the amygdala, which triggers rapid responses to danger; the hypothalamus, which regulates hunger, thirst, and other vital homeostatic drives; and the prefrontal cortex, which modulates planning, foresight, and the evaluation of risk. These structures operate together to generate the instinctual repertoire of fear, avoidance of pain, pursuit of food and shelter, and the seeking of pleasure. They are reinforced by the brain’s chemical messengers—serotonin stabilizing mood and impulse control, dopamine fueling motivation and reward-seeking, and endorphins providing relief from pain and stress. Every act of eating, reproducing, forming a social bond, or withdrawing from harm is not only a behavior but a neurochemical celebration of life’s continuity.
From the standpoint of Quantum Dialectics, these circuits are not to be seen merely as mechanical reflexes, isolated from higher meaning, but as embodiments of cohesion—the material structures through which life defends its integrity against entropy. They are the neural crystallizations of evolution’s long struggle against disintegration, the living machinery by which organisms resist dissolution and hold themselves in being. In this sense, biology itself is dialectical: the brain is both a physical organ and a field of cohesive forces, binding the organism together in its battle with the constant pressures of decay and threat.
Yet this architecture of cohesion, powerful as it is, is not invulnerable. Suicidal impulses often emerge when these survival circuits become destabilized, when the equilibrium of cohesion collapses under the weight of overwhelming stress or deprivation. Neuroscientific research consistently points to serotonergic dysregulation, which undermines mood stability and impulse control; dopamine depletion, which drains motivation and robs life of its rewarding quality; and hyperactivity of cortisol, the hormone of chronic stress, which floods the brain and body with signals of unrelieved danger. When these biochemical imbalances converge, the organism’s cohesive drive falters. Reward circuits lose their vitality, stress responses dominate perception, and the brain shifts from defending life to contemplating its negation.
From a dialectical perspective, this collapse is not simply a biological malfunction but the neurobiological inscription of contradiction itself. It is the clash between the organism’s unmet needs and the unrelenting forces of stress, between the yearning for relief and the absence of viable pathways to synthesis. In such conditions, the very structures evolved to preserve life become the stage where decohesion asserts its claim, opening the possibility of suicidal thought and action as a distorted attempt at resolution.
Seen in this light, neurobiology reveals that self-preservation and self-destruction are not two separate instincts existing in isolation but rather two poles of the same dynamic network of life. The stress-response system, which under normal conditions defends against external threats, can, when chronically overloaded, precipitate the urge to end life altogether. Similarly, the reflective powers of the prefrontal cortex, which enable problem-solving, future planning, and creativity, can also give rise to catastrophic rumination when contradictions become overwhelming. The very circuits that enable resilience can, under certain conditions, turn inward, magnifying despair.
Thus, biology itself demonstrates the dialectical unity of opposites. Cohesion and decohesion are not accidental companions but inseparable aspects of the same living process. To understand suicidal tendencies biologically is not to reduce them to broken mechanisms, but to recognize them as moments where the cohesive drive of life meets its own contradiction, where the same forces that sustain existence can, under duress, invert into their opposite.
Among all living beings, humans alone carry the unique and often unbearable weight of self-awareness. Consciousness grants us extraordinary powers: the ability to imagine futures not yet realized, to reflect upon the past, to construct complex narratives of identity, and to ask questions about the meaning of existence itself. Yet this gift is inseparable from its curse. To be conscious is also to be exposed to contradictions that no other creature confronts with such intensity. We long for permanence, yet we know with absolute certainty that death is inevitable. We yearn for freedom, yet we live under the constant shadow of determinism—biological, social, and historical constraints that shape and often limit our choices. We hunger for meaning, yet when we turn outward, we face a universe that appears silent, indifferent, and sometimes absurd. Thus, consciousness is not only the ground of our dignity but also the stage of our deepest suffering: it brings into sharp focus the contradictions that define the human condition.
It is for this reason that existential thinkers have consistently placed suicide at the very center of philosophy. Albert Camus famously declared it to be the only truly serious philosophical question, for in the moment one asks whether life is worth living, all other inquiries are suspended. For Camus, the absurd is born from the clash between humanity’s insatiable longing for meaning and the mute indifference of the universe. Martin Heidegger, in a different register, argued that authentic human existence requires a confrontation with our “being-toward-death,” an acknowledgment that finitude is not an external event but the very horizon that shapes every moment of life. Sigmund Freud, earlier still, articulated the paradox in psychological terms: the tension between Eros, the instinct to preserve, bind, and create life, and Thanatos, the counter-drive that seeks to return existence to stillness, dissolution, and non-being.
Quantum Dialectics takes these insights and reframes them within its universal language of cohesion and decohesion. Rather than treating Eros and Thanatos as separate instincts locked in perpetual combat, they can be seen as dialectical poles of the same process. The desire to live and the desire to dissolve are not mutually exclusive but emerge together as legitimate responses to the contradictions of existence. In this light, the suicidal impulse is not the negation of life but life turned against itself when it can no longer find a path to synthesis. It is not simply destruction but an inverted expression of life’s struggle with its own contradictions, a desperate attempt at resolution by collapsing into the opposite pole of existence.
From the existential perspective, suicide can be understood as an attempt to resolve contradiction in the most radical way possible: by abolishing the very subject in whom the contradictions arise. It is, in this sense, a failed synthesis, a negative resolution where the weight of contradiction overwhelms the capacity to transform it into coherence. Rather than generating a higher order of meaning, suicide collapses the dialectical tension by dissolving the self entirely.
The task of philosophy, therefore, cannot be limited to condemning suicidal thought as weakness or pathology. To do so is to miss its deeper significance as an existential cry for synthesis, a signal that the contradictions of life have reached an intolerable intensity. Instead, philosophy must recognize suicide as a revelation of the human condition and as a call to expand the horizons of possibility. To respond dialectically means to seek pathways by which contradictions may be reconfigured, mediated, and transformed into higher coherence. Suicide, then, is not the conclusion of the dialectic but a tragic interruption—an aborted attempt at synthesis that challenges us to imagine more life-affirming resolutions.
Human beings are never merely isolated organisms fighting for individual survival; they are inherently social beings, whose existence depends on the web of collective cohesion. Unlike solitary creatures that can sustain themselves in isolation, humans find food, shelter, security, identity, and even meaning only through their embeddedness in social relations. The family, the community, the workplace, and the broader structures of culture and economy provide the frameworks through which individual life is preserved and reproduced. Thus, self-preservation for human beings is not merely a biological instinct written into the body’s cells and circuits but also a socially structured process. To survive is to belong, to participate in a collective network that sustains life materially and symbolically. Without this social cohesion, the instinct for life itself falters, for human survival is inseparable from the bonds that tie the individual to the community and to history.
Yet in capitalist society, this social cohesion is systematically eroded, and individuals often find themselves plunged into conditions of profound alienation. As Karl Marx described, alienation occurs on multiple fronts: the worker is alienated from their labor, as the product of their effort no longer belongs to them; from their community, as competition replaces solidarity; from nature, as the natural world is commodified and degraded; and ultimately from themselves, as their very essence is fractured by forces beyond their control. Alienation is not simply a psychological discomfort but a social decohesive force, tearing apart the bonds that once anchored life in meaning and continuity.
From the dialectical standpoint, alienation corrodes the instinct for self-preservation because it hollows out the very structures through which life affirms itself. Existence becomes precarious, fragmented, and stripped of significance. Suicide in such contexts cannot be adequately explained as a purely private or medical pathology; it must be understood as a social symptom, a silent form of protest against unbearable contradictions inscribed by economic and political structures. Long before Marx’s analysis, Émile Durkheim had already observed that suicide rates rise in conditions of anomie, where social cohesion breaks down and individuals lose their sense of belonging. Quantum Dialectics deepens this insight by showing that suicide represents not only personal despair but the decohesive pole of society itself, manifesting when collective contradictions overwhelm the individual’s capacity for synthesis.
If alienation stands as a source of suicidal tendencies, then its dialectical opposite—solidarity and revolutionary praxis—emerges as a profound source of life-affirmation. When individuals unite to resist exploitation, oppression, and fragmentation, they reweave the torn fabric of social cohesion. Collective struggle does more than secure material gains; it restores meaning, dignity, and a sense of belonging that reinforces the instinct for life. To act together in solidarity is to create new forms of cohesion, where the individual no longer feels abandoned to the absurdity of existence but participates in a shared project that transcends personal despair.
In this sense, Marxist praxis is not only a political necessity but also an existential imperative. It reclaims life from the forces of death—alienation, isolation, and despair—by transforming contradiction into collective coherence. To struggle for a more just and humane society is not merely to survive but to live authentically, affirming life against the structures that would fragment and annihilate it. Revolutionary cohesion thus appears not as an abstract political slogan but as the most concrete expression of life’s dialectical affirmation at the social level.
The recognition that suicidal tendencies emerge from contradictions rather than from simple defects calls for a therapeutic praxis that is itself dialectical. Healing cannot be reduced to the elimination of symptoms or the suppression of impulses. Instead, it must be understood as the art of mediating contradictions across the layered structure of human existence—biological, psychological, social, and philosophical. Each layer has its own forms of cohesion and decohesion, and each requires interventions that restore balance without denying the dialectical tensions at the heart of life. Only by engaging all layers together can therapy transform the impulse toward self-destruction into a renewed affirmation of life.
At the most immediate level, the biological, therapeutic interventions must aim to restore equilibrium in the neurochemical systems of stress and reward. Prolonged imbalance—such as serotonin depletion, dopamine collapse, or cortisol excess—renders the organism vulnerable to decohesion. Appropriate medical interventions, ranging from carefully prescribed medications to nutritional adjustments, can help stabilize these fragile systems. Equally important are non-pharmacological measures: regular exercise, restorative sleep, and practices that strengthen the body’s natural rhythms of repair. These interventions do not “cure” contradiction but fortify the organism’s cohesive force, providing a stronger physiological foundation upon which psychological and social healing can take place. By ensuring that the body is less vulnerable to biochemical collapse, biological mediation creates the conditions in which higher forms of synthesis may unfold.
At the psychological layer, therapy must engage with the ways contradictions are perceived, narrated, and interpreted by the individual. When contradictions are experienced as intolerable and irresolvable, they can collapse into suicidal impulses. But when reinterpreted through reflective practice, contradictions can become the very raw material of creativity and transformation. Methods such as cognitive-behavioral therapy help individuals restructure destructive thought patterns, while existential therapy invites them to confront life’s ultimate tensions—death, freedom, meaning, isolation—without collapsing into despair. Narrative reconstruction, meanwhile, allows people to reweave their personal histories, transforming stories of fragmentation into stories of resilience and becoming. In each case, the task is not to erase contradiction but to reconfigure it into coherence, turning the pressure of tension into a source of inner strength.
No therapeutic praxis can remain confined to the individual psyche, for suicide is never merely private—it is deeply shaped by the conditions of society. At the social layer, therapy must address the pervasive alienation and precarity that erode the instinct for life. This requires building supportive communities that counteract isolation, fostering relationships of solidarity, and creating spaces of belonging where individuals can feel recognized and valued. It also means confronting the material roots of despair: poverty, exploitation, and systemic injustice. Without addressing these structures, therapy risks becoming little more than a palliative, treating symptoms while leaving the sources of contradiction untouched. Social mediation, therefore, is not an optional addition but a central dimension of healing, for the cohesion of the individual is inseparable from the cohesion of the collective.
Finally, at the deepest level lies the philosophical mediation of existence itself. Here, worldviews such as Quantum Dialectics play a vital role. Philosophy can help individuals reframe contradiction not as an error to be eliminated but as the very engine of life and becoming. To exist is to dwell in the tension of opposites, to continuously mediate between cohesion and decohesion without expecting their final abolition. Within this perspective, suicide is revealed not as an inevitable conclusion but as a premature foreclosure of life’s dialectical task, an attempt to resolve contradiction by abolishing the subject in whom it arises. The philosophical task, then, is to nurture an orientation that embraces contradiction as opportunity, pointing toward higher syntheses that can only be discovered through continued existence.
Therapeutic praxis, when understood through Quantum Dialectics, becomes more than a clinical procedure: it becomes a multi-layered practice of coherence-making. At the biological level, it stabilizes the body; at the psychological level, it reconfigures thought and meaning; at the social level, it repairs bonds of solidarity; and at the philosophical level, it opens a horizon in which contradiction is not feared but affirmed. Healing, in this view, is not the eradication of contradiction but the transformation of its destructive forms into new sources of strength. In this way, even the suicidal impulse can be reinterpreted not as life’s negation but as life’s desperate demand for a higher synthesis—an unfinished dialectical task that calls for mediation rather than annihilation.
The paradox of self-preservation and suicidal tendency cannot be reduced to a mere medical pathology or dismissed as an unfortunate aberration of evolution. It is, rather, a universal dialectic, a contradiction inscribed into the very structure of life. At the neurobiological level, the same circuits that defend survival also contain the potential for collapse, so that the instinct to live and the impulse to die are woven into the same neural fabric. At the existential level, human consciousness is confronted by tensions—between permanence and death, freedom and determinism, meaning and absurdity—that can either deepen life into authenticity or overwhelm it into despair. At the social level, we find that alienation corrodes cohesion, fragmenting the instinct for life, while solidarity and collective struggle can restore coherence and affirm existence. And at the therapeutic level, it becomes clear that praxis must be multidimensional, addressing not just biology or psychology in isolation, but mediating contradictions across every layer of existence, recognizing that suicide is never the product of a single cause but the manifestation of life’s contradictions pressing toward resolution.
Within this framework, Quantum Dialectics offers a way forward. It teaches that the true affirmation of life does not lie in denying or suppressing suicidal contradictions, but in transforming them. Every impulse toward self-destruction, when examined dialectically, reveals itself as a distorted demand for synthesis, a cry for a higher order of coherence where current contradictions can no longer be borne. To preserve life authentically, then, is not merely to prolong biological survival, nor to cling unreflectively to existence, but to embrace life in its dialectical nature: to endure its tensions, to transform its crises, and to rise again and again through contradiction into greater coherence. Suicide marks the tragic point where this task is prematurely abandoned; the dialectical affirmation of life, by contrast, insists that contradiction is not the end of meaning but the very motor of becoming.
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