Cobain Suicide Not Contagious Study Finds Only One Copycat After Grunge Rocker’s Death

Sun., Oct. 20, 1996

Associated Press

When grunge rocker Kurt Cobain’s life of artistic brilliance and personal turmoil ended with a shotgun blast to the head, it seemed like the classic trigger for an explosion of copycat suicides.

But while there was a big jump in suicide crisis calls in Cobain’s hometown, there was just one clear imitation suicide, according to a study published in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

More research is needed to determine whether that was also the case nationally because the local sample was too small to yield meaningful results, cautioned David P. Phillips, a leading scientist on the issue.

David A. Jobes, a Catholic University psychology professor in Washington, D.C., and the study’s chief author, was at a conference of suicide prevention specialists when Cobain’s body was discovered at the Nirvana singer’s home on April 8, 1994.

“We just looked at each other and said, ‘This is going to be a disaster.’ We were convinced,” Jobes said in a telephone interview Friday.

The study cites the response by the Crisis Clinic in Seattle, the way news media covered the suicide and community efforts to prevent a ripple effect as likely factors in preventing suicides.

“We were shocked. We were truly shocked by what didn’t happen,” Jobes said.

Celebrity suicides spark national suicide rate increases averaging 1 percent for about a month and as much as 10 percent for superstars like actress Marilyn Monroe in 1962, said Phillips, a sociology professor at the University of California, San Diego.

“I would imagine, in the case of Cobain, the effect might be the same size (as Monroe) or maybe a bit smaller,” Phillips said.

In four weeks following Cobain’s death, 18 suicides were recorded in Seattle and the rest of King County, including the grunge megastar and an obvious copycat, a 28-year-old man who had just attended a candlelight vigil a few days after Cobain’s body was found.

“I would say it’s inconclusive, and it will remain inconclusive until the same study can be done on a national or at least a larger scale,” Phillips said.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONTRIBUTING FACTORS The study cited several possible explanations for the lack of copycats: News coverage. Reports included Cobain’s troubled past, his broken home and severe alcohol and drug abuse. The general message was, “Great artist, great music, stupid act. Don’t do it. Here’s where to call for help.” Crisis Clinic involvement. Officials held a news conference stressing “classic warning signs associated with suicide,” to make sure its telephone number was widely disseminated. Community action. City officials and several radio stations organized and sponsored a vigil in which thousands of fans gathered at a park. One speaker, by invitation, was the Crisis Clinic director. Lack of romanticism. Cobain was so badly wounded that dental records were needed to confirm the identity of the body. Rejecting the image of Cobain as a gifted but misunderstood genius, his mother and widow Courtney Love publicly denounced him for taking his life. Love went so far as to curse him at the vigil.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONTRIBUTING FACTORS The study cited several possible explanations for the lack of copycats: News coverage. Reports included Cobain’s troubled past, his broken home and severe alcohol and drug abuse. The general message was, “Great artist, great music, stupid act. Don’t do it. Here’s where to call for help.” Crisis Clinic involvement. Officials held a news conference stressing “classic warning signs associated with suicide,” to make sure its telephone number was widely disseminated. Community action. City officials and several radio stations organized and sponsored a vigil in which thousands of fans gathered at a park. One speaker, by invitation, was the Crisis Clinic director. Lack of romanticism. Cobain was so badly wounded that dental records were needed to confirm the identity of the body. Rejecting the image of Cobain as a gifted but misunderstood genius, his mother and widow Courtney Love publicly denounced him for taking his life. Love went so far as to curse him at the vigil.