For many centuries suicide was considered a mortal sin or the sign of mental illness. This vision changes during the twentieth century and a new culture of dying emerges. Self-death is increasingly seen as a "project" that the individual himself must design and take responsibility for. Whoever takes his life not only intends to end it, but also wants to assume it and give it a new meaning.

In this book, Thomas Macho explains the multifaceted history of suicide in Modernity and describes how the value of voluntary death has been changing in politics (as an act of protest and as an attack), in law (with the decriminalization of suicide) and in medicine (with euthanasia), as well as in philosophy, art or the media. The author goes back to the cultural roots of suicide, analyzing newspapers, films and works of art. He studies real cases and above all, shows how the various motives for suicide evoke each other. His diagnosis is that we live in an age increasingly fascinated by suicide.