First suicide note?

People have always had the choice of killing themselves. is well known that suicide was often chosen by prominent ancient Greeks and Romans, usually as a result of political pressures. Little is known about whether mental illness ever caused people to commit suicide in the early days of civilisation, and there is rarely the opportunity to learn about the mental state of a victim before he attempts suicide. I present details from an ancient Egyptian document that I believe probably is the earliest known suicide note in existence, and it also gives us an interesting insight into the clinical status of the writer. The story is from a papyrus that is now in the Berlin Museum and was best translated by Erman in 1896. The translation was published in English in 1966.1 The papyrus was also discussed in detail by Breasted.2 I have borrowed heavily from these two sources. Unfortunately we never learn the name or the rank of the author. The papyrus itself is not the original but was copied by a scribe, who says at the end, It is finished from beginning to end like that which was found in writing. The copy is dated about the time of the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt (1991-1786 bc), but both Erman and Breasted believe that the original had been dated earlier. The Dispute with His Soul of One Who Is Tired of Life is the title Erman gave to the papyrus. The first part of the papyrus consists of a narra tive, but unfortunately much of it is missing and thus it is difficult to follow the narrative exactly. The second part consists of four poems that are more complete and give a good idea of the mental state of the author. In the narrative there is a discussion between the subject and his soul. The Egyptians believed that the soul had a separate existence from the body and that after death the soul left the physical body and continued to live in the tomb. The soul therefore depended on the relatives of the dead oerson to maintain