WERTHER SYNDROME

cluster suicides elicited by the suicide of a widely-recognized or popular figure whose demise is supplied with significant media coverage. The phenomenon is termed for the initial identified occurrence of media-triggered suicide, that happened in 1774 after the publication of Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, The Sorrows of Young Werther . The book set off a trend, wherein a multitude of young males of the time imitated the eccentric style of dress of the book's protagonist, Werther, by wearing blue and yellow. Some young males additionally committed suicide in the same manner Werther did in the novel, resulting in the book being banned in some communities.