Abstract

Suicide notes, as messages left by individuals prior to death, have been regarded as important materials offering insights into the life and psychological state of the deceased. While previous studies have explored the authenticity, thematic content, and generalizability of suicide notes, this study aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of suicide notes left by individuals who died by suicide in South Korea by considering the context and characteristics of the data. For this purpose, suicide note data archived in the Police Agency's death records were analyzed using topic modeling and semantic network analysis. As a result, three main topics were derived: “apology and forgiveness,” “reflection on life,” and “posthumous requests and instructions,” based on their representative keywords. Central keywords for each topic were further analyzed and visualized through semantic networks to better understand the structure of the deceased’s thoughts and emotions. This study is meaningful in that it moves beyond pre-defined theories or categorical frameworks and instead adopts a data-driven, exploratory approach to reveal the subjective experiences and emotions expressed in suicide notes. It is anticipated that future research on suicide notes will continue to diversify in its aims and methodological approaches.