This paper will provide a brief overview of cultural, ideological (philosophical, political, theological and legal) attitudes towards suicide in the early modern period, the changes during the Enlightenment and the pathologisation and decriminalisation (but not destigmatisation) of suicide in the mid-19th century. In doing so, it will try to go beyond historical overviews that often focus only on fundamental philosophical shifts or that try to better situate contemporary phenomena of "high rates of suicidality" or to look for historical elements of voluntary end-of-life and euthanasia. The review will focus on a specific historical period, taking into account the complex legal, cultural, economic and social circumstances, as changes in attitudes towards suicidality have been the result of complex factors. In the second part, I will try to show, on the basis of legal, ideological and governmental treatments of suicide practices, the attitudes towards suicide from the end of the 18th century to the mid-19th century at the level of discourse and practice, and to answer the question to what extent the field of study has adapted political, cultural and legal treatments of suicide and the decriminalisation of suicide. It will also analyse some of the extant treatments of suicide in the years 1817-1840.