Gifted, but still a teenager, alas

The January 16, 2006 New Yorker has an excellent, sad article by Eric Konigsberg about Brandenn Bremmer, a gifted 14-year-old from western Nebraska who committed suicide in March 2005. The strange twist is that his friends and sister were comforted by emails Brandenn wrote that suggested it was the usual adolescent issues that led him to kill himself. Brandenn's parents took solace that the donation of Branden's organs helped many people. A psychologist who worked with Brandenn, on the other hand, tends more to the Indigo Child interpretation of his life. The psychologist's husband says after Brandenn's death:

"I'm talking to him right now," he said. "He's become a teacher. He says right now he's actually being taught how to help those people who experience suicide for much messier reasons. Before Brandenn was born, this was planned. And he did it the way he did so that others would have use for his body. Everything worked out in the end."

To me, this is just creepy.

The New Yorker doesn't have the article on their web site, as usual, but there is discussion of the article there.

Other blogs on Branden Bremmer's suicide (Technorati)