Reading along, I'm wondering when did this become about what would happen in "Today's Real World" when talking about a Science
Fiction Television Series set hundreds of years into the future???
About reality:
www.cbsnews.com/2100-500522_162-3054259.html
I linked to this article because it deals with 2 things: Suicide and Psychology. As far as suicide is concerned, there are REAL live cultures that believe, or have believed, it is honorable to take one's life to avoid shame and disgrace. I always figured that the Klingon Warrior was at least somewhat based off of the Japanese Samurai. There is glory in battle and falling on your sword to avoid dishonor and all that good stuff... BUT, because we are dealing with FICTIONAL show, there are some differences. Even with assisted suicide, the person is committing the final act themselves. In the Klingon culture here, that's not acceptable. I believe that if Kurn were to have killed himself, IIRC, then that would have been an act of weakness (I'm guessing because he couldn't "endure" the pain/shame), so it had to be done by someone else, like Worf, so that Kurn could make it into Stoval Kor (sp?). Since he blamed Worf for his predicament, he expected him to "fix" things. He pressured his brother into actions that Worf didn't really want to take. You can call Worf right or wrong for that, but to me the whole situation is just tragic because had his brother been able to endure for a few years (if that), then he could have had his honor restored.
This brings me to psychology. I do think that his brother was suffering from some sort of depression/grief based off of having his position/status stripped away from him. It would have been good if he could have gotten help for that, but the Klingon culture doesn't seem like one where there's a lot of therapy going on, and besides I think Kurn would have rejected it if Worf offered him therapy sessions with a psychiatrist that could treat him. That has something to do with this fictional cuture (that's not too unlike some real ones in today's world, even in America today you have men that don't want to get help and talk about their feelings because it's not "manly"). So, that wasn't really an option.
(As an FYI, for anyone interested, for some reason the whole question of tampering with someone's brain made me think of this time period in American Medicine in regards to the human brain/psychology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0aNILW6ILk )
I understand the desire for doses of realism, I really do, but to get upset that a
Science Fiction series had the audacity to create a culture (that actually started out 2 series prior to this one) and build on that culture's sense of "honor practices" (think of "honor killings" in places like India and the Middle East and tell me with a straight face that this isn't possible in the REAL WORLD), and then adhere to those practices within that series is a bit ludicrous to me. I think that was the point of the episode. You didn't have to like it, and no, it wasn't nice and neat. It was messy and left all sorts of questions behind. I still come back to the conclusion that it was tragic, but Worf did what he thought was right at the time. I suppose he didn't mention Kurn later on because Kurn was no longer his brother, and that time had passed...