Product Description

Suicide haunts our literature and our culture, claiming the lives of ordinary people and celebrities alike. It is now the third leading cause of death for fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in the United States, raising alarms across the nation about the rising tide of hopelessness seen in our young people. It is a taboo subtext to our successes and our happiness, a dark issue that is often euphemized, avoided, and little understood. In our century, psychology and psychiatry alike have attempted to understand, prevent, and medicalize these phenomena. But they have failed, argues Dr. Edwin Shneidman, because they have lost sight of the plain language, the ordinary everyday words, the pain and frustrated psychological needs of the suicidal individual. In The Suicidal Mind, Dr. Shneidman has written a groundbreaking work for every person who has ever thought about suicide or knows anybody who has contemplated it. The book brims with insight into the suicidal impulse and with helpful suggestions on how to counteract it. Shneidman presents a bold and simple premise: the main cause of suicide is psychological pain or "psychache." Thus the key to preventing suicide is not so much the study of the structure of the brain, or the study of social statistics, or the study of mental diseases, as it is the direct study of human emotions. To treat a suicidal individual, we need to identify, address, and reduce the individual's psychache. Shneidman shares with the reader his knowledge, both as a clinician and researcher, of the psychological drama that plays itself out in the suicidal mind through the exploration of three moving case studies. We meet Ariel, who set herself on fire; Beatrice, who cut herself with the intent to die; and Castro, a young man who meant to shoot his brains out but survived, horribly disfigured. These cases are presented in the person's own words to reveal the details of the suicidal drama, to show that the purpose of suicide is to seek a solution, to illustrate the pain at the core of suicide, and to isolate the common stressor in suicide: frustrated psychological needs. Throughout, Shneidman offers practical, explicit maneuvers to assist in treating a suicidal individual--steps that can be taken by concerned friends or family and professionals alike. Suicide is an exclusively human response to extreme psychological pain, a lonely and desperate solution for the sufferer who can no longer see any alternatives. In this landmark and elegantly written book, Shneidman provides the language, not only for understanding the suicidal mind, but for understanding ourselves. Anyone who has ever considered suicide, or knows someone who has, will find here a wealth of insights to help understand and to prevent suicide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186357 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 187 pages

New Scientist
"Fascinating"

Review
Fascinating (New Scientist )

About the Author
Edwin S. Shneidman is Professor of Thanatology Emeritus at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine. He is the founder of the American Association of Suicidology, and the author of Voices of Death, Definition of Suicide, and Deaths of Man, which was nominated for a National Book Award.

Customer Reviews

Vital for anyone with suicidal thoughts or an interest in those who have them
I bought this book after suffering an extensive abusive emotional relationship with a young narcissistic woman. This book opened my eyes into understanding my own mental pain that no 'Doctor' or 'Psychiatrist' could ever offer me without medication of some kind of 'therapy'. All of which never worked.

Left alone and without my Fiance, I felt like ending my own life was the only option. Through reading this book, I learnt this was not the case.

Have you ever read REAL 'suicide notes'? This book not only reveals them to you (amazingly), but psycho-analyses the person who leaves them. Their tragic last steps are re-tread and intellectually and systematically explained to us from a logical and often supremely thoughtful point of view that throughout, remains unjudgemental.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to attempt to blow ones own head off with a shotgun and survive, or set fire to oneself? By reading this book you will see what it's like and want NOTHING to do with it.

This is why this book is the ideal 'anti suicide' pill. It makes you question if taking your own life is the right choice. Not by some 'positive vibes' brain washing technique, but by an honest account of a few peoples lives who have experienced what you do.

You get to know the characters briefly, to recognise the SAME feelings these poor people had, then realise you are facing the same fate if you're not careful.

The author is able to convey deep sympathy for his past patients/case studies with tacit brilliance. Being someone who has received no sympathy or understanding at all from the medical profession or other 'professionals' - I was astonished to find someone who (in text) comes over as finally be able to do this.

The more you read, the more you realise not only does he recognise extreme emotional pain as being valid, but he is able to intellectually tell you the reader, WHY you feel this.

Surely we all want to know why?

Drugs are not the answer, finding out WHY we feel like this in the first place is. Suicidal thoughts are the lethal 'escape mechanism' of personal destruction we may find ourselves running towards when one cannot take it anymore - the author calls this state 'Psycheache'.

Read this book and re-evaluate your opinions on why you suffer so badly.
Understand 'psyceache', recognise it in yourself and others and only positive things can happen.

It will help, and that's a promise.

A different book for each stage of grieving the suicide of a loved one
My 21 year old brother hanged himself 2 1/2 years ago. I read No time to say goodbye by Carla Fine in the week afterwards and it made me realise that I was not alone and allowed me to release some of my grief. I read The suicidal Mind by Edwin S Sneideman just under a year after he died and this was fantastic in helping me process the Why? Why? Why???!!!! questions going around and around my head and put them to rest. I wouldn't recommend this too soon after the suicide of a loved one because it is difficult, if not cathartic, to deal with how they have suffered. Finally I read A Special Scar: The Experiences of people bereaved by suicide at the 2nd anniversary which covered a large range of different issues in relation to suicide and helped me consider how I was coping in a great deal of areas. This book, whilst factual and highly relevant was again better to read a while after my brother's death because in the height of my emotion I wouldn't have been able to cope with a "textbook" on suicide helpful for health care professionals as this would have seemed too clinical. A book can't make your grief go away or replace good anti-depressants/counselling but it can help channel that grief and give you time for personal contemplation and reflexion. If you have been recently been bereaved or not I would recommend all three of these texts for different reasons and at different stages. If you are recently bereaved and you are reading this take care of yourself and know that you are not alone and despite being through hell and back 2 1/2 years on I can honestly say that I am happy again. The pain will never go away but you will make it.

THIS BOOK TELLS IT ALL
Suicide haunts our literature and our culture, claiming the lives of ordinary people and celebrities alike. It is now the third leading cause of death for fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in the United States, raising alarms across the nation about the rising tide of hopelessness seen in our young people. It is a taboo subtext to our successes and our happiness, a dark issue that is often euphemized, avoided, and little understood. In our century, psychology and psychiatry alike
have attempted to understand, prevent, and medicalize these phenomena. But they have failed, argues Dr. Edwin Shneidman, because they have lost sight of the plain language, the ordinary everyday words, the pain and frustrated psychological needs of the suicidal individual.
In The Suicidal Mind, Dr. Shneidman has written a groundbreaking work for every person who has ever thought about suicide or knows anybody who has contemplated it. The book brims with insight into the suicidal impulse and with helpful suggestions on how to counteract it. Shneidman presents a bold and simple premise: the main cause of suicide is psychological pain or "psychache." Thus the key to preventing suicide is not so much the study of the structure of the brain, or the study of
social statistics, or the study of mental diseases, as it is the direct study of human emotions. To treat a suicidal individual, we need to identify, address, and reduce the individual's psychache. Shneidman shares with the reader his knowledge, both as a clinician and researcher, of the psychological drama that plays itself out in the suicidal mind through the exploration of three moving case studies. We meet Ariel, who set herself on fire; Beatrice, who cut herself with the intent to die; and
Castro,
young man who meant to shoot his brains out but survived, horribly disfigured. These cases are presented in the person's own words to reveal the details of the suicidal drama, to show that the purpose of suicide is to seek a solution, to illustrate the pain at the core of suicide, and to isolate the common stressor in suicide: frustrated psychological needs. Throughout, Shneidman offers practical, explicit maneuvers to assist in treating a suicidal individual--steps that can be taken by
concerned friends or family and professionals alike.
Suicide is an exclusively human response to extreme psychological pain, a lonely and desperate solution for the sufferer who can no longer see any alternatives. In this landmark and elegantly written book, Shneidman provides the language, not only for understanding the suicidal mind, but for understanding ourselves. Anyone who has ever considered suicide, or knows someone who has, will find here a wealth of insights to help understand and to prevent suicide.


I would say that this book talks about suicide, in a way that is a real message of understanding.

Brilliant book.