Suicide Books

I was very pleased with the book. I am a friend of the auther and had never read it. This book would be a great thing for anyone dealing with a suicide of a friend or loveone to read and write their thoughts. Great book Dee.

This is an amazing journal of healing peace after the loss of a child. Butterflies grace is showcased throughout this journal. Even through a devastating event, many others have been helped through their rough times by the author (my amazing mom) and her husband (my amazing dad) and through this book, many more will also be helped!

At the height of the Cold War when the Soviet Union and the United States were absolutely bitter and vicious opponents, their agents and operatives worked against each other in every possible way- but they did not go about killing themselves. The natural assumption of people in the U.S. the former Soviet Union, and my guess is almost everywhere, is that people want to live.
But today we live in a world where something unheard of , even two decades ago, is happening. Every day whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, people are blowing themselves up in order to murder others, who most people in the world would consider, civilians, innocent outsiders.
Now Anat Berko an Israeli researcher has made a pioneering study of the phenomenom. She has based her research on interviews with a large number of jailed would- be suicide bombers, with their handlers or dispatchers. She provides a great deal of new insight into the problem even I suspect for those who have been following the problem for some time now.
Berko makes a firm distinction between the 'dispatchers' and the 'suicide- bombers'. The former are the strong ones, the ideologues, the ones who often convince the suicide- bombers to operate. The suicide- bombers often are weak personalities, with family- problems which they hope to solve by the suicide- bombing. Often they are young people whose sexual identity has not formed, and who are moved by the prospect of seventy- black-eyes clear- skinned virgins as their reward in Paradise. They too may come from families with a certain stigma, and often their action may be a way of restoring the honor of the family in the general society.
Berko also connects the dramatic rise in suicide- bombing with the Islamic war on Western culture. The West is perceived as libertine, corrupt, decadent. Against its temptations Islamic young people are instructed to make heroic actions of self- sacrifice, jihad. Berko by the way points out that Koranic sources both forbid suicide and the murder of innocent women and children. But that these sources are overridden by modern religious teachers who frame everything in terms of the house of Islam's total war against the corrupt and decadent West.
Berko alarmingly points out that in propaganda terms, on the Internet, and through most of the major media it is the radical Islamists who predominate and attract. Like many others she calls for more moderate voices, which belong to so many, to have greater force.
In any case this present book is an extremely important one for all who would understand a major element, however negative in our present world- situation and reality.

At first, Charley is relieved when the school bullies at his new school stop picking on him and shift their persecution to Benny Mason, a gentle soul who never stands up for himself against the bullies. Charley is torn between helping Benny and playing it safe by not getting involved--after all, he tells himself, Benny's problem is not his problem. After Benny takes his own life, however, Charley feels the need to somehow make amends in some way for not being there when Benny needed him. A powerful story that focuses on the crucial role of the bystander in bullying situations.

As a non-traditional (i.e. older) college student and father of two adolescent boys, I found Mr. Rickgarn's book an excellent treatise on the subject. Unlike the college textbook that I was exposed to during a Psychology of Suicide class that I took in 2004, PERSPECTIVES ON COLLEGE STUDENT SUICIDE is written in a manner that people of all ages can understand and benefit from.

Using real-life examples from his twenty plus years working with students at a private liberal arts college and at the University of Minnesota, Mr. Rickgarn lays the foundation by providing the reader with the awareness needed to recognize the behavioral, emotional, and verbal clues associated with a suicidal individual. He then walks the reader through the intervention process and includes a practical list of Do's and Don'ts gleaned from his years of campus experience. A chapter on postvention addresses the steps that can be taken by both individuals and institutions to intervene on behalf of survivors in the aftermath of a suicide.

Mr. Rickgarn's PERSPECTIVES ON COLLEGE STUDENT SUICIDE should be required reading for all college students and parents of adolescents and young adults to help them recognize suicidal individuals they may encounter within their circles of concern and guide them through the intervention process.

Well, no one writes more compassionately about dying patients than Timothy Quill. Not only does he have the intelligence and sensitivity to write about these issues, he has had the courage to defend compassionate approaches to dying in courts of law (see Vacco v. Quill, U. S. Supreme Court) but he has also engaged in "medical civil disobedience" on at least one occasion.

But what is more interesting is that he knows enough about the conceptual and philosophical issues regarding death and dying to be able to make sense out of the debates about "assistance" in dying. His discussions are truly masterpieces of clear thinking about the issues...the kind of thinking that only a clinician who really, really cares about patients and human suffering might exhibit.

He is a gentle spirit with a clear head, a heart full of compassion, and moral character that is rarely found in the human community. This book is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the difficult choices we all run the risk of facing unprepared unless and until we have a national consensus about compassionate dying.

John Violanti has, with "Epidemic in Blue," written a definitive, precise book on police suicide. I highly recommend this as must-reading for anyone involved in police administration or in police suicide prevention training programs. It's refreshing to read a researcher who approaches the confusing subject of police suicide without first forming a conclusion and then researching the evidence.

Directly and analytically, Violanti walks us through the muddle that police departments themselves have created by their reluctance or refusal to acknowledge the problem and/or share data with researchers. Without realizing they are doing their officers a gross disservice, agencies continue to deliberately misclassify even the most obvious cases of suicide as "undetermined" or "accidental." This travesty, borne out of the antiquated view that police suicides caused by the trauma of the job are "disgraceful," robs us of the very information we need to effectively treat the problem.

With great candor, Violanti also addresses the tragedy of retiree suicides, which increase tenfold, and explores the lingering trauma as well as the deep sense of loss and separation felt by the now-civilian officer. He takes on the issue of domestic abuse, so often ignored in police families, and explores the increasing phenomenon of murder-suicides taking place in the police culture.

Additionally, the author explores, with both chilling and heart-warming commentary by Teresa Tate of SOLES (Survivors of Law Enforcement Suicide), how departments treat the survivors of police suicides. Too often, police departments continue to stigmatized the widows, refusing to assist at all in funerals, and denying officers permission to attend in uniform. Forgotten is that this was an officer who died from the pain and trauma of the job and is as deserving of a hero's farewell as any other fallen comrade. Violanti offers an excellent set of departmental guidelines for supporting survivors, dealing with the media, and addressing the grief of the squad.

Finally, it was encouraging to see the author supporting the concept of improved cadet training to prepare cadets for what awaits them by providing them an insight to reality and, most importantly, giving them the tools to face trauma before it happens. This is crucial. As Violanti points out, "From the very first day in the police academy, recruit officers are told that they are someone unique, far different from the average citizen and certainly beyond psychological harm." This has been compared to the concept of "unique invulnerability" found in adolescents, and to refuse to adequately balance this with some realism beyond fluffy dog-and-pony shows is to continue the Prussian tradition of sending out young officers totally unprepared for the trauma to come--and without the resources to manage them.

There is much more in these 174 pages. It should be on every administrator's shelf, carefully read and dog-eared.

Andy O'Hara. Badge of Life suicide prevention program

Me gustarma acceder a los libros de Beck en castellano ya que en la argentina no hay muchos de ellos.

A sad book of a gal who had it all but not enough to have a successful life...interesting read...

This fascinating work deals with suicide and its prevention in antiquity and in our time. The approach integrates history, psychology and culture with a view to practical application. A therapy for suicide prevention that exists in the Old Testament or Tenakh is presented in the final section. The text is enhanced by illustrations and tables.

In his introduction, David Bakan expresses confidence that the implementation of this book's guidelines will save lives. He observes that there is a pressing need for a critical investigation of history for a clearer understanding of contemporary psychological afflictions, including the suicidal tendency. Such a study of history would be like an entire culture undergoing psycho­analysis.

Freud's view on the death instinct in the human being is discussed in the introduction, whilst chapter one looks at Shakespeare's Hamlet and his musings on the matter, as well as other opinions like those of Albert Camus. Chapter 2 shows how suicide pervaded Greco-Roman thought. It was considered an act of escape into freedom by the greatest thinkers of the culture like Seneca and Plato.

Well they encouraged infanticide too, like Seneca in Controversiae. Even Aristotle in his Politics condoned and justified it. Needless to say, the Hebrew Bible considered it an abomination. Suicide in Jewish and Christian Thought is discussed in the 3rd chapter, with the quote from the Almighty "You shall choose life so that you and your seed shall live."

Although certain suicidologists, like Alvarez, have argued that the Good Book contains no specific teaching against suicide, the entire body of Hebraic thought is fervently pro-life. More so than the Christian view that emphasizes the next life, Judaism encourages joy, happiness and restoration (Tikkun) in this life.

Unfortunately a strain of religious morbidity infects Christianity as revealed by William James in his classic work The Varieties of Religious Experience. Martin Luther, amongst others, suffered from it. There are also certain other impulses in the religion that very few Christians are aware of; William Nicholls has dissected the history and psychology in great depth in his masterpiece Christian Antisemitism.

The 2nd part explores suicide in Greek Tragedy, Greek versus Hebrew myth and the prevention of suicide in the Old Testament.

The deterministic Greek view offers no hope of salvation. After the evils had escaped Pandora's jar, hope (Elpis) emerged reluctantly and with hesitation. That's about it. Greek literature is of course of the highest quality but most of it, especially tragedy, is psychologically warped and even perverse what with all the family murders and castrations.

The authors compare the cases of Narcissus and Jonah. Narcissus individuates himself by suicide while The Lord as savior and therapist twice intervenes to save Jonah's life. Our Western culture seems to be heading like a runaway train in the direction of malignant narcissism, especially amongst celebrities, as claimed by Tammy Bruce in her book The Death of Right and Wrong.

Chapter 6 deals with suicide and its prevention in the Hebrew Bible, with reference to the Prophet Elijah. After Jezebel had murdered the priests of the Lord in revenge for the slaughter of the magicians of Baal on Mount Carmel, the Prophet had had enough and asked to die. God intervened and led him to Mount Horeb.

The desire to die is also expressed by figures like David, Moses and Job but in every case intervention occurs. One meaning of The Holy Name (Tetragrammaton) is "Life Giver" so The Eternal Divine protects life. The Egyptians were obsessed with death; Israelite priests were forbidden from touching a corpse or even entering a cemetery.

The 3rd part looks at family influences.

The Greek vision of the family is filled with conflict, cruelty, competition, murder, sibling rivalry and sadism: Pandora, Prometheus & Zeus; Laius & Oedipus; Clytemnestra & Electra; Uranus & Cronos versus their sons, etc.

Chapter 9: The Suicide-Preventing Structure of the Hebrew Family investigates the non-sacrifice of Isaac, Ruth of Moab who clung to Naomi and whose kindness was rewarded with kindness, the ideal of harmony between husband and wife and the promise that Elijah will come to repair relations between parents and children before the end of days.

The final part provides a complete suicide-prevention therapy. Chapter 10: A Psychology of Hope, compares the deterministic Greek view & the evil Greek pantheon with the mercy of Spirit who responds to prayer by overruling the law of cause and effect. Many passages in the Bible, the Psalms in particular, inspire, uplift and instill hope.

In Hebrew myth the rainbow is specifically given as a sign of hope. After the fall, the woman is promised that the Seed of Salvation will come through her. The parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates the loving-kindness of God. In The Authentic Gospel of Jesus, the respected scholar Geza Vermes claims that the main message is: "Draw near to the Father in whom there is not a shadow of harshness or severity."

It is abundantly clear from the Word that Greek Heroism, its cruel restricted choices and inevitable tragic consequences are not desirable. Hubris leads to nemesis. Biblical heroism is something completely different as so lucidly explained by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in The Private Adam: Becoming a Hero in a Selfish Age.

A Psychology of Hope is like a psychological Balm in Gilead. One problem is that many psychologists are indifferent, if not hostile, to religion. Freudians follow Freud who based his work on classical Greek models. I am however convinced that whoever uses this biblical therapy - priests, ministers, rabbis, Jewish & Christian psychologists - will witness the healing power of the Word. It concludes with a bibliography and an index.

In this scholarly work the treatment stays within the parameters of formal psychotherapy. There's also sound therapy. In my personal experience the following music is effective against anxiety & despair: Tehillim (Psalms) by Steve Reich which is sung in Hebrew, The Sacred Names by Anjani Thomas and Holy Harmony: Healing Code Tuning Forks & Ancient YHSVH Chant by Jonathan Goldman.