Suicide Books - Page 4

Conversations with the Spirit World : Souls who have ended their lives speak from above

Lysa Mateu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Quite Touching! 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

Over the last few years I have read many, many books on the subject of afterlife communications. This, however, is the only book I've come across that deals specifically with souls who have taken their own lives.

The insights provided from these souls is truly amazing! They answer many questions such as why they chose to commit suicide, what would have helped them to choose life instead of death, as well as what they've learned since "crossing over" re: life in general, and the impact of suicide.

This book is not only meant for those who've lost loved ones to suicide, and those who've attempted to take their own life, but it's meant for EVERYONE - EVERY SOUL - on this earth. Through the reading of this book, one can learn much about how to LIVE -and to do so happily and filled with excitement.

Editorial Review:

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD

When was the last time you read a book that literally changed your life?

A book that made you see things you had long forgotten - about who you are - about the dreams you once had.

Through the eyes of 17 souls who chose to end their lives, you will be reawakened to the possibility of what your life can be - not at some future date, but Right Now.

Conversations with the Spirit World is a book that transforms lives.

Is yours going to be one of them?

By now you realize the value of reading Conversations with the Spirit World. If you love yourself, you will read this book. If you have ever loved another, you will read this book. Conversations with the Spirit World comforts, intrigues, inspires, and captivates the places in you that longs to remember... who you are... why you are here...

Conversations with the Spirit World will forever change the way you feel about life... and death.

Suicide and the Soul (Dunquin)

James Hillman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

When Nothing Makes Sense 5 out of 5 stars.
54 of 54 people found this review helpful.

If someone close to you has taken their life, you need to read this book. There are no cliches here. No pap. This is an in- depth report, based on years of study and experience in the field, on the clinical route that ends in suicide and why your intervention may not have made a difference.

Dr. Hillman shows us the path the soul took to the brink and explains why they could not turn back...unless they stood at the edge and chose to turn away.

I have read many books that sought to confort the bereaved. This book allows us, as the tormented survivors, a smidgeon of insight. The kind of insight that makes some sense of the senseless act. I don't know Dr. Hillman, although I certainly read some of his other work after reading this book; but I owe him a dept. This book is a gift. I hope you find it as remarkable as I did.

Editorial Review:

With this book James Hillman initiated the "soul movement" in psychotherapy forty years ago.

Soul and suicide are dominant issues of this new millenium; soul because it cannot be reduced to genes and chromosomes; suicide because it raises fundamental religious, political, and legal conflicts. As Hillman writes in the postscript to the second edition: "The individual consists of more than his or her personal individuality. Something besides 'myself' inhabits the soul, takes part in its life and has a say in its death . . . We need a . . . definition of self as the interiorization of community. Suicide, literally 'self-killing,' now would mean both a killing of community and involvement of community in the killing."

This new edition is introduced by the eminent psychiatrist and pioneering social critic, Thomas Szasz.

Cognitive Therapy for Suicidal Patietns: Scientific and Clinical Applications

Amy Wenzel, Gregory K. Brown, Aaron T. Beck

Amazon Price: $44.07 List Price: $69.95 Not yet published By: American Psychological Association (APA)

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Editorial Review:

Suicide is one of the most daunting challenges that clinicians encounter in their practice. Unfortunately, compared with other mental health issues, there is a paucity of research designed to conceptualize and treat it. This may be why relatively few interventions have been developed specifically to prevent suicide. At the same time, the degree to which interventions with established efficacy apply to suicidal patients is unclear, because these patients are often excluded from clinical trials."Cognitive Therapy for Suicidal Patients: Scientific and Clinical Applications" begins to close these gaps in suicide theory and practice. For over 30 years, Aaron T. Beck and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania have been conducting empirical research that examines the risk factors for and treatment of suicide ideators and attempters. The result is a book that crystallizes over three decades of basic, clinical, and therapeutic research, providing a comprehensive review of the literature on psychological factors associated with suicidal behavior.The authors describe their cognitive model of suicide, the instruments they developed to assess theoretically and clinically relevant suicide constructs, and their cognitive intervention for suicidal individuals. The book includes a step-by-step protocol for cognitive therapy with these patients and an extended case study brings these concepts to life. Applications of the protocol with special populations and methods for overcoming challenges when working with suicidal patients are also suggested.

Step Back from the Exit: 45 Reasons to Say No to Suicide

Jillayne Arena

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Suicide rates continue to rise. Assisted suicides continue to grab headlines. Why shouldn't we call it quits when the world is a painful place and the future seems non-existent? Direct, practical, accepting, at times humorous--this book offers support for those facing the blind alleys, bottomless pits, and concrete barriers of life. Arising from the author's struggle with suicidal thoughts, these 45 short essays range in diversity from Marilyn Monroe to William Styron, from guilt to vitamins, and from bad manners to bad genes. While acknowledging the depth of pain that brings people to consider suicide, this book asks them to wait. The format is easy to read wherever opened, intelligent, yet fitting to a short attention span. When someone can't imagine one reason, this book offers 45. Additionally, the rare glimpse into this other world has helped physicians, counselors, police, teachers, chaplains, family, and friends further understand the suicidal psyche.

Eight Stories Up: An Adolescent Chooses Hope over Suicide (Adolescent Mental Health Initiative)

DeQuincy Lezine, David Brent

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As a teenager, DeQuincy Lezine nearly ended his own life, believing it was the only way to escape the emotional pain that was overwhelming him. Instead, Lezine found was able to find expert psychiatric care, and went on to found the first university campus-based chapter of the Suicide Prevention Action Network USA.
Now a researcher at the University of Rochester's Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, Lezine has devoted his life to preventing suicide in adolescents, and he brings the wealth of his personal and professional experience to bear in Eight Stories Up. He starts by describing his deteriorating state of mind in college, using his own email archive to reconstruct retell the episode that would nearly claim his life. He then offers hard-earned wisdom and practical advice to other young people who may be considering suicide. In straightforward, easy-to-understand language, and drawing on the psychiatric expertise of David Brent, MD, Lezine discusses the potential causes of suicide in adolescents, how to seek psychiatric treatment, and how to get the most out of professional help. He also surveys some of the therapies used to prevent suicide, how to talk to loved ones about suicidal thoughts, and how to stay healthy at home and at school. The result is both a remarkable memoir and a useful guide that will ease the isolation and hopelessness caused by thoughts of suicide, helping young people to overcome their troubles in a safe and healthy way.
Part of the Adolescent Mental Health Initiative series of books written specifically for teens and young adults, Eight Stories Up offers hope to young people who are at risk of suicide, extending a lifeline of support and guidance that can save their lives.

Songs from the Black Chair: A Memoir of Mental Interiors (American Lives)

Charles Barber

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Day after day, night after night, the desperate men come and sit in the black chair next to Charles Barber’s desk in a basement office at Bellevue and tell of their travails, of prison and AIDS and heroin, of crack and methadone and sexual abuse, and the voices that plague them. In the silence between the stories, amid the peeling paint, musty odor, and flickering fluorescent light, Barber observes that this isn’t really where he is supposed to be.

 

How this child of privilege, the product of Andover and Harvard and Columbia, came to find himself at home among the homeless of New York City is just one story Barber tells in Songs from the Black Chair. Interlaced with his memoir, and illuminating the nightmare of mental illness that gripped him after his friend’s suicide, are the stories of his confidants at Bellevue and the “mental health” shelters of Manhattan—men so traumatized by the distortions of their lives and minds that only in the chaotic aftermath of 9/11 do they feel in sync with their world. In the intertwined narrative of these troubled lives and his own, Charles Barber brings to shimmering light some of the most disturbing and enduring truths of human nature.

(06/29/2005)

November of the Soul: The Enigma of Suicide

George Howe Colt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Not for voyeours or those with casual interrest! 5 out of 5 stars.
37 of 38 people found this review helpful.

A must read for those with a serious interest in the study of suicide. I found this book six years ago after the suicide death of my friend's only child, a beautiful and talented 18 year old.

Of the books I've read on suicide this has been the most thorough at exploring the various schools of thought regarding the subject. George Howe Colt looks at suicide historically, culturally, philosophically, and as the intimate assault it is on persons, families, and communities. He unveils many unwieldy questions, including the right to die with candor and only a hint of occasional bias. Although he avoids no subject, he does not aggrandize himself by claiming to have the answers. From the outside view of prevention to the inside view of pain he explores and shares what is happening in the two worlds via interviews with survivors, memoirs of suicides, gripping case studies and more.

Having said that, let me emphasize that THIS IS NOT A BEREAVEMENT BOOK! This came piercingly clear when I opened the pages recently after the loss of my own child to teen suicide. A suicide survivor may find it difficult to navigate the wrenching realities this discourse brings. It is not a book designed for comfort, but rather one illustrative of our discomfort and only possible because of human suffering.

**A note for those struggling to regain equilibrium after a suicide. As a suicide "survivor", I have not yet found a book studying suicide that I can wholly recommend for grief work purposes. If you want an in-depth exploration and are emotionally ready, this is the book I would recommend. However, many suicide books purposely or inadvertently direct blame to those who can least bear it. For healing purposes I would recommend the excellent book When the Bough Breaks: Forever After the Death of A Son or daughter by Judith R. Bernstein & Nora Donaghy for those who have lost a child. For all bereaved persons I recommend A Broken Heart Still Beats by Anne McCracken & Mary Semel.**

Editorial Review:

Written with the same graceful narrative voice that made his bestselling National Book Award finalist The Big House such a success, George Howe Colt's November of the Soul is a compassionate, compelling, thought-provoking, and exhaustive investigation into the subject of suicide. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews and a fascinating survey of current knowledge, Colt provides moving case studies to offer insight into all aspects of suicide -- its cultural history, the latest biological and psychological research, the possibilities of prevention, the complexities of the right-to-die movement, and the effects on suicide's survivors.

Presented with deep compassion and humanity, November of the Soul is an invaluable contribution not only to our understanding of suicide but also of the human condition.

Slender Thread:, A

Diane Ackerman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Very disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As a therapist in a mental hospital and a volunteer for a crisis line, I was very interested in this book for Ackerman's insights into working with persons in crisis over the telephone. While I did appreciate her healthy and Zen-like perspective on life and the natural world, I felt she really didn't address much about the crisis work at all. Instead, most of this book consists of ramblings about unrelated aspects of nature and shameless self-promotion of her other literary and artistic efforts.

To illustrate my point, I present a breakdown of a typical chapter in the book; of 22 pages, 3 pages were dedicated to thoughts about being an artist, 2 pages to women's roles, 4 pages to her ordeals when she broke her foot, 1 page about zoos, 1 page about food, 4 pages about solar eclipses, 1 page about the word "asylum", 4 pages about squirrels, and a whopping 2 pages about a crisis call.

I agree with other reviewers that her writing stlye is also very awkward, with some sentences running on for entire pages and rarely coming to any points. While this book isn't entirely bad, I felt it was a disappointing effort at addressing the dynamics of individuals on both sides of a crisis telephone line, which is how it is promoted.

Editorial Review:

his astonishing book by the prizewinning, bestselling author of A Natural History of the Senses reveals Ackerman's parallel lives as an observer of the wildlife in her garden and as a telephone crisis counselor. "(Ackerman) brings a luminous and illuminating combination of sensuality, science, and speculation to whatever she considers."--San Francisco Examiner.

The Suicidal Patient: Clinical and Legal Standards of Care

Bruce Bongar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Essential reading for all practicing clinicians 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

The Suicidal Patient by Bruce Bongar provides a much-needed manual for all practicing clinicians. Why do I say all? Well, if you are a clinician the odds are that at some point in your career you will encounter a suicidal patient. In fact, according to Bongar, even "student therapists have a one in three chance of experiencing a patient suicide or suicide attempt during their training years."

By taking a few simple precautions you can greatly minimize your chance of being sued. But, I believe, even more importantly, Bongar champions the idea that if you provide high quality care the odds of you being able to prevent a suicide dramatically increase. According to Bongar, high quality care happens when you have a real understanding of both clinical and legal issues and you apply this knowledge and tailor your approach to each individual.

Obviously you're a therapist, and not a fortuneteller, and so mistakes will happen. Why not learn the basics ahead of time so that you don't make stupid mistakes?

If you effectively deal with a suicidal patient, and he or she improves, then you may have just helped someone save his or her own life. I can't think of a better feeling than that, which is why Bongar provides you with a manual to effectively deal with the suicidal patient. Take responsibility for your practice and prepare for the worst because by doing so you may achieve the best outcome of all.

With that said, I want to be clear about the format of this book. It is written for clinicians. If you are looking for a self-help book this is definitely not for you. Bongar is a therapy researcher and so like much therapy research the book is somewhat dry. This is to be expected since the list of citations alone span thirty-eight pages. The fact that all this voluminous literature has been synthesized into one book is impressive indeed and one only need consider how dry it would be to read all the primary sources to realize the service that this book provides.

Specifically the book provides:
1. A history of suicide research and current theories and research in the field.
2. A comprehensive section on the legal issues involved in treating suicidal patients.
3. Many methods to assess patient risk including assessment protocols and case histories.
4. Best practices for treatment in both inpatient and outpatient settings
5. A section on risk management that includes suggestions for unfortunate event that the patient carries out a suicidal act.

Editorial Review:

A source of empirical information on the clinical and legal standards of care for suicidal patients. Combining clinical and legal insight, Dr Bongar proposes a working model for the assessment, management and treatment of suicidal patients in both inpatient and outpatient contexts. His suggestions for optimal clinical practice provide additional guidance on risk-management strategies for suicide prevention and post-vention. This second edition is revised and contains new material on cross-cultural assessment and management, case law, and several risk estimators and assessment scales.

Why Suicide?: Answers to 200 of the Most Frequently Asked Questions about Suicide, Attempted S

Eric Marcus

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent book on a sensitive subject 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I don't do much reading in psychology these days, although many years ago I completed a Master's and most of the coursework for the Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Calfornia. I ultimately decided not to pursue a career in it, so never finished the Ph.D., but at one time had an excellent background in the subject. Anyway, I happened to see this book in the psychology section of a local book store, and although the clinical area wasn't my specialty (I being more in the psychobiology area), it caught my eye, and I ended up reading some of it.

This seemed to be a well-written and practical book on what can be a sensitive subject in our culture (or in any culture, probably). It contains a lot of background information on suicide, and more importantly, on how to deal with it if you know someone who has. I would have no reservations recommending this book for someone who needed advice or help dealing with the suicide of someone in their life.

It contained some fascinating facts on the incidence of suicide--especially in Japan. For example, it seems that there is a volcano named Mahari Yama on the little island of Ohshima, 60 miles from Tokyo. According to legend, if you commit suicide by throwing yourself into the crater, you are instantly cremated, converted to a whisp of smoke, and instantly go to Heaven.

A 26-year old student by the name of Ueki threw herself into the crater in the early 30's. Ueki's story became an instant sensation and legend itself, and by the time the authorities had blocked access to the crater in 1935, 940 people--800 men and 140 women, had committed suicide this way--an amazing statistic as well as amazingly tragic story.

Anyway, I was impressed with the book and can recommend it for anyone needed help with this difficult area.

Editorial Review:

Almost all of us are touched at some point in our lives by suicide, whether it's the suicide or attempted suicide of someone we know, our own passing thoughts of suicide, or a heartfelt plea from a terminally ill loved one who wishes for a swift and painless end to life. No matter what the circumstances, those of us who are affected are left with difficult and disturbing questions. Why did they do it? Is there anything I could of done to prevent it? What should I tell people when they ask what happened? Is someone who attempts suicide likely to try it again? What should I do if I'm thinking of committing suicide? Can I get in trouble if I help a terminally ill loved one die? Without moral judgment, Why Suicide? offers lucid, thoughtful, and comprehensive answers to hundreds of questions about this complex and painful issue. Eric Marcus cuts through the veil of silence, examining the facts and figures and myths and rumors, shedding much-needed light on all aspects of suicide.