The Varieties of Suicidal Experience
The Varieties of Suicidal Experience

Author: Thomas Joiner

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2024-02-13

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1479823481

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Argues that a range of behaviors such as murder-suicide, terrorism, and mass shootings are better understood as motivated by suicidal impulses than by homicidal ones Mass shooters often display behaviors that strongly mirror the warning signs for suicide: lives led in isolation, intense personal suffering, disaffection, and struggle. Letters detailing why they did what they did paint pictures of intense misery and loneliness. As this book makes clear, private despair sometimes leads to social violence. In this groundbreaking work, Thomas Joiner offers a unified theory of suicide, making the case that many acts that appear homicidal are best understood primarily as suicidal. We must recognize that there are several forms of suicidal violence, some of which masquerade as other types of acts, including terrorism and murder. These include suicide-by-cop, suicide terrorism, murder-suicide, and running amok. Though there are obvious differences among these acts, Joiner argues that framing them as stemming from a common ideology of suicide is a crucial step in preventing these atrocities. By recognizing the desire to die—not to kill—as being at the heart of many of the acts of those who choose to kill their partner, shoot up their school, or terrorize their community, we can offer more effective measures of intervention. At a time when our nation is scrambling for solutions in the fight to end gun violence, this book presents a crucial component in the detection and treatment of unwell individuals.

Why People Die by Suicide
Why People Die by Suicide

Author: Thomas Joiner

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 0674970616

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In the wake of a suicide, the most troubling questions are invariably the most difficult to answer: How could we have known? What could we have done? And always, unremittingly: Why? Written by a clinical psychologist whose own life has been touched by suicide, this book offers the clearest account ever given of why some people choose to die. Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner brings a comprehensive understanding to seemingly incomprehensible behavior. Among the many people who have considered, attempted, or died by suicide, he finds three factors that mark those most at risk of death: the feeling of being a burden on loved ones; the sense of isolation; and, chillingly, the learned ability to hurt oneself. Joiner tests his theory against diverse facts taken from clinical anecdotes, history, literature, popular culture, anthropology, epidemiology, genetics, and neurobiology--facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis. The result is the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. Joiner's is a work that makes sense of the bewildering array of statistics and stories surrounding suicidal behavior; at the same time, it offers insight, guidance, and essential information to clinicians, scientists, and health practitioners, and to anyone whose life has been affected by suicide.

Myths about Suicide
Myths about Suicide

Author: Thomas E. Joiner

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780674048225

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We need to get it in our heads that suicide is not easy, painless, cowardly, selfish, vengeful, selfmasterful, or rash; that it is not caused by breast augmentation, medicines, "slow" methods like smoking or anorexia, or, as some psychoanalysts thought, things like masturbation; that it is partly genetic and influenced by mental disorders, themselves often agonizing; and that it is preventable and treatable.

The Perversion of Virtue
The Perversion of Virtue

Author: Thomas Joiner

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0199334552

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In The Perversion of Virtue, suicide researcher Thomas Joiner explores the nature of murder-suicide and offers a unique new theory to explain this nearly unexplainable act: that 'true' murder-suicides always involve the wrongheaded invocation of one of four interpersonal virtues.

Managing Suicidal Risk
Managing Suicidal Risk

Author: David A. Jobes

Publisher: Guilford Publications

Published: 2016-06-20

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1462526918

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This book has been replaced by Managing Suicidal Risk, Third Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-5269-6.

The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide
The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide

Author: Yogesh Dwivedi

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2012-06-25

Total Pages: 485

ISBN-13: 143983881X

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With recent studies using genetic, epigenetic, and other molecular and neurochemical approaches, a new era has begun in understanding pathophysiology of suicide. Emerging evidence suggests that neurobiological factors are not only critical in providing potential risk factors but also provide a promising approach to develop more effective treatment and prevention strategies. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide discusses the most recent findings in suicide neurobiology. Psychological, psychosocial, and cultural factors are important in determining the risk factors for suicide; however, they offer weak prediction and can be of little clinical use. Interestingly, cognitive characteristics are different among depressed suicidal and depressed nonsuicidal subjects, and could be involved in the development of suicidal behavior. The characterization of the neurobiological basis of suicide is in delineating the risk factors associated with suicide. The Neurobiological Basis of Suicide focuses on how and why these neurobiological factors are crucial in the pathogenic mechanisms of suicidal behavior and how these findings can be transformed into potential therapeutic applications.

Reducing Suicide
Reducing Suicide

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2002-10-01

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 0309169437

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Every year, about 30,000 people die by suicide in the U.S., and some 650,000 receive emergency treatment after a suicide attempt. Often, those most at risk are the least able to access professional help. Reducing Suicide provides a blueprint for addressing this tragic and costly problem: how we can build an appropriate infrastructure, conduct needed research, and improve our ability to recognize suicide risk and effectively intervene. Rich in data, the book also strikes an intensely personal chord, featuring compelling quotes about people's experience with suicide. The book explores the factors that raise a person's risk of suicide: psychological and biological factors including substance abuse, the link between childhood trauma and later suicide, and the impact of family life, economic status, religion, and other social and cultural conditions. The authors review the effectiveness of existing interventions, including mental health practitioners' ability to assess suicide risk among patients. They present lessons learned from the Air Force suicide prevention program and other prevention initiatives. And they identify barriers to effective research and treatment. This new volume will be of special interest to policy makers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, and journalists working in the field of mental health.

Cracked, Not Broken
Cracked, Not Broken

Author: Kevin Hines

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781442222403

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This work is about the art of living mentally well. Told through the first-hand experience of mental health advocate, activist and speaker Kevin Hines (who has bipolar disorder), the story is an honest account of the struggle to live mentally well, and teach others how to do t...

Suicide
Suicide

Author: Ronald M. Holmes

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2005-07-27

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1452264201

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Suicide is an ageless concern that has been with us as long as man has existed. Forbidden by all religions, suicide has nonetheless become such a practical problem that it is now an everyday concern, resulting in more annual deaths than homicide. Suicide must be seen as a societal and personal problem—it is a complex act with no simple explanation. The motivation is multifaceted, often not understood by the family or by other survivors. Suicide: Theory, Practice and Investigation is the only text available in paperback form that offers an accessible overview of suicide in the United States. Written by Ronald M. Holmes and Stephen T. Holmes, two of the foremost authors of murder and violent crime books in the world, this book examines the social problem and criminal justice concerns of suicide from unique perspectives. The authors discuss the various forms of suicide and analyze the latest data on regional differences and how gender, marital status, occupation, health, drug use, and religion all influence the practice of suicide. Key Features: Analyzes suicide letters to provide students with unique perspectives not found in other books Covers investigative techniques that will be of interest to professionals and students alike Includes carefully selected photos to explicate the material covered Categorizes suicide into different types including anomic, egoistic, altruistic, and fatalistic to distinguish the various reasons for which people have taken their own lives Integrates notes within the chapters to show the state of mind for those who commit suicide Explores learnings from suicidal behavior to help readers recognize how better to prevent the practice Suicide is designed for undergraduate and graduate courses in departments of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Psychology, and Forensic Science. In addition, it can also be used for a variety of other courses, including Psychopathology, Sociology of Deviance, Abnormal Psychology, and Violent Crimes. This book will also be of interest to anyone looking for a clear understanding of the extent of suicide in the United States.

Guns and Suicide
Guns and Suicide

Author: Michael D. Anestis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-01-08

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0190675071

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The majority of gun deaths in the United States are suicide deaths, and the majority of suicide deaths are gun deaths. Most people are unaware that suicide, at nearly 43,000 deaths per year, is more common than homicide and other widely publicized tragedies. And yet, suicide is typically absent from discussions of gun violence. As such, the national conversation on gun violence is inadequate and unrelated to the majority of gun deaths in this country. In Guns and Suicide, Michael Anestis reframes our perspective on gun violence by shifting the focus to suicide. Guns play a uniquely profound role in American suicide, and Anestis explains how they have this effect-not by making otherwise non-suicidal people want to die, but by facilitating suicide attempts among suicidal individuals. He reviews the evidence - in suicide and other public health concerns - that focusing on specific means for contracting an unwanted outcome (e.g., HIV) can successfully reduce the frequency of that outcome. With suicide, this could mean the passage of legislation related to firearm ownership and storage, non-legislative encouragement of safe storage of private firearms, voluntary and temporary removal of firearms from the home during times of distress, or a combination of these factors. Importantly, this is not a book about gun control. Anestis does not argue in favor of tighter restrictions on ownership, assault weapon bans, or longer waiting periods for purchase because these will not substantially reduce the staggering gun suicide rate. Rather, Anestis aims for a cultural shift towards suicide-specific safe gun ownership and puts forth unemotional suggestions in hopes of leveraging common ground in the pursuit of a lower suicide rate.