Reviews (2)

Very Difficult Reading for a Survivor
This book is insightful, yet it proves to be difficult reading for a survivor dealing with the immediate loss of a loved one. The statistics come across cold and sometimes uncaring.It may be more suitable for astudent of suicidology, than someone in pain seeking solace and validation.

Best written book I've read on the subject of suicide.
This book is truly different from the usual books written about suicide. It not a book about statistics nor a book about the religious issues surrounding the suicide of a loved one.Read more

Subjects:  1. Psychology    2. Psychopathology - General    3. Religious aspects    4. Sociological aspects    5. Suicidal Behavior    6. Suicide    7. Behavioural theory (Behaviourism)   

Reviews (2)

Expertly Written
An exceptional book written with great sensitivity.This is an informative, helpful, extremely well written book.The author has researched the subject extensively and her excellent writing is down to earth and friendly.I would highly highly recommend this book to one and all.

Title is Misleading
The title of this book, survivors of suicide, is extremely misleading.Having recently lost a sister to suicide, I bought this book to try to find some answers and/or support.Instead, reading this book made me feel more guilty and horrible then ever.A couple chapters are devoted to stories and stuff about survivors, but the majority of the book is about who is prone to suicide, how to prevent it, myths (i.e. don't ignore suicide threats)...I finished the book feeling that I was at fault for my sister's suicide.I would recommend that NO suicide survivors read this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bereavement    2. Death, Grief, Bereavement    3. Family relationships    4. Psychological aspects    5. Psychology    6. Self-Help    7. Suicide    8. Suicide victims    9. Coping with death & bereavement   

Reviews (1)

Illuminates a dark and difficult topic
I find it hard to say that a book about suicide is a good read but this diminutive collection of essays about the meaning of suicide made a big impression on me.In the preface to Leaving You: The Cultural Meaning of Suicide, Lisa Lieberman says, "The thread that runs through all [five essays] is my appreciation of self-destruction as a meaningful gesture, a statement that holds more than private significance.A statement, moreover, that is essentially subversive...This book charts the tension between society's interest in restraining suicide's disruptive power and the individual's freedom to determine the meaning of his own death."Read more

Subjects:  1. Human behavior    2. Psychology    3. Self-destructive behavior    4. Sociology - General    5. Sociology Of Mental Health    6. Suicidal Behavior    7. Suicide    8. Psychology & Psychiatry / Suicide   

Subjects:  1. Suicide    2. Psychoanalysis    3. Psychology Of Sexuality    4. Psychology    5. Psychoanalysis and homosexuali    6. Gay studies (Gay men)    7. Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory    8. Sexual behaviour    9. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    10. Gay Studies    11. Human Sexuality    12. Psychoanalysis and homosexuality    13. Homosexuality    14. Homosexuality, Male   

Subjects:  1. Mental Health    2. Prevention    3. Psychological aspects    4. Psychology    5. Suicidal Behavior    6. Suicide    7. Treatment    8. Clinical psychology    9. Death & dying    10. Neurology & clinical neurophysiology    11. Psychology & Psychiatry / General   

Subjects:  1. Diaries    2. Katie,    3. Psychological aspects    4. Psychology    5. Psychopathology - General    6. Psychotherapy - General    7. Suicide    8. Suicide victims    9. d. 1995    10. Psychology & Psychiatry / Pathological Psychology   

Reviews (1)

Needed addition in suicide literature
This is the first book I've seen that looks at a suicide attempt from the family's perspective.In so doing, it acknowledges the family's terror, the stigma issues the family faces, and the family's love for their child as they struggle to try to understand and help.Read more

Subjects:  1. Child Care/Parenting    2. Depression    3. Family & Relationships    4. Family/Marriage    5. General    6. Life Stages - Infants & Toddlers/Toddlers    7. Life Stages - Teenagers    8. Parent and teenager    9. Prevention    10. Self-Help    11. Suicidal behavior    12. Suicide    13. Youth    14. Child care & upbringing    15. Self-Help / Substance Abuse   

Reviews (3)

From the editorial review:
"Provides an excellent jumping-off point", talk about your poor choices of words!

An excellent well-written overview of suicide
To the previous reviewer, you can't rate a book by it's cover! Did you even read this book? Or did you give it a low rating because you don't like that Kurt Cobain is on the cover? This is a really thorough yet concise overview of a subject. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about suicide.

Poster child of suicide?
Kurt Cobain was much more than just the poster child of suicide that he seems to have become. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Mental Health    2. Prevention    3. Psychology    4. Psychopathology - General    5. Suicidal Behavior    6. Suicide   

Subjects:  1. Bereavement    2. Christianity    3. Christianity - Christian Life - Suffering & Grief    4. Consolation    5. Grief    6. Psychology of Religion    7. Religion    8. Religion - Christian Life    9. Religious aspects    10. Suicide    11. Personal Christian testimony & popular inspirational works    12. Psychology & Psychiatry / General   

Reviews (6)

How suicide has been viewed down through the ages
Fatal Freedom: The Ethics And Politics Of Suicide by Thomas Szasz (Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse) is a thoughtful and persuasively written defense of the individual's right to voluntarily choose the time and manner of their own death. Criticizing the inhumanity of the established legal and medical policy prohibiting suicide for any reason allows extensive and widespread suffering, Fatal Freedom also reveals how suicide has been viewed down through the ages alongside other social practices about which public perception has changed. Very strongly recommended for academic and community library social issues collections in general, and psychology/health reference sections in particular, Fatal Freedom presents an emphatic presentation not to be ignored.

An honest and compassionate defense of suicide
Thomas Szasz is one of century's brilliant social thinkers. He's best known for his criticism of psychiatric pseudo-science and coercive practices, but his intellectual reach is vast. In this remarkable book about suicide he defends the right of individuals to control their bodiesand lives -- including the ways they choose to die. He takes issue withphysicians having the power to determine our fate and places the choice andresponsibility for suicide into the hands of the individual. He would enddrug prohibition (including limits on access to prescription drugs), andpermit adults (not children) to obtain the drugs necessary to commitsuicide. He presents a convincing argument that physician-assisted suicidetakes us farther from personal autonomy, making us more dependent andvulnerable. He notes that about a quarter of physicians in Holland, wherephysician-induced euthanasia is common, admit to having killed a patientwithout asking for the person's permission. As I write this review theAmerican Medical Association is enlarging its interest in suicideprevention, but Szasz points out that doctors and psychiatrists commitsuicide at much higher ratest than the general population. Szasz asksreaders to look to the historical record of physician participation ineuthanasia (Nazi germany, for instance) to see what moral depravity andmortal mayham have resulted. Szasz flatly supports the right of anindividual to commit suicide without interference from physicians,psychiatrists or government. As is always true with Szasz writings, thisbook is tightly reasoned and beautifully written. It is a work of greatcompassion and honesty.

Szasz clarifies ethical and practical aspects of suicide
If you are bewildered by the debates over physician-assisted suicide, suicide prevention, and the legal right to suicide, then this book should answer your questions. Szasz demonstrates clearly and logically what a messwe have made of dying and how we can choose ethical, compassionate optionsthat give power to the dying rather than to government and physicians. Whyshould individuals be deprived of the right to the means of dependable,dignified suicide? What are the dangers of giving doctors the power andtools to kill people? Why are physicians --who are themselves three timesmore likely to commit suicide than the general population-- the appropriatepersons to engage in "suicide prevention"? How is the "waron drugs" stripping us of the power to control pain and death? Szasztackles these and many other questions. He points out that in Holland,where physician-assisted suicide in common, 23 percent of physicians saythey have participated in the killing of a patient WHO DID NOT AGREE TO BEKILLED. Is this compassionate medicine or nazi-style euthanasia? Szaszprovides convincing answers to the complete array of questions surroundingsuicide. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied Ethics    2. Ethics    3. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    4. Medical / Nursing    5. Moral and ethical aspects    6. Philosophy    7. Suicidal Behavior    8. Suicide    9. Medical / Public Health    10. Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy   

Subjects:  1. Psychology    2. Suicide   

Reviews (1)

The book is excellent.There isn't another one like it.
The book talks to young people where they are. The stories are moving and very real.I feel anyone of any age would do well to read it.Read more

Subjects:  1. Case studies    2. Christianity    3. Inspirational    4. Inspirational - General    5. Religious aspects    6. Suicidal behavior    7. Suicide    8. Teenagers    9. United States   

Reviews (7)

Start here sociology student
This is still considered the first book on sociological theory.Not only does Durkheim provide us with a working model to use social statistics to draw very strong inference but if one reads carefully between the lines, he provides us with theoretical rhetoric as well as the afore-mentioned practical design.Durkheim was overall pessimistic; he saw the forces of society as overwhelming to the individual and makes little or no provision for escape (unlike Marx).Suicide, in Durkheim's view, was merely a symptom of a greater sociological ill.But unlike those who had come before him, Durkheim based his sociological assertions on solid empirical evidence and helped create an entire new science, which like the "hard" sciences, was based on the collection of data and research.Next time you read a report which links household income to education attainment, or prison rates among African Americans to a never-ending drug war, remember Emile Durkheim.He was first.

The best and first tutorial to the sociology
Durkheim says at the beginning; the sociology is the current science, but nobody knows what it is.Even now, his words sound contemporary.This study aims at introducing the necessity and importance of the sociology to the public, but not at sophisticatedly professional people. PIONEERING WORK IN SOCIOLOGY
This is the work considered the pioneer of modern sociology, with its author hailed the father of sociology.The innovative nature of the work lies in putting together all the methods of social analysis available at his time and providing a comprehensive view of the nature of suicide in society.Read more

Subjects:  1. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    2. Sociological aspects    3. Sociology    4. Sociology - General    5. Suicide    6. Social Science / General    7. Sociology, Social Studies   

Reviews (1)

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

Subjects:  1. Congresses    2. Prevention    3. Psychology    4. Suicide   

Subjects:  1. Europe    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Social history    6. Suicidal behavior    7. Suicide    8. Western Europe - General    9. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)    10. Western Continental Europe   

Subjects:  1. Clinical Geriatric Psychology    2. Health/Fitness    3. Long-term care    4. Mental Health    5. Older people    6. Prevention    7. Psychology    8. Suicidal Behavior    9. Suicide    10. United States   

Subjects:  1. Christianity    2. Christianity - Christian Life - General    3. Christianity - Christian Life - Suffering & Grief    4. Death, Grief, Bereavement    5. Depression    6. Psychological aspects    7. Psychology    8. Religion    9. Religious aspects    10. Suicide    11. United States    12. Religion / Christian Life   

Reviews (9)

A Compassionate, Compelling, and Personal Warning Against Euthanasia
Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith pierces the emotionalism, fear mongering, and euphemisms that are the standard fare of the assisted suicide movement to expose its attempt to strip the sick and disabled of their dignity.Far from a compassionate answer to suffering, assisted suicide is a new form of oppression.
Right Ideas but for the Wrong Reasons
I am giving this book 5 stars so as not to drive people away. I want people to read it. Its an important book. However, I have a problem with its ideology. While it gives a nod to "free-thinkers", this book clearly has a pro-life agenda and derives some of its beliefs from the religious right. As a person with a disbility, I was enthralled to see a book connecting the euthanasia of the past with today's "physician assisted suicide" movement. I am also glad that they take exception with Peter Singer who for some reason is all over the media as a moral ethicist when he promotes the euthanasia of severely disabled children.However, the chapter on the Netherlands loses me.The book stating that the Netherlands legalizing marijuana and prostitution, two commomn sense measures to get rid of victimless crimes lead to their recent laws allowing the euthanization of disbled children just doesn't hold weight. The Nazis were not exactly propopents of sexual freedom so I don't believe that creating a freer society automatically leads to physicians being allowed to decide whether a person has the credentials to be worthy of life. Rather than a pro-choice take on the subject I'd like to see a book focusing on the disability perspective and that many people with newly acquired disabilities who at first believe that life is not living gradually accept their life and move on. However, for pointing out that the euthanasia movement began in the U.S. and not Nazi Germany and that some of the people that Dr. Kevorkian murdered (yes murdered) were people who had depression and not a terminal illness or severe untreatable pain, I commend this book. Its just that by taking a "pro-choice" stance this book alienates people who might otherwise take a stand against this widening threat to people with disabilities.

Exposing the culture of death
This is a revision and expansion of his earlier work of 1999. In it he brings up to date recent developments in the euthanasia wars. But the same concern for where society is heading, and the same call for action is found in this volume.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Assisted suicide    2. Death & Dying    3. Death / Grief / Consolation    4. Ethics    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Sociology - General    8. Suicide   

Reviews (1)

An important contribution to the study of suicide
In this best-selling book, eminent suicidologist David Lester offers a startling look at what we know about adolescent suicide - the third leading cause of death among young people in the U.S. - and what we can do to prevent it. Through case studies and a detailed review of the literature, Lester opens the doors to understanding this tragedy and gives us the knowledge necessary for successful intervention.Read more

Subjects:  1. Developmental - Adolescent    2. Mental Health    3. Psychology    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. Sociology - General    7. Suicidal behavior    8. Suicide    9. Teenagers    10. United States    11. Youth Suicide   

Subjects:  1. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    2. Moral and ethical aspects    3. Philosophy    4. Psychological aspects    5. Psychology    6. Suicide    7. Coping with death & bereavement