Review by Choice Review
Delving into the extremely enigmatic nature of suicide is the focus of Joiner's important new work. Why many more men do it than women, why more suicides occur in peacetimes than during wars, and why some individuals, without any histories of depression, suddenly take their lives are just a few of the bewildering facts about suicide. Building on the past literature of suicide theories, Joiner (psychology, Florida State Univ.) offers a highly provocative and well-reasoned view for suicide motivations, emphasizing perceived burdensomeness, a sense of isolation, social ineffectualness, and an acquired ability to overcome one's self-preserving urges. Joiner's analysis marshals support for this theory from the confounding available array of research data and clinical and anecdotal evidence about suicides. Throughout the work, this author, a most accomplished professional psychologist, shows great skill in conveying analytic complexities clearly to nonprofessionals. Interweaving his own personal experience as a survivor of his father's suicide, Joiner offers valuable reflection on one of the inescapable questions haunting all survivors. For scholars and nonscholars alike, anyone giving serious thought to suicide causation will find this book especially illuminating and rewarding. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. W. Feigelman Nassau Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Guggenheim Award winner Joiner (psychology, Florida State Univ.) provides a fascinating contribution to psychological literature that is certain to join the ranks of ?mile Durkheim's Suicide and Karl Menninger's Man Against Himself. Not only has Joiner established professional prominence in suicidology, but he also has a profound personal relationship with the subject: his own father died by suicide. Drawing on the pain of this experience as well as on clinical and epidemiological evidence, Joiner has managed to conduct significant research into why some people die by suicide, while others survive their attempts at self-annihilation. His persuasive thesis is that practice, mental and physical, is what separates the completers from the attempters. In particular, those who have become desensitized to physical pain are most likely to orchestrate their own deaths successfully. Joiner also identifies perceived burdensomeness, little sense of belonging, genetics, neurobiology, and mental disorders as contributors to suicidality and completion. Akin to Kay Redfield Jamison's superb Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, this book is strongly recommended for all university and public library collections.-Lynne F. Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
