AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), 62, 73–74, 103, 109, 121, 324, 522
AAS (American Association of Suicidology), 116, 118, 201, 258, 304, 309, 310, 350–51, 417, 524
Abimelech (biblical figure), 151
Abram, Morris, 368
accidie, 162
active listening, 287
Addison, Joseph, 166
Adkins, Janet, 376, 378, 379, 382, 384, 385, 399, 572n
Adler, Alfred, 188
Admiraal, Pieter, 390–91
“Admonitions of a Sage,” 129–31
adolescent depression, 41–43, 321, 322, 331
adolescent suicide, 15–126
of African Americans, 252–53
antidepressant medication and, 3, 57, 319, 321–22
attempts vs. completion of, 38–39, 95–97, 438
case histories, 15–37, 59–79, 93–94, 97–110, 121–26, 518–20
causality of, 39–58
childhood trauma and, 45, 60, 61, 252–53
clusters of, 2, 11, 39, 78–83, 85–86, 87, 92, 114–15, 116, 259
cultural influences on, 53–55, 86–92, 139, 542n–43n
depression as factor in, 41–43, 322
home location of, 95
as impulsive act, 48–49
in Japan, 139
of males vs. females, 38, 39, 97, 260, 264
mother-infant bonding issues linked with, 46–47
parental loss and, 43–44
parents’ divorces after, 125
peer reactions to, 31–34, 36, 37, 81, 123–24, 126
prevention programs on, 2, 32, 37, 79, 111–20, 259, 260–61
psychiatric hospitalization and, 63–65, 71–72, 103–4, 105–10
rates of, 2, 3, 11, 37–39, 51, 56–57, 197, 252, 314, 539n
serotonin dysfunction in, 47–48
sexual-identity concerns and, 48, 66, 101–2, 264–66
substance abuse and, 46, 48, 62, 73–74, 93, 99–100, 101, 103–5, 106
triggering events of, 48–49
Viennese psychoanalytic panel on, 86, 188
adrenaline junkies, 275
advance directives, 371–72
adversity, responses to, 222, 256
AEA (autoerotic asphyxiation), 83
Aedesius, 152
African Americans, 234–35, 251–58, 263, 557n–58n
African Homicide and Suicide (Bohannan), 85
African tribal cultures, 131–32, 133, 135, 364
Age of Reason, The (Paine), 87
aggression, psychoanalytic theories of, 188, 189–90
aggressive behavior:
antidepressants in reduction of, 320
mass media violence coverage vs., 542n
serotonin function vs., 196
suppression of, 245
in young male suicides, 47–48
Ahithophel (biblical figure), 152
AIDS, 38, 263–64, 270, 384, 386–87, 429
air hunger, 406
Alaska, high suicide rate of, 247
Albigensians, 155
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 62, 73–74, 103, 109, 121, 324, 522
Alexander, Leo, 421
Alexander III (the Great), King of Macedon, 136
Allen, Nancy, 351
Al-Queda, 186
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), 382
Alvarez, A.:
on Donne’s suicidality, 161, 162
on family history of suicide attempts, 230, 496
on history of suicide, 85, 268
on impulsive behavior, 445
on logic of suicide, 229–30, 250
on painless methods, 234
suicide attempted by, 230
on triggering events, 49
Alzheimer’s disease:
mercy killing and, 570n
suicide of people with, 378, 575n
Amboyna, 431
Ambrose, Saint, 548n
American Association of Suicidology (AAS), 116, 118, 201, 258, 304, 309, 310, 350–51, 417, 524
American Psychiatric Association (APA), 262, 326–27, 438
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), 389
Amish, suicide study of, 198
amygdala, 194
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 382
Anatomy of Melancholy, The (Burton), 162, 267–68
Anatomy of Suicide, The (Winslow), 179
anesthetics, 366, 416, 490, 574n
anger:
of suicidal persons, 491
of survivors, 491–92, 500, 520
animals:
bereavement behavior exhibited by, 489
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 353
anomic suicide, 187, 188, 255, 551n
anorexia nervosa, 273
Anthony, Saint, 153
anticonvulsant medications, 320, 564n
antidepressants, 318–23
compliance rates on, 320, 564n
development of, 3, 195, 318–20
dosage levels of, 320
efficacy of, 320–21
in Japan, 143
lethal potential of, 320
pediatric prescriptions of, 3, 57, 319, 321–22
psychotherapy vs., 318, 322–23, 439
rollback phase in use of, 320
SSRIs, 3, 143, 192, 319, 320–23, 331
suicidality allegedly induced by, 3, 57, 321–22, 539n
antiretroviral medications, 264
anxiety attacks, 490
APA (American Psychiatric Association), 262, 326–27, 438
Appointment with Doctor Death (Betzold), 572n
April, highest suicide rates in, 249
Arango, Victoria, 191–92, 193, 197, 200–201
Arapaho, 259
Arizona, suicide rate of, 247
Arluke, Arnold, 437
Arnold, Alice, 300–301
Aronowitz, Eugene, 79
Arras, John, 445
Arroyo Seco Bridge, 342
Artaud, Antonin, 226
“Arts, The” (Hippocrates), 365
asceticism, 153, 154, 547n, 560n
Asimos, Chrisula, 324
assimilation, cultural, 248, 251, 256–57
assisted suicide, see euthanasia
atonement:
Hebrew scapegoat ritual of, 492
Aubrey of Wystelesburg, 467
Auenbrugger, Leopold, 179
Auer (German physician), 422
Augustine, Saint, 154, 156, 203, 414
Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 365
Auschwitz, 222
Australia:
aboriginal tribes of, 275
voluntary euthanasia in, 410, 573n
Austria:
suicide attempts prosecuted in, 164
autoerotic asphyxiation (AEA), 83
auto fatalities, 273–74, 354, 542n
autonomy, 418–19, 424, 425, 435–36
see also free will
AUTONOMY, Inc., 435
Aymara Indians, 365
Aztecs, 135
baby boomers, 432
Bacon, Francis, 366
Baganda, 131–32
balance-sheet suicide (Bilanz-Selbstmord), 417
Baldwin, James, 253
Balogh, David, 92
Baltus, Ellen, 388
Bancroft, Anne, 305
Bannaus, 132
baptism, 152
barbiturate suicides:
access limitations on, 346–47, 392, 408
in euthanasia, 375, 376, 385, 386–87, 388, 392–93, 399, 402, 408, 410, 411
plastic-bag methods vs., 399, 408, 411
Barbusse, Henri, 270
Barnard, Christiaan, 374, 375, 571n
Barnes, Donna Holland, 557n–58n
Barnett, Isobel, 223
Barraclough, Brian, 438
Barrington, Mary Rose, 436
Bartling, William, 571n
Batavia, Andrew, 435–36
Battie, William, 178
Battin, Margaret Pabst, 419, 442, 444–45
Beachy Head, cliffs at, 341
Beaumont, Louis de, 164
Beccaria, Cesare, 172
Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI), 314
Beddoes, Thomas, 175
befriending, 294
behavioral psychological therapies, 314, 323
Belarus, suicide rate of, 246
Belgium, euthanasia practices legalized in, 573n
Bell Jar, The (Plath), 229
Benin, sacrificial suicides in, 135
Bentham, Jeremy, 167
Berdyaev, Nicholas, 415
Bergman, Ingmar, 518
Berman, Alan, 49, 50, 54, 543n
Berryman, John, 495
Best in Show, 523
Betzold, M., 572n
Beyle, François-Marie (Voltaire), 167, 168–69, 174, 469
Biathanatos (Donne), 161–62, 165, 267, 420
Bicêtre mental institution, 180, 334
Bilanz-Selbstmord (balance-sheet suicide), 417
Bills of Mortality, 182
Billy Budd (Melville), 569n
Binding, Karl, 367
Binet-Sanglé (French physician), 444
Binstock, Robert, 433
Binswanger, Ludwig, 531
bipolar disorder (manic depression):
dialectical behavior therapy for, 323
failure of treatment for, 492
medications for, 64, 229, 318, 319–20, 353
substance abuse and, 272
suicidality vs., 41
black bile, 194
Black Panthers, 254
Blair, Robert, 174
blame, 492
bleeding, medical technique of, 271
blister packaging, 347
Boismont, Brierre de, 181, 183, 184
Boldt, Menno, 354
Bolivia, Aymara Indians of, 365
Bolton, Edmund, 267
Bolton, Iris, 475
Bonger, W. A., 562n
Booth, William, 293
borderline personality disorder, 41, 323, 351
Borneo, suicide beliefs of, 133
Bostrom, Alan, 336
Boswell, James, 173–74
Boudin, 184
Boys in the Band, The (Crowley), 261
Bracton, Henry de, 156
brain development, childhood trauma effects on, 45
serotonin depletion examined in, 47, 192–93, 196–97
Brandt, Richard, 417
Breed, Warren, 255
Breitbart, William, 429
Brent, David, 198
Brentano, Clemens, 177
bridge suicides, 238, 340–41, 342–46, 349, 353, 561n, 567n, 568n
Brodow, Richard, 32, 33, 35, 123, 125
Brokaw, Tom, 79
Broken Connection, The (Lifton), 226–27
Brown, Bertram, 307
Brown, Herbert, 357
Bruller, Jean, 573n
Bruno, Saint, 155
Buber, Martin, 336–37
Bucknill, J. C., 550n
Buddhism, 135, 137, 142, 235, 323, 397
Budgell, Eustace, 166
bulimia, 273
Bunzel, B., 548n
Burma, euthanasia practices in, 364
Burning Brand, The (Pavese), 228, 555n
Burrows, George Man, 88
Burton, Robert, 162–63, 267–68
Bush, George W., 374
Bushido, 137
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 87, 175, 176
Cabanis, Pierre-Jean-Georges, 178, 184
Caesar, Gaius Julius, 148
Cain, James M., 233
Calas, Jean, 475
Calas, Marc-Antoine, 468–69, 475
California:
euthanasia ballot initiative in, 385
suicide rate of, 247
California Supreme Court, on pastoral counseling, 337
Call to the Tempted, A (Mather), 165
Cambodian culture, 132
Camus, Albert, 204
Canada:
Inuit population of, 260–61
suicide rate of, 260
cancer patients:
deaths of, 368, 377, 386, 387, 388, 447, 451–52
depression of, 429
Candon, Jim, 72
Canedo, Ignacio, 349–50
Cantor, Pamela, 39, 47, 50, 55–56, 81, 338–39
Capel, Richard, 567n–68n
capital punishment, 150, 276, 383, 415
Caplan, Arthur, 572n
carbon monoxide poisoning, 238, 346, 354, 379, 410, 570n
Carll, Elizabeth, 541n
Carrington, Dora, 222
Carroll, James, 277–78
case histories:
Brian Hart, 59–80, 110, 122, 320, 541n
Dana Evans (fictitious name), 93–94, 97–110, 121, 130
Ishams (fictitious names), 446–52
Justin Spoonhour, 15–37, 39–40, 48, 49, 59, 79–80, 111, 122–26, 130
Lisa Courtney, 230–32, 512, 513, 517, 518–20
Merryl Maleska, 455–65, 477–87, 502–12, 513, 514–15, 516, 527–30, 535–36, 580n
Peter Newell (fictitious name), 209–20
Casper, Sally, 49
Cassidy, James, 336
Castaldo, Charles, Jr., 79
categorical imperative, 172
Catholic Church:
on passive euthanasia, 370
social community of, 186
suicide condemned by, 87, 203, 272, 275, 475
see also Christianity
Catholics, suicide rates of, 186, 246
Cato, Marcus Porcius, 2, 5, 148–49, 150, 166, 200, 268
Cavan, Ruth, 249
celibacy, 547n—48n
Celts, 134
Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention (CSSP), 304–5, 307, 308, 310, 473
Ceos, state-sponsored suicide of, 147, 159, 443
cerebrospinal fluid, serotonin depletion seen in, 193, 195–96
Charleton, Walter, 268
Charondas, 145
Chateaubriand, François-Auguste-René de, 87, 175–76
Chatterton (Vigny), 176
Chatterton, Thomas, 175
chemotherapy, 433
Chesterton, G. K., 367
Chevalier, Thomas, 181
Cheyenne Indians, 259–60
Chicago, Ill., North Shore suicide cluster in, 80, 116
childhood:
depression in, 41–43, 321, 331
grief process in, 497–99, 581n
guilt inducement in, 245
trauma experienced in, 45, 60, 61, 252–53, 495
see also adolescent suicide
child-rearing, styles of, 52, 98, 245
Children’s Hour, The (Hellman), 261
Chinese cultures, suicide practices in, 133, 135, 248
Chippewa, 259
chlorpromazine (Thorazine), 63, 318–19, 518
Christianity:
on euthanasia, 160, 370, 414–15
fundamentalist, 414–15
martyrdom in, 1, 152–54, 155, 275, 547n, 548n
suicide as sin in, 1, 87, 131, 132, 151, 154–57, 158, 159, 162, 163, 177, 203–4, 272, 275, 414–15, 475
on value of suffering, 154, 416
chronic illnesses, 433, 434, 438
Chu, James, 328
Chukchee, 134
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 148–49
cities, suicide rates in, 249
City of God (Augustine), 154
“Civil Commitment of the Mentally Ill,” 354
see also right to die
Clark, Brian, 369
Cleanthes, 147
Clement, Mary, 434
Clement of Alexandria, Saint, 153, 267
Cleombrotus, 146
Cleomenes III, King of Sparta, 145
clergymen, psychological counseling by, 336–38
climate, 173–74, 177–78, 183–84, 249–50, 550n
Clinton, Bill, 380
Clinton, Hillary, 380
Clough, Arthur Hugh, 369
clozapine, 319
Club of Life, 414
clusters, suicides occurring in, 2, 11, 36, 37, 39, 78–92, 114–15, 341–42
Cobain, Kurt, 92
Coconut Grove, 1942 fire at, 488
COGEN, 410
cognitive behavior therapy, 314, 323
Cohen, George, 111–14, 116, 117, 118, 119
Cohen-Sandler, Roni, 50
coke gas, 346
Coleman, Diane, 435
Collins, Judy, 474
Colorado, suicide rates of, 247
Columbine High School, murder/suicides at, 2, 90, 225
comatose patients, 369–74, 416, 570n, 571n
Commentaries on the Laws of England (Blackstone), 468
Common-Sense Suicide (Portwood), 395, 434, 443, 448
Community Mental Health Centers Act (1963), 334
Compassion & Choices, 409, 410
Compassionate Friends, 521
Compassion in Dying, 386, 387, 388, 405–7, 408, 409, 410, 411, 427–28, 429
Compassion in Dying (Lee), 387
competition, pressures of, 139, 245
concentration camps, 222, 553n–54n, 570n
Congolese tribal deaths, 431
Congress, U.S., Schiavo case addressed by, 373–74
Connolly, Cyril, 472
Conolly, Matthew, 437
consumerism, 52–53
Conwell, Yeates, 439
Coser, Rose, 565n
Costa Rica, low suicide rate of, 246
Council of Arles (452), 154, 155
Council of Braga (563), 155, 475
Council of Orleans (533), 154–55
Council of Toledo (693), 155
countertransference, 328
country music, 244
Courtney, Lisa, 230–32, 512, 513, 517, 518–20, 522, 525, 532, 533
Courtney, Liz, 512, 515, 517–22, 532–33
Courtney, Peter, 512, 513, 517–21, 525–26, 532
Crane, Hart, 11
Creeks, 259
criminal prosecution, euthanasia assistance subject to, 363, 375, 376, 382–83, 385, 389–90, 394, 396, 403–4, 572n
criminals, suicides of, 150, 222–23
crisis hotlines, 9, 37, 142, 281–90, 305, 309–11, 317, 439, 562n–63n
crossroads burials, 131, 132, 136, 167, 467, 553n
Crowley, Mart, 261
Cry for Help, A (Giffin and Felsenthal), 47, 96, 97
CSSP (Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention), 304–5, 307, 308, 310, 473
Curphey, Theodore, 301–2
“Custome of the Ile of Cea, A” (Montaigne), 159
cutting behaviors, 271, 518–19, 520
Cynics, 151
Cyran, Saint, 163
Dahomey natives, suicide disposal of, 132
Dakotas, 133
Darkness Visible (Styron), 44, 229, 474
Darwin, Charles, 409
Daube, David, 267
Dean, James, 274
death:
of cancer patients, 368, 377, 387, 447, 451–52
children’s comprehension of, 498, 581n
classical views of, 146, 148–49, 151, 365–66
with dignity, 365, 383, 386–88, 575n
five emotional stages prior to, 488
five medical-legal modes of, 268–69, 301–2
in home vs. institution, 368, 442
life after, 130, 131, 132–33, 134, 135, 137, 152, 154, 226
magical thinking about, 49–50, 540n
as medical failure, 368, 441, 570n
medieval view of, 158
physicians’ anxieties about, 441
as public spectacle, 151
Renaissance concept of, 158–59
Romantic idealization of, 175–76
technological advances in delay of, 368–75, 415, 431–32, 571n
three leading causes of, 367–68
death instinct, 189–90, 205, 269–70
Death of a Salesman (Miller), 273
death penalty, 150, 276, 383, 415
Death with Dignity Act (1994), 421
abuse concerns in, 426–31, 434, 435
Compassion in Dying assistance with, 405–7
death certificate required by, 419
deaths conducted under, 385–88
euthanasia methods of, 388–89
palliative care issues and, 441
qualification safeguards of, 385, 422, 427–30, 576n
statistics on usage of, 385–86, 426–27, 434
Supreme Court ruling expected on, 4
Deer Hunter, The, 87–88
Definition of Suicide (Shneidman), 317, 338
Defoe, Daniel, 84
deinstitutionalization, 335, 336
DeLaValliere, Robbie, 33–34, 78, 87–88
DeLay, Tom, 373
Deliverance, 410
demonic possession, 154, 155, 548n
Demosthenes, 145
Denmark, suicide in, 245, 246, 248, 252
dentists, suicide completed by, 235, 250, 251
dependency-loss suicides, 245
depression:
African-Americans views of, 257
alternative therapies for, 323
biological components of, 3, 47, 193, 194, 195–97, 495
of cancer patients, 429
in children and adolescents, 41–43, 321, 322, 331
circadian rhythm of, 250
in elderly, 417, 418, 429, 439
electroconvulsive therapy for, 565n
euthanasia wishes vs., 418, 420, 425–26, 428, 429–30
genetic susceptibility to, 495
historical views of, 162
incidence of, 41
in Japanese culture, 142–43
managed-care treatments of, 331, 566n
masked, 42
medication therapy for, 3, 57, 143, 192, 195, 318, 319–23, 331, 439, 539n, 564n
misdiagnosis of, 331
as personal weakness, 257
of physicians, 251
postpartum, 225
psychic pain of, 228–32
psychotherapy in treatment of, 323–26, 439
religious condemnation of, 337
seasonal, 250
serotonin abnormalities linked to, 47, 193
somatic treatments for, 194–95, 555n, 565n
substance abuse vs., 272
suicidality vs., 41, 42–43, 112, 318, 539n
Desecration of the Corpse, The, 466–67
Des Maladies Mentales (Esquirol), 178–79
Deykin, Eva, 45
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 41, 262, 318
dialectical behavioral therapy, 323
Dial Hotline, 305
dialysis, 433
Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, 282
disabled persons, euthanasia legalization as threat to, 367, 421, 435–36, 577n
disaster syndrome, 490
Discourse on Death, A (Tuke), 163
disease epidemics, suicides spurred by, 84
“Dispute Between a Man and His Ba, The,” 129–30
Divine Comedy (Dante), 156–57
divorce rates, 51, 125, 186, 253
Dizmang, Larry, 259
Donne, John, 161–62, 163, 165, 168, 267, 415, 420, 548n
do-not-resuscitate (DNR) policies, 372, 374, 442
dopamine, 195
Dora (Freud’s patient), 189
Dorpat, T. L., 498
Double Exit (Wickett), 395
Double Indemnity (Cain), 233
of Arthur and Cynthia Koestler, 392–93, 418–19, 575n
of elderly, 225, 404, 446, 448, 450
Japanese practice of, 139–40, 143
Douglas, Jack, 204
Dowcett, Eileen, 512
Dowcett, Philip, 512
drapetomania, 557n
dreams, of surviving family members, 483–84, 490, 493, 501, 502
“Dream Song 384” (Berryman), 495
Drowned and the Saved, The (Levi), 222
Druids, 135
Dublin, L. I., 548n
Duglas, 184
Dunne, Edward, 491–92
Dunne-Maxim, Karen, 491–92
Durkheim, Émile, 185–88, 194, 247
on altruistic suicide, 1, 186–87
on fatalistic suicide, 255
on Japanese suicides, 142, 545n
mass media effects discounted by, 89
on protective social factors, 185, 186, 187, 245, 256, 257, 263
on risky behavior, 269
on social integration, 185, 186, 187, 204, 245
sociology established as science by, 185, 187
on status vs. suicidality, 252
on three suicide classifications of, 185–87, 263
Dutch Patients Association, 425
Dwork, Andrew, 192
Dyaks, 133
Eastern Europe, high suicide rates in, 246
eating disorders, 273
economic (thrift) suicides, 134, 166–67, 431–32, 434–35, 437, 551n
ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) (shock treatment), 194, 565n
Edgar, King of the English, 155–56
Edlin, John, 53
Edwards, Menlove, 560n
Edwards, Romaine, 563n
Edwards, Vince, 305
Egeland, Janice, 198
Ego and the Id, The (Freud), 190
ego splitting, 189
Egyptian civilization, ancient, 130–31, 135
Eisenberg, Leon, 313, 323, 332
Eisenhower, Dwight, 244
elderly:
depression in, 417, 418, 429, 439
double suicides of, 225, 404, 446, 448, 450
euthanasia desired by, 4, 363, 395, 426, 446–52
health care costs of, 431–33, 437
health declines of, 361–64, 449–50, 452
leading causes of deaths of, 367–68
living conditions worsened for, 362–63, 437, 438
in nursing homes, 362–63
as percentage of population, 432
physician attitudes toward, 438–39
recommendations for life enhancement of, 439–40, 442–43
as social burden, 431–33, 436, 445, 448, 452
suicides of, 147, 222, 225, 247, 249, 252, 255–56, 314, 395, 426, 437–38, 442
traditional sacrificial deaths of, 134, 186, 431, 443
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) (shock treatment), 194, 565n
Eliot, George (Mary Ann Evans), 49
Eliot, T. S., 249
Ellison, Ralph, 254
embryonic suicide, 269
emergency rooms:
adolescent attempters treated in, 95, 316
end-of-life decisions in, 371, 372
health-care rationing in, 433
Emery, Gary, 439
Emme, Dale, 120
Emme, Dar, 120
Emme, Mike, 120
emotions, numbing of, 490
Empire State Building, 341, 342
End-of-Life Choices, 408–9
England:
antisuicide statutes in, 156, 165, 173, 203, 467, 468
crossroads burials in, 131, 132, 136, 167, 553n
euthanasia legislation in, 366–67, 394, 400
gas suicides in, 346
right-to-die movement in, 366–67, 393, 400–401, 403–4
suicide rates in, 173–74, 182, 183
English Malady, The (Cheyne), 177
Enlightenment, 167–72, 174, 177, 181, 561n
Epicurus, 146–47
Erasmus, Desiderius, 159
ERGO (Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization), 409
Erigone, 145
Erikson, Erik, 46
Esenin, Sergei, 87
Eskimo tribes:
Canadian Inuit suicides, 260–61
traditional suicide practices of, 134, 186, 431
Esquirol, Jean-Étienne, 178–79, 180, 181
“Essay on Suicide” (Berdyaev), 415
Ethical Society Agency for Suicidal Persons, 293
Ethiopians, 431
Euripides, 233
Eusebius of Caesarea, 153
euthanasia:
abuse potential of, 420–37, 444–45
autonomy concerns in, 4, 418–19, 424, 425, 435–36
British activism on, 366–67, 393, 394, 400–401, 403–4
bureaucratization of, 444–45
case history of, 446–52
in classical civilization, 365–66
criminal penalties for aid in, 363, 375, 376, 382–83, 385, 389–90, 394, 396, 403–4, 572n
of depressed persons, 418, 420, 425–26, 428, 429–30
disability community attitudes toward, 367, 421, 435–36, 577n
elderly wishes for, 4, 363, 395, 426, 446–52
without explicit request, 423–25, 426
failed attempts of, 388–89, 392, 448
family assistance in, 363, 364
financial motivations of, 432–35
history of, 365–68
legalization of, 364, 366–67, 384, 385–91, 394–95, 405, 407, 410–11, 420, 423–31, 436, 442, 450, 572n–73n, 576n
literary portrayals of, 443–44
manuals on, 398–403, 409, 573n
mercy killing vs., 570n
methods of, 375–76, 377, 378, 379, 389, 392, 393–94, 397, 398–403, 408, 409–10, 411, 448, 450, 452
Nazi mass murder vs., 367, 413, 421, 422, 570n, 577n
in Netherlands, 377, 389–91, 421, 422–26, 573n
palliative care vs., 424, 441–42
physical limitations on, 363, 389, 396
physician-assisted, 366, 375, 376–91, 423–31, 441–42, 450, 571n–72n, 576n–77n
physicians’ resistance to, 388, 416–17, 428
in primitive societies, 364, 365, 431
public acceptance of, 383, 435
religious views of, 160, 370, 414–15, 416, 425
slippery-slope argument against, 420–21, 422–23
social inequality and, 434–35
as social service, 415–16, 432–33, 434, 445
statutory prohibition of, 375, 378, 382–83
suicide prevention experts on, 575n
suicide rates vs., 426
terminology developed on, 367, 419
ulterior motives of second party in, 418, 422, 424, 425, 430
see also right to die
“Euthanasia” (Williams), 366
Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO), 409
Euthanasia Society of America, 436
Evans, Dana (fictitious name), 93–94, 97–110, 121, 130
Evans, James, Jr., 253–54
Evans, Mary Ann (George Eliot), 49
executioners, 250
exhibitionism, suicidal, 151, 341–42
Exit Guide Program, 411–12
Faber, M. D., 160–61
Faerie Queene, The (Spenser), 160
Falret, Jean-Pierre, 179, 180, 181
family history, suicide in, 197–98, 199, 200, 470–72, 495, 554n
family life:
contemporary breakdown of, 51–53, 186
as protective factor, 45
Victorian respectability and, 471
Fanny and Alexander, 518
Farber, Maurice, 205
Farberow, Norman, 351
background of, 296
on group therapy, 324
on hospitalization, 332
on motivation of suicide, 96
psychological autopsies developed by, 301, 302
research studies of, 239, 296–97, 301, 330
suicide prevention work of, 298, 299, 300, 302, 303–4, 308
on suicidology literature, 306
Farr, William, 88
Fast, Irene, 498
fatalistic suicide, 255
Fawcett, Jan, 563n
FDA, 321
Fedden, Henry Romilly, 134, 182, 472, 547n, 561n
Federal Witness Protection Program, 223
Feltz, Arlene, 514
Ferriar, John, 366
Field, Marshall, 295
Fieve, Ronald, 569n
films, suicide portrayed in, 87–88, 90–91, 141, 523
Final Exit (Humphry), 3, 399–400, 401, 404, 405, 409, 422, 432
Final Exit Network, 410–12
financial concerns, suicides motivated by, 166–67, 249, 293, 431–35
Finland, suicides of, 164, 246
Fishbain, David, 274
Fisher, Mark, 116
5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA), 195–96, 197, 200, 201
Flaubert, Gustave, 153, 176, 177, 531–32
Fletcher, Joseph, 368, 369, 375, 386, 415, 416
Florence, Italy, Duomo in, 341
Florida, high suicide rates of, 247, 249
fluoxetine (Prozac), 3, 319, 321, 322–23
Fodéré, 184
Fonda, Peter, 474
“For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide” (Knight), 255
Four Winds, 106–10
Fox, Sandra, 497, 498–99, 581n
France:
religious fanaticism in, 155, 468–69
right-to-die movement in, 402–3
Romantic movement in, 175–76
suicide penalties in, 164, 168, 172–73, 466, 467, 468
suicide rate of, 183
Franklin, Benjamin, 366
Frazer, James, 151
Frederick, Calvin, 43, 51, 239–40, 295, 418
Freedom to Die (Humphry and Clement), 434
Freeman, Walter Jackson, 251
free will, 159, 167–68, 171–72, 186, 354, 357, 418
Freud, Martha Bernays, 188
on accidents, 269–70
aggression theory of, 188, 189–90
death instinct posited by, 189–90, 205, 269–70
euthanasia of, 389
on self-destructive tendencies, 269–70, 276
on suicide, 133–34, 188–89, 194, 224–25, 236, 252, 325, 551n
on war, 275
Freudians, 47
Freund, Andy, 215–16, 217, 218, 219
Freund, Jane, 214–15, 216, 217–18, 219–20
Friedenthal, Richard, 87
Friendship Line, 439
Fulbecke, William, 165
Funeral, The (Erasmus), 159
Furst, Sidney, 237
Gall, Franz Joseph, 178
Gandhi, Mohandas, 415
Garbesi, Curt, 417
Gardner, Bruce, 224
Garfinkel, Barry, 44
gas, suicides by, 235, 238, 346, 354, 379, 410, 570n
geese, bereavement behavior observed in, 489
general practitioners (GPs), 331–32, 566n
“Gentle Death, A,” 405
Gerbner, George, 54
geriatric patients, 438–39
see also elderly
Germany:
Nazi regime of, 222, 293, 367, 413, 421, 422, 444, 560n, 570n, 577n
romantic movement in, 175
ghosts, protection rituals for, 131–33, 134, 144, 155, 467
Gibbon, Edward, 547n
Gibbs, Jack, 204
Gibson, Paul, 264–65
Giffin, Mary, 96
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 415–16
Gilmore, Gary, 276
Giotto, 341
Giraudoux, Jean, 123
Girl, Interrupted (Kaysen), 250, 333
Girsh, Faye, 408
gisei-shi, 139
Godwin, Fanny Imlay, 241–42
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 86–87, 88, 168, 175, 180
Goffman, Erving, 303
Goin, Marcia, 315
Golden Gate Bridge, 238, 340–41, 342–46, 349, 353, 567n
Good, Janet, 379–80, 572n, 577n
Good Euthanasia Guide, The (Humphry), 409, 436–37
Good Life/Good Death (Barnard), 374
Goths, 134
Gould, Madelyn, 44, 48, 542n–43n
GPs (general practitioners), 331–32, 566n
Grace Community Church of the Valley, 337
grandmothers, 256
Grateful Dead, 242
Graunt, John, 182–83
“Grave, The” (Blair), 174
Gray Panthers, 395
Greek culture:
stigma in, 467
on suicide, 144–48, 156, 159, 186, 233, 267, 365, 367, 443, 550n
Greene, Graham, 274
Greer, Ina May, 492
Gregory, Dick, 252
Greyhound therapy, 336
greylag geese, bereavement behaviors observed in, 489
grief, 481–501
anger connected with, 491–92, 500, 520
animal reactions of, 489
children’s experiences of, 497–99, 581n
depression vs., 484, 487, 488–89
duration of, 487, 488–89, 517–18
family members’ support in, 479, 481, 482
mortality risk increased by, 487–88
physical manifestations of, 485
range of reactions to, 487, 581n
as selfish, 452
sex differences in process of, 487–88
stages of, 488
suicide risk increased by, 495
support groups on, 474, 512–17, 521–25
systematic research on, 487–89
Griffiths (1823 English suicide), 131, 132
Grollman, Earl, 336–37
Grotius, Hugo, 163
group therapy, 107–8, 324, 333
Guide to Self-Deliverance, A, 401, 403
Guillotin, Joseph, 173
guilt:
as child-rearing tactic, 245
of recovery from grief, 532
of surviving family members, 455, 473, 482, 483, 490–92, 495, 504–5, 516, 520, 532
Guislain, Joseph, 180
gun ownership, 54, 56–57, 220, 234, 235, 347–49, 568n, 569n
Guyana, collective suicides in, 85, 90, 186, 413, 567n
Hackethal, Julius, 397
Halley’s comet, 84
Hamilton, Donald, 43
Hamilton, Gregory, 434
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 114, 161, 165, 167, 267
handguns, restrictions on, 347–49
hara-kiri, 137
Hardwig, John, 432
Hardy, Thomas, 240
Harlan, Kevin, 79
Harris, Abraham, 165
Harris, Harold, 419
Harris, Karl, 284–85
Harrison, Barbara Grizzuti, 575n
Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 440
Hart, Brian, 59–80, 110, 122, 320, 541n
Hart, Gary, 276
Hart, Mary, 59–60, 61–64, 66, 67–68, 70, 71–72, 73, 74–77, 78, 122
Hart, Patrick, 59–60, 62, 63, 64, 67–68, 70, 71–72, 73–77, 78, 122
Hastings Center Report, 432
Hawaii, assisted-suicide legislation effort in, 427
health care:
end-of-life expenditures in, 431–33, 437
family members’ wishes on, 372–73, 571n
self-determination rights in, 370, 371–72, 571n
suicides of professionals in, 235, 250, 251, 327
health care proxy, 371
health insurance:
on chronic illnesses, 433
for inpatient psychiatric treatment, 71, 334
for managed care, 565n–66n
health maintenance organizations (HMOs) (managed care), 3, 331, 332, 374, 433, 565n–66n
Heggen, Thomas, 298
Heliogabalus, Emperor of Rome, 555n
helium, in plastic-bag suicide technique, 408, 411
Hellman, Lillian, 261
Hemenway, David, 348
Hemingway, Ernest, 114, 277, 495
Hemingway, Leicester, 495
Caring Friends assistance services of, 407–8
euthanasia legalization goal of, 394–95, 404, 405, 407, 410
literature published by, 3, 395, 398–400, 401, 405, 447–48
membership of, 395, 396–97, 447, 448
name and logo changes of, 408–9
national conferences held by, 397, 413, 420, 436, 437, 446, 575n
opponents of, 413–14
progressive levels of assistance offered by, 396, 407–8, 422
public education efforts of, 395
Hendin, Herbert, 351
on African-American suicide, 234–35, 252–53, 256
on ambivalence of suicides, 353
on civil liberties vs. suicide prevention, 353
on end-of-life medical care, 441, 442
on euthanasia, 424, 425, 426, 429, 441, 442, 575n
on psychiatric hospitalization, 332, 333
psychiatric practice of, 323, 329
on psychoanalysis, 323
psychosocial perspective described by, 245–46
on risk management, 565n
Scandinavian suicide studied by, 245
on suicide methods, 234–35, 237
on suicide notes, 240
on suicide prevention, 316, 439
Henry, Andrew, 204
Henry, Patrick, 356
Hepburn, Katharine, 400
Herbert, Clarence, 570n–71n
heroism, 275
Hidatsa, 132–33
Hildreth, Harold, 298
Hippocratic oath, 368
Hiroshima, Japan, survivors of atomic bombing of, 490, 497
Hispanic Americans, 258–59
Hitler, Adolf, 222, 367, 414, 432
HIV/AIDS, 38, 263–64, 270, 384, 386–87, 429
HMOs (health maintenance organizations) (managed care), 3, 331, 332, 374, 433, 565n–66n
Holcroft, Thomas, 174
holidays:
for family members of suicides, 505–6, 513, 516, 525
suicide rates on, 249
Holy Stone, 443
homeless population, 335
Homer, 144
homicide, see murder
homosexuality, 3, 48, 66, 101–2, 261–66, 558n
hopelessness, 43, 54, 253–54, 323
Horace, 148–49
horror comic books, 87
hospice care, 406, 407, 411, 421, 426, 428, 433, 434, 437, 442, 451
hospitals:
end-of-life care in, 338–39, 371–72, 440–41
see also psychiatric hospitalization
Hottentots, 431
House of Representatives, U.S., Schiavo case in, 373
Housman, A. E., 226
Houston, Michaele, 406
How to Die with Dignity (Mair), 401, 402
How to Stop Killing Yourself (Steincrohn), 277
How We Die (Nuland), 417
Hudgens, Richard, 348–49
Hufeland (Goethe physician), 180
see also right to die
assisted-suicide network organized by, 410–12
background of, 393
first marriage of, 393–94
on health care inadequacies, 433, 434, 440
Hemlock Society established by, 394–96, 398, 404, 409, 575n
on legalization of euthanasia, 394–95, 396, 409, 410–11
on potential abuses of euthanasia, 422
as public figure, 394, 409, 413, 442, 447
second marriage of, 394, 404, 574n
suicide literature written by, 394, 398, 399–400, 409, 422, 434, 436
Hungary, high suicide rate of, 246
Hunter, Kim, 305
Huxley, Aldous, 275
Huxley, Julian, 366
I Accuse, 421
“I Counsel You Beware” (Housman), 226
Iga, Mamoru, 546n
Iglulik tribe, 134
Ignatius, Saint, 153
imipramine, 195
immitation, role of in suicide, see clusters
impulsive behavior, 47, 48–49, 196, 275, 320, 353
India, suicide practices in, 132, 133, 135, 136, 186, 235, 365
indirect suicide, see self-destructive behaviors
industrialization, 185, 222, 246
insanity, see mental illness; psychiatric disorders; psychiatric hospitalization
Institute for Studies of Destructive Behaviors, 282
insulin coma therapy, 194
International Association for Suicide Prevention, 303
Internet suicides, 143
Inuit culture, 260–61
Invisible Man (Ellison), 254
involuntary commitment, 352, 354–55
ipecac, 117–18
iproniazid, 195
Iraq, U.S. invasion of, 247
Iroquois, 132–33
Isham, Fred (fictitious name), 446–52
Isham, Holly (fictitious name), 446–52
Islam, 246
Isocrates, 145
Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? 263
“I Thought People Like That Killed Themselves” (Rofes), 261
Jackson, David, 418
Jackson, Jesse, 373
Jakuts, 132
James, William, 301
Jamison, Kay Redfield, 38, 95, 335–36, 581n
Janus, Margo, 379
Japan:
current suicide rate of, 246
depression in, 142–43
elderly in, 438
Hiroshima bomb survivors in, 490, 497
history of suicide practices in, 137–43, 186, 235, 268, 546n
kamikaze pilots of, 1, 139, 186, 225
post-surrender suicides in, 84, 138–39
suicide categories of, 139, 223, 225
suicide settings in, 143, 341–43, 567n
Jean’s Way (Humphry), 394, 448
Jewish law, burial criteria in, 202
Jews:
collective suicides of, 84, 186
Nazi mass murder of, 367, 570n
suicide rates of, 246
Jim in Bold, 265
Joan of Arc, Saint, 155
Job (biblical figure), 152
Jocasta, 144
John Chrysostom, Saint, 154
John Paul II, Pope, 370–71
Johnson, Lancelot, 468
Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide at, 84, 90, 186, 413, 567n
Journal of the Plague Year, A (Defoe), 84
Joyce, James, 471
Jude the Obscure (Hardy), 240
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), 123
Jungian psychology, 356
junshi, 139
Justifiable Euthanasia (Admiraal), 390
Justinian I (the Great), Byzantine Emperor, 150
Kaiser Permanente, 430
Kalafat, John, 120
Kalmuck Tartars, 431
Kamisar, Yale, 422
Kammerer, Paul, 223
kangen-shi, 139
Kant, Immanuel, 172
Kanwar, Roop, 136
Karens, 364
Kastenbaum, Robert, 438
Keagan, Kelly, 79
Kelly, David, 223
Kennedy, Foster, 436
Kenyan tribes, suicide ethics of, 364
Keown, John, 424–25
Kernberg, Otto, 351
Kerouac, Jack, 272
Kevorkian, Flora, 378
Kevorkian, Jack “Dr. Death,” 3, 376–83, 421, 435
assistants of, 378, 379–80, 572n, 577n
finances of, 380
Hemlock Society approached by, 396
notoriety of, 380, 383, 412, 442
obitoria conceived by, 377, 444
personality of, 381
physical appearance of, 376
prosecutions against, 378, 379, 382–83, 435
recreational activities of, 380–81, 383, 572n
screening process used by, 378, 379, 380, 381–82
suicide machine constructed by, 377, 378
suicides enabled by, 378–79, 382, 384, 385, 389, 399, 411, 571n–72n
Kierkegaard, Søren, 227
King Lear (Shakespeare), 96
Kinnell, David (fictitious name), 242–43
Klagsbrun, Samuel, 43, 49, 81, 117
Kleist, Heinrich von, 175
Knight, Etheridge, 255
Knock, Matthew, 225
Koestenbaum, Peter, 357
Koestler, Arthur, 392–93, 401, 418–19, 575n
Koestler, Cynthia, 392–93, 418–19, 575n
Kohn, Mel, 386
kokoro no kaze, 142–43
Koop, C. Everett, 421–22
Koppel, Ted, 339
Koresh, David, 2
Kornhaber, Eugene, 60, 63, 70, 71, 74, 75, 76
Kraai, John, 571n
Kramer, Sandri, 286–87
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth, 488
Kunitz, Stanley, 494
Kushner, Howard, 248
Laborit, Henri, 318
labor pains, 574n
Lamartine, Alphonse-Marie-Louis de Prat de, 87, 176
Lamm, Richard, 431–32
landmarks, suicides at, 143, 238, 340–46, 349, 353, 561n, 567n
LASPC, see Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center
Last Wish (Rollin), 375
Laws (Plato), 146
Lay My Burden Down (Poussaint and Alexander), 255, 257
lebensunwertes Leben (life unworthy of life), 367
leeches, 555n
Lemberg Volunteer Rescue Society, 561n
Lester, David, 307
lethal injections, 375, 384, 389, 391, 410, 573n
Let Me Die Before I Wake (Humphry), 398, 401, 422, 447–48
Leukakas, 144–45
Levi, Primo, 222
Levin, Jack, 437
Levine, Stephen, 397
Levinson, A. J., 445
Libanius, 147
life, quality of, 364, 368–69, 450
Life Crisis Services, 439
life insurance claims, 419, 475
Lifes Preservative Against Self-Killing (Sym), 163–64, 269
life-support systems, 369–75, 415, 416, 571n
life unworthy of life (lebensunwertes Leben), 367, 421, 570n
Lifton, Robert Jay, 226–27, 230, 490, 497, 570n
Lincoln, Abraham, 353, 568n–69n
Lincoln, Mary Todd, 353
Lindemann, Erich, 488, 489, 492, 521
Linehan, Marsha, 323
literature, suicide portrayed in, 86–87, 116, 140–41, 160–61, 167–68, 175–76, 443–44, 494, 495
lithium, 64, 66, 71, 229, 319–20, 564n, 569n
Lithuania, suicide rates of, 197, 246
Litman, Robert:
background of, 298
on ethics of suicide prevention, 356
on Freud, 188
on Monroe suicide, 302
on physicians’ personalities, 251
on risk assessment, 57–58, 316
on self-image expectations, 224, 226
in suicide prevention work, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 308–9, 311, 350
suicide zone posited by, 57–58
on therapists’ responses to patient suicide, 329–30
living wills, 371–72, 395, 451
Locke, John, 171–72
Loiseau, Bernard, 223
London, England, suicide rates vs. social isolation in, 249
London Anti-Suicide Bureau, 293
Longmore, Paul, 577n
LoPuzzo, Mike, 23–24, 30, 35, 43, 124
Lorenz, Konrad, 489
Los Angeles County, Death Investigation Team of, 301–2
Los Angeles County General Hospital, 298–99
Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center (LASPC), 298–304, 305, 474
crisis hotline operated by, 302, 311, 562n–63n
current institutional life of, 282–90, 317, 523
follow-up services tried by, 308–9
group therapy offered at, 324
on mental illness vs. suicidality, 355–56
psychological autopsy developed by, 302, 468, 472
public education work of, 303
start of, 298–99
suicidology analysis of, 301, 303, 313
surviving families’ needs addressed by, 472–73, 524
training programs developed by, 303
see also grief
love-pact suicides, 139–40, 143, 175
see also double suicides
Lowell, Robert, 445
Lucretius, 147
Lyle, Katie Letcher, 436
Lynch, Thomas, 239
Lyons, Mark, 403–4
MacArthur, John, Jr., 337
McCollum, Jack, 88
MacDonald, Richard, 408
McGee, Richard, 306–7
McGoldrick, Monica, 493
McGovern, George, 16
McIntosh, John, 473–74
Mack, John, 357
Madame Bovary (Flaubert), 531–32
Mad in America (Whitaker), 194
magical thinking, 49, 81, 540n
Maine, assisted-suicide legislation effort in, 427
Mair, George, 402
Malays, 275
Maleska, Merryl, 455–65, 467, 490, 580n
grieving process of, 481–87, 502–12, 527–30, 535–36
new relationships begun by, 508–10, 527–28, 536
support group attended by, 512, 513, 514–15, 516, 529
as surviving spouse, 455, 465, 477–87, 502–11, 580n
malpractice litigation, 329, 332, 353, 368
Maltsberger, John, 318, 322, 324–26, 327, 328, 330, 333
Man Against Himself (Menninger), 204–5, 237, 270, 277
managed care plans, see health maintenance organizations
manic depression, see bipolar disorder
“Manipulated Suicide” (Battin), 444, 445
Mann, John, 191–92, 193, 196, 197, 322
Marcellus, 152
Maris, Ronald, 308
Marker, Rita, 573n–74n
Marks, Rona (fictitious name), 512, 515, 516
marriage:
divorce rates and, 51, 125, 186, 253
suicidality risk lessened in, 185, 186, 221, 256, 427, 438
Martial, 150
Martin, Walter, 204
martyrdom, religious, 1, 152–54, 155, 275, 547n, 548n
Marzuk, Peter, 225
Masada, collective Jewish suicide at, 84, 186
Masako, Princess, 143
masked depression, 42
masochism, martyrdom vs., 153
Massachusetts, historical suicide penalties in, 165
Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 326
Massilia, suicide customs of, 147
mass media, violence portrayed in, 54–55, 90–91, 541n, 542n–43n
Mather, Increase, 165
Maupassant, Guy de, 443–44, 445
Medical Histories and Reflections (Ferriar), 366
“Medical Science Under Dictatorship” (L. Alexander), 421
medical treatment, see health care; health insurance; physicians
Medici, Alessandro de, 166
Meerloo, Joost, 237, 262, 275, 276–77, 546n, 554n
Mellaril, 103
Melville, Herman, 249, 276, 278, 569n
Menninger, Karl, 204–5, 206, 237, 547n, 558n
on self-destructive behaviors, 270–71, 272, 277
mental asylums, 180
see also psychiatric hospitalization
Mental Health Center (Seattle), 439
mental health services:
access to, 257, 331, 335, 336, 434, 564n, 566n
coercive utilization of, 352–53, 354–55
deinstitutionalization of, 335, 336
federal support of, 307–8, 562n
professional hierarchy within, 300, 326
survivor support groups and, 524
underutilization of, 257–58, 316–17, 557n, 564n
see also psychiatric hospitalization
mental illness:
civil liberties and, 332, 352, 354–55
denial of existence of, 352, 355
family history of, 181, 197–98
in homeless population, 335
homosexuality considered as, 261–62, 558n
medicalization of, 336
Nazi euthanasia practices in, 367, 570n, 577n
somatic treatments for, 179–80, 194–95
stigma of, 181–82, 316–17, 564n
substance abuse vs., 272
suicide as evidence of, 173, 178–82, 202, 292, 354, 355–57, 550n
surviving family stigmatized by association to, 470–72
see also depression; psychiatric disorders; psychiatric hospitalization
mercy killing, 570n
see also euthanasia
Merkin, Daphne, 318
Metrazol convulsive therapy, 194
Mexican Americans, 258
Michigan, physician-assisted suicides in, 378–79, 382–83, 427
Middlemarch (Eliot), 49
Midler, Bette, 115
Mihara-Yama, 341
Milan cathedral, 341
Millard, C. Killick, 366
Miller, Derek, 42–43
Milne, A. A., 366
Minot, George R., 416
Mishima, Yukio, 140–41, 142, 560n
Moby-Dick (Melville), 5, 249, 276
Modern Maturity, 395
Mohr, Myron, 262
Molitor, Karl, 86
Monday, highest suicide rate on, 250
monoamine oxidase, 195
monoamine oxidase inhibitors, 319
“Monody on the Death of Chatterton” (Wordsworth), 175
Montaigne, Michel de, 159
Montana, suicide rate of, 247
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat de, 138, 167, 170, 173
Moore, Charles, 366
Morals and Medicine (Fletcher), 415
moral statistics, 183
More, Thomas, 159–60, 164, 443
morphine sedation, 374, 375, 384, 388
Moss, Leonard, 43
mother-infant bonding, 46–47
Motto, Jerome, 43, 308, 318, 336, 344
Mount Mihara, 341–42
Mourning and Melancholia (Freud), 189
Mudge, George P., 470
murder:
biblical prohibition of, 414–15
of political prisoners, 560n
rates of, 37
suicide as inversion of, 133–34, 189, 224–25, 252
suicide completed after, 90, 140, 225–26
suicide considered as, 154–55, 156, 414–15
suicide rates vs. rate of, 252, 558n
victim’s intentional provocation of, 254, 275–76
Murphy, George, 353
Musonius, 365
Musset, Alfred de, 176
Mussolini, Benito, 543n
Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan, 139
Myth of Sisyphus, The (Camus), 204
Nally, Kenneth, 337
Napoleon Bonaparte, 85
National Hopeline Network, 310
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 298, 303, 304, 307
National Inuit Youth Council (NIYC), 260–61
National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide (NOPCAS), 557n–58n
National Rifle Association (NRA), 348, 349
National Save-A-Life League, 291–93, 294, 302, 307
National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP), 310
National Suicide Prevention Week, 351
National Survivors Conference, 474
Native Americans, suicides of, 84, 132–33, 258, 259–61, 558n
Nazism, 222, 293, 367, 413, 421, 422, 444, 560n, 570n, 577n
negotiated deaths, 371
Nembutal, 410
Nero, Emperor of Rome, 149, 150
Nerval, Gérard de, 175
Neser, Johannes, 163
Netherlands:
palliative care deficiencies in, 424, 426, 441–42
physician-assisted euthanasia in, 377, 389–91, 421, 422–26, 573n
neuroanatomy studies, 191–94
neurotransmitters, 192, 195, 319
dopamine, 195
serotonin, 40, 47–48, 192–93, 195–97, 199, 201, 250
Nevada, highest suicide rates in, 247
Newell, Barbara Spires (fictitious name), 210–11
Newell, Kathy (fictitious name), 210, 211, 215
Newell, Peter (fictitious name), 209–20, 221, 222, 224, 274
Newell, Ruth (fictitious name), 210, 211–12, 216, 217, 219
Newell, Sally (fictitious name), 210–11, 212–13, 216, 217, 218, 219
New England, low suicide rate of, 248
New Jersey Supreme Court, Quinlan case of, 369–70, 371
New Mexico, suicide rate of, 247
New Technology in Self-Deliverance Group (NuTech), 409–10
New World in Words, A (Phillips), 268
New York, N.Y., suicide rates of, 249, 252–53, 256
New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), 191–94
New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, 435
Neylor, Lewis, 340
Niagara Falls, 341
Nicaragua, state censorship of suicide reports in, 246–47
Nicol, Neil, 379
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 311
Nigeria, tribal suicide customs of, 364
Night Falls Fast (Jamison), 95, 335–36, 581n
Nightline, 338–39
“Night Thoughts” (Young), 174
NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), 298, 303, 304, 307
NIYC (National Inuit Youth Council), 260–61
Nobel, Alfred, 444
Nogi, Kiten, 139
nonabandonment, 384–85
Noonday Demon, The (Solomon), 322, 419
NOPCAS (National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide), 557n–58n
Norman, Pat, 261
Northern Ireland, low suicide rate of, 246
Norway, suicide rates in, 245, 248
no-suicide contracts, 315
Nouvelle Héloïse, La (Rousseau), 167–68
November, as month of suicide, 173, 178, 184, 249
NRA (National Rifle Association), 348, 349
NSSP (National Strategy for Suicide Prevention), 310
nuclear arms race, 270
Nuland, Sherwin, 417, 544n, 576n
numbers, Pythagorean theory of, 145
numbing, psychic, 490
nurses:
in elder care, 362
euthanasia performed by, 384
suicide rates of, 251
nursing homes, 362–63, 398, 437
NuTech (New Technology in Self-Deliverance Group), 409–10
NYSPI (New York State Psychiatric Institute), 191–94
Oates, Lawrence, 186
obitiatry, 377
Observations made upon the Bills of Mortality (Graunt), 182–83
Odin, 134
Officer and a Gentleman, An, 88
Okin, Robert, 334
Old Believers, 84
Oldham (bishop), 553n
Old Order Amish, 198
Old Testament, 151–52, 267, 472
Omaha Indians, 132
Omega, 522
On Death and Dying (Kübler-Ross), 488
“On Suicide” (Hume), 169–70
“Oration on the Dignity of Man” (Pico della Mirandola), 158–59
orbital prefrontal cortex, 193
Oregon:
right-to-die legislation in, 3, 4, 385–89, 405, 419, 420, 426–31, 433–34, 441, 442, 572n–73n, 576n
suicide rate of, 247
Oregon Health Plan, 434
Oregon Hospice Association, 429
Ostow, Mortimer, 237
Othello (Shakespeare), 160
Otto, Emperor, 175
oyako shinju (parent-child suicide), 140, 225, 546n
Pachomius, 547n
Padlayat, Adamie, 261
Padmapurana, 136
Paetus, Caecina, 150
Paharis, 132
pain:
anticipation of, 423, 428, 440, 446
endurance of, 365
as justification for euthanasia, 365
spiritual value of, 154, 171, 172, 416
Paine, Thomas, 87
pain management, 406
anesthesia used in, 366, 416, 574n
in Netherlands, 424, 426, 441–42
in nursing homes, 362
recent advances in, 440
terminal sedation vs., 366, 374
Palestinian suicide terrorists, 186
palliative care, 424, 426, 428–29, 433, 440–42, 576n
Pangrazzi, Arnaldo, 492–93
Pantites, 145
paradoxical technique, 327–28
parent, loss of, 43–44
parent-child suicide (oyako shinju), 140, 225, 546n
parents:
child-rearing styles of, 52, 98, 245
infant bonding with, 46–47
single, 253
of suicide, 125, 491, 517–21, 532
suicide of, 44, 197–98, 472, 495–96, 497–501
Parish of All Strangers, 291, 292
Parker, Dorothy, 399
Parker, Ellen (fictitious name), 271
passive euthanasia, 369–75, 570n
Pat (crisis hotline volunteer), 281–83, 284–85, 289–90
“Patient Monitoring of Suicidal Risk,” 315
Patient Self-Determination Act (1991), 371
patient’s rights:
on end-of-life care, 370, 371–72
in psychiatric treatment, 332, 352, 354–55
Paul, Saint, 292
Pavese, Cesare, 221, 228, 555n
Peaceful Pill, 410
Pelagia, Saint, 548n
Penn, William, 579n
Pepper, Stephen, 303
Péricles, 241
Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life, The (Hoche and Binding), 367
Persian Letters (Montesquieu), 167
persistent vegetative state, 370, 372, 375, 416
Petrarch, 159
Petronius (Arbiter), 150–51
Pfeffer, Cynthia, 44
Phaedo (Plato), 145–46, 148, 154
Phelps, Edward Bunnell, 89
Philip II, King of Macedon, 83–84, 145
Phillips, David, 89–90, 91, 542n, 543n
Phillips, Edward, 268
philosophy:
classical, 145–47, 149, 151, 365
of Enlightenment, 167–72
phrenology, 178
physical handicaps, euthanasia and, 367, 421, 435–36, 577n
Physician-Assisted Dying (Quill and Battin), 442
physicians:
classical guidelines for, 365–66, 368
death anxieties of, 441
euthanasia opposition of, 388, 416–17, 428
geriatric cases of, 438–39
long-term patient relationships with, 374–75, 384–85, 426, 428, 576n
malpractice lawsuits against, 329, 332, 353, 368, 371, 571n
nonabandonment principle of, 384–85
pain management education of, 440, 441–42
passive euthanasia practices of, 374–75
prolongation vs. quality-of-life decisions of, 368, 369, 370, 441, 570n
suicidal patients disparaged by, 96, 97, 292, 298, 544n
suicides completed by, 223–24, 235, 251, 327
suicidology training of, 316, 326–27, 331–32, 566n
voluntary euthanasia assisted by, 366, 375, 376–91, 423–31, 441–42, 450, 571n–72n, 576n–77n
see also psychiatrists
Physicians for Compassionate Care, 417, 434
Piccione, Joseph, 420
Pico della Mirandola, 158–59
Piero delle Vigne, 157
Pinel, Philippe, 180, 334, 550n
Pisa, Leaning Tower at, 342
Place Vendôme, 342
Plano, Texas, teenage suicides in, 11, 39, 80, 81–82, 83, 92
plastic bags, asphyxiation deaths with, 399, 400, 401, 402, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412
Plato, 145–46, 148, 154, 156, 365
Pliny (the Younger), 149
Poitier, Sidney, 305
police:
provocation of fatal shootings by, 254, 275
political prisoners, 560n
political protest, 235
political suicide, 276
Pollatsek, Judy, 48
Pope, Alexander, 166
Porter, Lora, 21–22, 26, 122–23, 126
“Portrait, The” (Kunitz), 494
Portwood, Doris, 395, 434, 443
postpartum depression, 225
posttraumatic slavery syndrome, 255
potassium chloride, 377, 378, 379, 382
poverty, 166–67, 249, 257, 438
powerful public figures, suicides of, 222–23
Praise of Folly, The (Erasmus), 159
prefrontal cortex, 193
prefrontal lobotomies, 194, 251
Press, Bill (father), 361–64
Press, Billie (daughter), 361, 362, 363–64
Preston, Thomas, 375
presuicidal syndrome, 229, 230
Preventing Teenage Suicide (Steele), 116–17
primary care physicians, 331–32, 566n
see also physicians
primitive tribal cultures, 131–36, 364, 365, 431
Prinze, Freddie, 241
prisons:
medical experimentation on death-row inmates of, 377, 383
mental illness in, 335
political dissidents murdered in, 560n
problem-solving skills, 53
profession, suicide risk vs., 235, 236, 250–51
Prozac (fluoxetine), 3, 319, 321, 322–23
Prudhomme, Charles, 256
pseudocide, 276
psychiatric disorders:
bipolar disorder, 41, 42, 64, 229, 272, 318, 319–20, 323, 353, 492, 541n
borderline personality disorder, 41, 323, 351
depression, see depression
schizophrenia, 272, 318, 319, 330,.431
suicidality vs., 41, 119, 173, 178–82, 202, 221, 318, 355, 550n
see also mental illness
psychiatric hospitalization, 332–37
civil liberties restrictions on, 332, 354–55
deinstitutionalization process and, 334–35
discharges from, 64–65, 106, 334
insurance coverage of, 71, 334
involuntary commitment to, 352, 354–55
medications administered in, 63, 319
modernization of, 180
psychotherapy received with, 103, 106–8, 333–34, 484
of suicidal adolescents, 63–65, 71–72, 103–4, 105–10
psychiatrists:
emotional challenges experienced by, 328, 329–30, 331
euthanasia candidates evaluated by, 425–26, 429, 430, 576n
inappropriate techniques of, 327–29
palliative care by, 441
patient suicides and, 328–30
suicides completed by, 223–24, 251, 327
suicidology education of, 297, 326–27
psychic numbing, 490
psychoanalysis, 323
psychoanalytic theory, 188–90, 205, 236–37
psychodynamic formulation, 324–26
psychological autopsies, 302, 468
Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The (Freud), 189, 269–70
psychopharmacology:
antidepressants, 3, 57, 143, 192, 195, 318, 319–23, 331, 439, 539n, 564n
other treatment modalities vs., 318, 322–23, 326, 334, 439
for elder patients, 439
in groups, 107–8, 324, 333, 484
in hospital setting, 103, 106–8, 333–34, 484
misjudgments in, 327–28
psychodynamic formulation in, 324–26
psychopharmacology vs., 318, 322–23, 334, 439
religious counseling vs., 336–38
for surviving family members, 472–73, 494, 507, 528–29
varieties of, 323–26
Pufendorf, Samuel von, 163
Punic Wars, 151
Puritans, 165
“Putter-to-Sleep, The” (Maupassant), 443–44
quality of life, 364, 368–69, 450
Quill, Timothy, 384–85, 389, 442, 572n
Quinlan, Karen Ann, 369–70, 371, 372, 373, 374, 571n
Rachels, James, 415
racial discrimination, stresses of, 251–58, 557n
racial integration, 256
racial pride, 257
Rationalists, 167, 169–70, 171, 172, 174
rational suicides, 2, 146–50, 354, 357, 417–18, 419
Ray of Hope, 533
Reagan, Nancy, 115
Reasons for Living scale, 314
recovery guilt, 532
Reflections on Suicide (Staël), 172
regression, 519
Rehkugel, Robert, 294–95
Reich, Warren, 368
Reil, Johann, 180
Religio Medici (Browne), 268
religious beliefs, 201–2
of African Americans, 256
on afterlife, 130, 131, 132–33, 134, 135, 137, 152, 154, 226
Buddhism, 135, 137, 142, 235, 323, 397
collective suicides inspired by, 84
on euthanasia, 370, 414–15, 416, 425
of ghosts of suicides, 131–33, 134, 144, 155, 467
on homosexuality, 266
on life-support technology, 415
martyrdom undergone for, 1, 152–54, 155, 275, 547n, 548n
on murder prohibitions, 414–15
social community vs., 186
of Vikings, 134
see also Christianity; Jewish law; Jews
religious community, psychological counseling in, 336–38
Enlightenment philosophy and, 167–72, 174
punishments for suicides in, 164–65, 167
suicidal psychology explored in, 160–64
respirators, 369–70, 371, 571n
resuscitation, 368, 372, 374, 442, 451
Rethinking Life and Death (Singer), 375
revenge suicide, 133–34, 153, 224–25, 239
reverse psychology, 327–28
Reynolds, David, 333
Rhapsodies on the Application of Psychic Therapy Methods to Mental Disturbances (Reil), 180
right to die, 3–4
AIDS patients and, 264
of elderly ill, 363–64
English activism on, 366–67, 393, 400–401, 403–4
French movement on, 402–3
legal rulings on, 369–70, 371, 372–74, 382, 383, 571n
life with dignity vs., 443
organizational support of, 386, 393–413, 436, 573n
suicide prevention ethics vs., 352–57
see also euthanasia
Right to Die, The (Humphry and Wickett), 422
Rimbaud, Arthur, 276
Risk-Rescue Rating, 314
Rivers, Joan, 474
Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 209
Robinson, Henry Morton, 545n
Roger of Wendover, 84
Rogers, Carl, 287
rollback, 320
Rollin, Betty, 375
Roman, Jo, 444
Roman civilization, 131, 148–51, 154, 156, 173, 186, 233, 291, 550n
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), 116, 160–61, 562n
Roscoe, John, 131–32
Rosenberg, Mark, 38
Ross, Betsy, 533
Ross, Charlotte, 115
Rossi, Tom, 512, 514, 525, 532, 533
rotary chair, 180
Rounsaville, Bruce, 80
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 167–68
Rowley (physician), 181
Roy, Alec, 198–99
Royal Dutch Medical Association, 390
Royal Humane Society, 561n
Rubinstein, Arthur, 353
Ruggiero, Christopher, 82–83
Russell, Bertrand, 353
Russia:
religious suicides in, 84
suicide rates in, 246
Sackett, Walter, 436
sacrificial suicides, 134–36, 186–87
Sadger, Isidor, 188
SAD PERSONS scale, 315
Safe Place, 512–17, 522–23, 524–26, 527, 529
Sainsbury, Peter, 249
St. John-Stevas, Norman, 416
St. Peter’s Basilica, 341, 342
Saito, Yukio, 143
Salk, Lee, 47
Saltzman, Peter, 97
Salvation Army, 293
Samaritans, 294, 302, 307, 310, 401, 515, 521, 522–23
Samson (biblical figure), 152
samurai code, 137–38, 140, 141, 235, 268, 545n
San Diego, Calif., high suicide rate of, 249
Sandinistas, suicide reports censored by, 246–47
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 344–45
San Francisco Suicide Prevention, 309–10
San Mateo County, Calif., adolescent suicide cluster in, 114–15
Satcher, David, 310
Saul (biblical figure), 151, 267
Savage God, The (Alvarez), 49, 161, 230, 234
Scandinavian culture, 131, 134, 244–45
scapegoats, 492
Schatzberg, Alan, 335
Scheinin, Anne-Grace, 229
Schiavo, Theresa Marie, 4, 372–74, 416, 435
Schindler, Mary, 372–73
Schindler, Robert, 372–73
schizophrenia, 41, 272, 318, 319, 330
Schonberg, Kenneth, 35, 36, 92
Schonheyde, Dr., 179
Schreber, Dr. (Freudian case history), 189
Schur, Max, 389
Schweitzer, Albert, 415
Scott, Richard, 395
Scott, Robert Falcon, 186
Scythians, suicide practices of, 135, 431
seclusion rooms, 338
Second Treatise on Government (Locke), 171–72
Seiden, Richard, 257, 344–45, 346, 420, 437
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), 3, 142–43, 192, 319, 320–23, 331
self-defense, killing in, 415
Self-Destruction in the Promised Land (Kushner), 248
self-destructive behaviors:
of autoerotic asphyxiation, 83
of children, 539n
extreme recreational risk as, 274–75, 560n
homosexuality seen as, 261–62, 558n
range of, 205
Russian roulette, 274
of substance abuse, 41, 46, 48, 62, 73–74, 93, 99–100, 101, 103–5, 106, 263, 271–73
suicide vs., 268–78
as survival technique, 270–71
self-image, damage to, 223–24
Selzer, Melvin, 274
Senate, U.S., on Schiavo case, 373
Seneca, 149–50, 365, 416, 581n
separation, 46–47
seppuku, 137–39, 141, 142, 186
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks of, 1–2, 268
Seress, Reszo, 87
serotonin, 40, 47–48, 192–93, 195–97, 199, 201, 250
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, 3, 143, 192, 319, 320–23, 331
“Serotonin Chemistry in the Brain of Suicidal Victims” (Arango and Underhill), 201
Servius, 233
Setting Limits (Callahan), 433
sexual abuse, 45
sexual identity, 3, 48, 66, 101–2, 261–66, 558n
Shaffer, David, 48, 118–19, 120, 542n–43n
Shakespeare, William, 160–61, 163, 165, 362
shame:
as suicide motivation, 223
of surviving families of suicides, 455, 467, 468–72, 474, 475–76, 480
Shaw, George Bernard, 366
Shein, Harvey, 327
Shelhamer, Julia, 295
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 175, 241
Shilts, Randy, 264
ship of fools, 336
on biological influence vs. psychosocial factors, 199–200
career of, 295–96, 303–4, 305, 307, 350, 351
on degree of risk, 301
on euthanasia, 575n
on Koestler double suicide, 418
multidisciplinary approach proposed by, 338
on psychological needs of survivors, 473
public education advocated by, 304, 312, 316
research studies of, 296–97, 301, 330
right to suicide repudiated by, 353
on suicide as inverted murder, 189
suicide defined by, 40
suicide prevention work of, 298, 300, 302, 303–4, 305, 306, 308, 312, 316, 317, 325, 397
shock treatment (electroconvulsive therapy) (ECT), 194, 565n
Short, James, 204
Siam, royal burials in, 135
Siberia, elderly deaths in, 134, 431
Silius Italicus, 134
Silverstein, Michael, 240
Simeon Stylites, Saint, 153, 560n
Singer, Peter, 375
single parents, 253
situational depression, 42, 484
situational suicide, 308
Sixth Commandment, 154, 156, 414–15
60 Minutes, 382
slaves, 150, 151, 154, 255, 352, 467, 557n
sleeping difficulties, 79, 112
Slender Thread, The, 305
slippery slope hypothesis, 420–21, 422–23
Smith, Judie, 81
Smith, Kim, 38–39
smoking, 268
social integration, 185, 186, 187, 204, 245, 249, 256, 257, 438
socialism, 244
Social Meanings of Suicide, The (Douglas), 204
Social Reality of Death, The, 504
Social Security, 439
sociology, as science, 185, 187
Socrates, 145–46, 149, 268, 386, 395, 408
soldiers, suicides of, 84, 145, 150, 186, 275
Sorrows of Young Werther, The (Goethe), 86–87, 89, 168, 175, 176
SOS High School Suicide Prevention Program, 119–20
soul, transformation of, 356
South Africa, anti-apartheid prisoners in, 560n
Soviet Union, suicide statistics suppressed in, 246
Soylent Green, 444
SPC (Suicide Prevention Center), 282–90, 317, 523
Speak of the Devil, 86
Speijer, Nico, 443
Spenser, Edmund, 160
Spirit of Laws, The (Montesquieu), 173
“Spiritualism and Suicide,” 306
Spoonhour, Anne, 15, 16–17, 18, 20–21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 124–26
Spoonhour, Giles, 16–18, 20–21, 24, 26, 28–29, 30–31, 34, 35, 124–26
Spoonhour, Justin Christopher, 15–37, 39–40, 48, 49, 59, 79–80, 111, 122–26, 130
Spoonhour, Leah, 18, 20, 21–22, 26, 30, 124, 125
spring, suicide increase in, 184, 249–50
SSI (Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation), 314
SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), 3, 142–43, 192, 319, 320–23, 331
Staël, Anne-Louise-Germaine de, 172
starvation, suicides by, 144
state psychiatric hospitals, 334–35
status integration, 204
Steele, William, 116–17
Steincrohn, Peter, 277
Stekel, Wilhelm, 188, 236–37, 355
Stelmachers, Zigfrids, 355, 357
sterilization, compulsory, 367, 570n
Stevens, Kenneth, 417
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 443
stigma, 36, 467, 181–82, 471–76
Stoics, 147, 149–50, 151, 163, 168, 365
Strachey, Lytton, 222
stress, 196
Strozzi, Philip, 166
Styron, William, 44, 229, 333–34, 474
adolescent suicide vs., 46, 48, 62, 73–74, 93, 99–100, 101, 103–5, 106
homosexuality and, 263
mental illness vs., 272
success, depressive response to, 224
succinylcholine, 377
Suetonius, 365
suffering:
intrinsic value ascribed to, 154, 171, 172, 416
see also pain; pain management
suicidality, treatment options for, 312–39
compliance issues in, 320, 336, 564n
crisis counseling, 317
early lack of, 297–98
for elderly, 439
electroconvulsive therapy, 565n
medication used in, 3, 57, 143, 192, 195, 318–23, 539n, 564n
misjudgments in, 327–29, 331–32, 565n
multidisciplinary approach advocated for, 338
by primary care physicians, 331–32, 566n
professional training in, 326–27, 331–32, 566n
in psychiatric hospitals, 332–37
psychotherapy as, 318, 322–26, 327–28, 439
by religious counselors, 336–38
therapists’ availability in, 325–26, 329
see also suicide prevention
suicide:
additional unintended victims of, 354
aftermath of, see suicide, surviving family members after
in anger, 491
attempted vs. completed, 38–39, 95–97, 353, 438, 474
biological factors in, 3, 41, 47–48, 178, 191–94, 195–201, 470–72
case histories of, 15–37, 59–79, 93–94, 97–110, 121–26, 209–20
climate effects on, 173–74, 177–78, 183–84, 249–50, 550n
concern for others as disincentive to, 497, 581n
defined, 267–69
demographics of, see suicide, demographics of
double, 139–40, 143, 175, 225, 392–93, 395, 404, 418–19, 446, 448, 450, 575n
euthanetic, see euthanasia; right to die
as evidence of mental illness, 173, 178–82, 202, 292, 354, 355–57, 550n
exhibitionism and, 151, 341–42
family history of, 197–98, 199, 200, 470–72, 495, 554n
film portrayals of, 87–88, 90–91, 141, 523
fluctuating risk periods for, 57
homosexuality viewed as form of, 261–62, 558n
as literary subject, 86–87, 116, 140–41, 160–61, 167–68, 175–76, 443–44, 494, 495
in mass media, 79, 81, 82–83, 86–92, 542n–43n
medical professionals’ responses to, 96, 97, 292, 298, 544n
metaphorical forms of, 276–78
methods of, 184, 185, 233–39, 251, 346–47, 438–504, 555n
motivations of, 96, 133–34, 221–32, 356, 431–35, 492
multifaceted causality of, 201–2, 204–6
murder followed by, 90, 140, 225–26
notes found after, 239–43, 295–96, 452, 483, 580n
other self-destructive behaviors vs., see self-destructive behaviors
of parent, 44, 197–98, 472, 495–96, 497–501
performance type of, 245
physician-assisted, see euthanasia, physician-assisted
psychiatric disorders vs., 41, 119, 173, 178–82, 202, 221, 318, 355, 550n
in psychiatric hospitals, 332, 333
psychological autopsies on, 302, 468
in public landmark settings, 143, 340–46, 353, 561n, 567n
rates of, 2, 3, 9, 11, 37–38, 51, 56–57, 141–42, 182–84, 185, 197, 244–51, 252, 307, 314, 347, 426, 539n, 551n
rational, 2, 146–50, 354, 357, 417–18, 419
as revenge, 133–34
as revolutionary act, 402
right-to-die debate on, see euthanasia; right to die
scientific research on, 131, 177–201
of terrorists, 1–2, 186, 225, 226
timing factors of, 173, 178, 184–85, 249–50, 297
transformation as motive of, 356
see also suicidality, treatment options for; suicide, demographics of; suicide, historical views of; suicide, surviving family members after; suicide prevention
Suicide, 402–3
suicide, demographics of, 244–78
African Americans, 234–35, 251–58, 263, 557n–58n
age of, 134, 147, 185, 221, 253, 258, 427, 437–38; see also adolescent suicide; elderly, suicides of
of cancer patients, 418
in former Soviet states, 3, 246
for Hispanic Americans, 258–59
homosexuality and, 3, 261–66, 558n
in males vs. females, 38, 39, 43, 95, 185, 221, 250–51, 256, 427, 438, 503, 558n
marital status, 185, 186, 221, 256, 427, 438
methods, 184, 185, 233–36, 251, 347
nationality, 183, 184, 187, 197, 222, 234, 244–48
for Native Americans, 258, 259–61
in primitive societies, 186, 551n
psychiatric disorders vs., 119, 355
race, 221, 222, 234–35, 251–61, 427, 438, 557n–58n
religious denomination, 186, 246
rural vs. urban, 3, 177, 185, 186, 187, 248–49, 257
seasonal changes vs., 249–50
social integration factors and, 185, 186, 187, 204, 245, 249, 256, 257, 438
of surviving family members, 473, 494–95
systemic underreporting of, 246–47
suicide, historical views of, 129–206
Christian, 131, 151, 152–57, 158, 159, 162, 163, 177, 475
in classical civilizations, 144–57, 186, 550n
by Enlightenment thinkers, 167–72, 174, 177, 181
etymology of, 267–68
as evidence of insanity, 173, 178–82, 550n
ghost beliefs in, 131–33, 134, 144, 155, 467
in Greek culture, 144–48, 156, 159, 186, 233, 267, 365, 443, 550n
in Japan, 137–43
as medical problem, 177–82, 201, 468, 469–72
moral judgments in, 131, 132, 134, 154–57, 161, 165–66, 202, 203–4, 553n
in primitive societies, 131–36
psychoanalytic understanding of, 188–90, 205, 236–37
in Roman civilization, 131, 148–51, 154, 156, 173, 186, 233, 267, 291, 550n
Romanticism and, 174–76
in scientific context, 131, 177–90, 194–96, 306, 561n
sociological approaches in, 177, 182–88, 204
state sanctions and, 131, 136, 138, 139, 141, 147, 150, 155–56, 159, 164–65, 167, 168, 171, 172–73, 203, 466, 467–68, 579n
stigmatization in, 181–82, 467–76
surviving families affected by, 466–75, 579n
Suicide, Le (Durkheim), 89, 185–87, 204, 255
suicide, surviving family members after, 455–536
anniversary dates recognized by, 509, 513, 527, 532
answers sought by, 455, 482–83, 493, 503–5, 506, 507, 533, 580n
in case histories, 455–65
celebrities, 474
children, 497–501
conspiracy of silence maintained by, 493–94
denial responses of, 490, 493–94
dreams of, 483–84, 490, 493, 501, 502
estate forfeitures suffered by, 466, 467–68, 475, 579n
friends’ discomfort with, 476, 520–21
grieving processes of, 481–88, 489–94, 497–99, 531–37
guilt feelings of, 455, 473, 482, 483, 490–92, 495, 504–5, 516, 520, 532
historical stigmatization of, 466–76, 579n
holiday observances of, 505–6, 513, 516, 525
numbers of, 474
parents, 475, 491, 494, 517–21, 532
positive changes experienced by, 534
psychotherapeutic counseling received by, 472–73, 494, 507, 528–29
relief experienced by, 492–93
research on, 473–74
shame experienced by, 455, 467, 468–72, 474, 475–76, 480
siblings, 495
spouses, 455, 465, 477–87, 494, 533
suicide risks of, 473, 477, 485, 494–97, 502, 516
support services organized by, 474, 512–17, 521–26, 533
Suicide Act (1961), 131, 203, 394, 400
Suicide and Insanity (Strahan), 181, 471
Suicide and the Meaning of Civilization (Masaryk), 183
Suicide and the Soul (Hillman), 227, 356
suicide attempts:
of adolescents, 38–39, 95–97, 438
as communication effort, 96
completed suicides vs., 38–39, 95–97, 353, 438, 474
repeat occurrences of, 96–97, 229, 271
transformation effects of, 227
“Suicide Club, The” (Stevenson), 443
Suicide Hall, 341
Suicide in America (Hendin), 234–35, 237
suicide prevention:
acute crisis in, 301
for adolescents, 2, 32, 37, 79, 111–20, 259, 260–61, 543n
biological vulnerability tests in, 197
of Canadian Inuits, 260–61
centers established in, 298–311, 362n
civil liberties issues in, 352–57
crisis hotlines, 9, 37, 142, 281–90, 305, 309–11, 317, 439, 562n–63n
development of, 291–308, 561n, 562n
effectiveness of, 118–20, 306–9, 310–11
federal support of, 298, 303, 304, 307–8, 310, 562n
first-hand grief experience as factor in, 496–97
gun ownership precautions and, 347–48, 568n
historical survivor penalties as, 467–68
in Japan, 142
lay volunteers trained in, 286–87, 290, 302, 309
outreach activities in, 292–93, 300, 301, 439
physical barriers installed for, 342–46, 349
prevalent public support for, 349–50
public education on, 304, 312, 316
public safety policies in promotion of, 342–49
resistance to, 125–26, 292, 316–17, 330
risk assessment in, 301, 313–16, 325, 326, 563n, 565n
services refined in, 309–10
surviving families’ needs addressed in, 472–73
verbal/behavioral clues noted in, 112, 115, 301, 312–13, 316, 504
see also suicidality, treatment options for
Suicide Prevention Center (SPC), 282–90, 317, 523
see also Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center
Suicides Anonymous, 522
“Suicide Solution” (Osbourne), 86, 88
Summa Theologiae (Thomas Aquinas), 156
support groups, 474, 512–17, 521–26, 533
Supreme Court, U.S., right-to-die cases of, 4, 371, 374, 382, 383
surgeons, 251
surrender, suicide vs., 84, 145
survivor guilt, 497
survivors, see suicide, surviving family members of
Survivors of Suicide (Cain), 473
Sutherland, Kathleen, 387
Sutherland, Peggy, 387–88
Sweden, suicide rates of, 244–245, 246, 248, 252, 566n
Switzerland:
assisted suicide permitted in, 573n
suicide rate of, 246
“Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief, The” (Lindemann), 488
Szasz, Thomas, 352, 354–55, 356–57
Tacitus, 149
Takashimadaira public housing complex, 567n
Takeyoshi, Ohara, 138
Tale of Two Cities, A (Dickens), 241
Tarquinius Priscus, Lucius, 291
Tartars, 431
technological innovations, death delayed with, 368–75, 415, 431–32, 571n
TeenScreen, 120
television programs, 53–54, 55, 90–91, 542n–43n
Temptation of Saint Anthony, The (Flaubert), 153
terminal illness:
defined, 381
discoveries in treatment of, 416
HIV/AIDS as, 264
pain management in, 440
psychological effects of, 417–18, 429
spiritual value of, 416
terminal sedation, 374
terrorists, 1–2, 186, 225, 226
Tertullian, 153
Tezcatlipoca, 135
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 156, 171
Thorazine (chlorpromazine), 63, 318–19, 518
Thracian sacrificial suicide, 135
thrift (economic) suicide, 134, 166–67, 431–32, 434–35, 437, 551n
Thucydides, 145
Tiebout, John, 46
Timon (of Athens), 147
Titanic, 523
Tokyo, Japan, suicide landmarks in, 567n
Tolstoy, Leo, 353
Tomita, Masako, 341
Too Young to Die, 504
Totem and Taboo (Freud), 189
Toynbee, Arnold, 455
Traitor Within, 250
Treatise on Madness, A (Battie), 177–78
tricyclic antidepressants, 319, 320, 321
Tschuktschi, 431
Tshi-speaking peoples, 133
Tuke, D. H., 550n
Tuke (English cleric), 163
21 Delightful Ways of Committing Suicide (Bruller), 573n
twin studies, 198–99
Ueki, Mieko, 341
Uganda, tribal suicide customs in, 364
Ulysses (Joyce), 471
Undertaking, The (Lynch), 239
Underwood, Mark, 191–92, 193, 201
United States:
antisuicide laws in, 165
ethnic minorities of, 234–35, 248, 251–61, 263, 557n–58n
euthanasia legislation in, 366, 376, 377
gun ownership in, 347–49
migrations within, 248, 256–57
suicide prevention begun in, 291–93, 294–95
suicide rates in, 9, 37–38, 56–57, 247–49, 252, 256, 258–59, 307
Western states of, 247–48
urban life, 3, 177, 183, 185, 186, 248–49
Urquhart, A. R., 470
Utopia (More), 159–60, 164, 443
Utter, Robert, 337
Valentine’s Day, 249
Van Helmont (physician), 179
van Praag, Herman, 201
Varah, Chad, 294
Veith, Ilza, 354
Vermont, suicide rate of, 248
Victorian era, 471
Victoroff, Victor, 117–18
video games, 541n
Vienna, Austria, suicide prevention in, 293
Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, 86, 188, 190, 347
Vierkandt, Alfred, 551n
Vigny, Alfred-Victor de, 176
Villemair, 184
violence:
in African-American experience, 252–55
family history of, 252–53
media portrayals of, 54–55, 90–91, 541n, 542n–43n
Vitelli, Karen (fictitious name), 499–501
Vitelli, Linda (fictitious name), 499–500, 501
Vitelli, Mary (fictitious name), 499–501
Vitelli, Rose (fictitious name), 499, 500–501
Voices of Death (Shneidman), 229
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), 167, 168–69, 174, 469
voluntary euthanasia, 375, 388–91
see also euthanasia
Voluntary Euthanasia Society, 366–67, 393, 400, 404, 436
Vonnegut, Kurt, 444
Wacker, Warren, 96
Wajagga, 132
Wallace, Samuel, 354
Walpole, Horace, 174
Walters, Paul, 42
“Wanting to Die” (Sexton), 238
war:
biblical murder prohibition vs., 415
military suicides and, 84, 145, 150, 186, 275
soldiers’ heroism in, 275
suicide rates during, 186, 247
thrill of, 275
warning signs, 37, 42, 79, 112–16, 163, 304, 312–13, 316
Warren, Henry Marsh, 291–93
Warren, Henry Marsh, Jr., 293
warrior cultures, 134, 137–38, 145, 259, 291
Washington, assisted-suicide ballot measure in, 385, 405
Web sites, suicide-related, 91, 143
Webster, Daniel, 222
Wechsler, James, 475–76
Wechsler, Michael, 476
Weisman, Avery, 314
Weiss, Nathan, 188
Weissman, Myrna, 80
Welch, Tom, 512–13, 515–16, 522, 524–25, 526, 531, 533
“Welcome to the Monkey House” (Vonnegut), 444
Weller, Sheila, 491
Welles, John, 375–76
Wells, H. G., 366
Wertherism, 87
Wesley, John, 174
Westchester County Mental Health Association Interagency Task Force on Adolescent Depression and Suicide, 113–14, 119
Westchester suicide cluster, 11, 78–79, 82–83, 88, 92, 114
Westermarck, Edward, 364–65
Whalley, Elsa, 303
Wheat, William, 328–29
Wheeler, Jim, 265–66
Whitaker, Robert, 194
Whose Life is It Anyway? (Clark), 369
Why Survive? (Butler), 437, 439–40
Wickett, Ann, 394, 395, 404, 573n–74n, 575n
widows:
sacrificial suicides of, 135–36, 145, 222, 226, 235
see also suicide, surviving family members of
Wiener, Jerry, 331
Williams, Huntington, 375–76
Williams, S. D., 366
Wiltsie, Gordon, 275
Winslow, Forbes, 83, 179, 180, 470–71
Winter Name of God, The (Carroll), 277–78
witchcraft, 548n
Wolf, Diana, 27, 31–32, 33, 35, 124
Wolfgang, Marvin, 275
Wolf Man (Freudian case history), 189
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 241
Woman at Scotland Yard, A (Wyles), 203
women:
eating disorders of, 273
elderly, 443
male depression rates vs., 43, 95
in male-dominated professions, 251
male suicide rates vs., 38, 39, 43, 185, 221, 250–51, 256, 427, 438, 503, 558n
Wood, J. M. S., 470
Woolf, Virginia, 224
wrist-cutting, 96–97, 271, 327–28
Wurtzel, Elizabeth, 319
Wyles, Lilian, 203
Wyoming:
Native-American suicide cluster in, 259
suicide rate of, 247
Xanax, 482
Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program, 120
Yolles, Stanley, 303
Young, Edward, 174
Youngner, Stuart, 418
Youth in Crisis, 117
Zeno, 147
Zilboorg, Gregory, 43, 202, 205, 295, 558n
Zimri (biblical figure), 151–52