Life Span Perspectives of Suicide: Time-Lines in the Suicide Process PDF
Preview Life Span Perspectives of Suicide: Time-Lines in the Suicide Process
Life Span Perspectives of Suicide Time-Lines in the Suicide Process Life Span Perspectives of Suicide Time-Lines in the Suicide Process Edited by Antoon A. Leenaars, Ph.D. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Library of Congress Catalog1ng-1n-PublIcatlon Data Life span perspectives of suicide : time-lines 1n the suicid e process / edited by Antoon A. Leenaars. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and Index. ISBN 978-1-4899-0726-4 1. Suicide—United States. 2. Life cycle, Human. I. Leenaars , Antoon A. HV6548.U5L54 1990 362.2'82'0973—dc20 90-49557 CIP ISBN 978-1-4899-0726-4 ISBN 978-1-4899-0724-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0724-0 © 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher To Edwin S. Shneidman, who taught me about suicide's complexity Contributors W. D. G. Balance • 813 Pemberton, Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan 48230 John Benjafield • Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3Al Alan L. Berman • Department of Psychology, American University, Washing ton, D.C. 20016 Allan Brooks • Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141 Pamela Cantor • Department of Psychiatry, The Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Bonnie Frank Carter • Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141 Dorothy Counts • Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo , Water loo, Ontario, Canada N2L 301 Norman L. Farberow • The Suicide Prevention Center of the Family Services of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90006 AntoonA. Leenaars • Private Practice, 880 Ouelette Avenue, Suite 702, Wind sor, Ontario, Canada N9A lC7 vii viii CONTRIBUTORS David Lester • Department of Psychology, Stockton State College, Pomona, New Jersey 08240 John T. Maltsberger • Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 Ronald W. Maris • The Center for the Study of Suicide, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208 John L. Mcintosh • Department of Psychology, Indiana University of South Bend, South Bend, Indiana 46634 Jerome A. Motto • Department of Psychiatry and Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143 David P. Phillips • Department of Sociology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 Victor I. Reus • Department of Psychiatry and Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143 Joseph Richman • Professor Emeritus, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461 Edwin S. Shneidman • Professor of Thanatology Emeritus, University of Cali fornia, Los Angeles, California: 90024 Daniel G. Smith • Department of Sociology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 Steven Stack • Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202 Susanne Wenckstern • The Board of Education for the City of Windsor, Wind sor, Ontario, Canada, N9A 6KI Preface In recent years, a great deal of interest has been focused on suicide in the elderly and in the young. However, in line with modem trends in psychology, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, and other human health fields, interest has now shifted to suicide across the life span, from childhood through adulthood to old age. This book has been conceptualized within this developing tradition. There are various ways in which life's timelines can be conceptualized. Developmental theory, we believe, should be open-ended. This has widened-and will continue to widen-our understanding of many complicated human acts including suicide. Though suicide is in many ways the same across the entire life span, understanding the time-lines in the suicidal process is imperative. To do so, however, is, we believe, challenging. In this volume, we attempt to engage in the process of understanding suicide from a developmental perspective. To do this, we have been fortunate to obtain the cooperation of a highly competent group of contributors. One interesting footnote to our list of authorities is that they represent suicidologists from across the life span-a few who are at the beginning of their careers, a large number in their middle years, and a few who are in the Indian summer of their professional lives. By way of background, the following introduces our contributors in order of their appearance in the text: John Benjafield is professor of psychology, and director of the Institute for Applied Human Development at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Can- ix x PREFACE ada. Benjafield, a nonsuicidologist, has provided a larger metaperspective. He has published extensively on historical perspectives and developmental psychology. David Lester is professor of psychology at Stockton State College, Pomona, New Jersey. Lester is current vice president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). He has published a number of books and literally hundreds of papers. Ronald W. Maris is professor of sociology and preventive medicine at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, where he directs the Center for the Study of Suicide. He is a past president of the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and the current editor of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (SLTB). Having published extensively, he has served as an expert witness on cases dealing with wrongful death and suicide. Edwin S. Shneidman is professor of thanatology emeritus at the University of California at Los Angeles. He is one of the founding fathers of modern suicidology, having begun the AAS and its journal, SLTB. He has received numerous awards, most recently a Distinguished Professional Contributions Award from the Ameri can Psychological Association. Among his extensive list of publications is the recently published Definition of Suicide. John L. McIntosh is associate professor of psychology at Indiana University at South Bend, Indiana, and a research associate at the Center for Gerentological Education, University of Notre Dame. He has published numerous papers and books, the latest being Suicide and Its Aftermath, coauthored by E. Dunne and K. Dunne-Maxim, and has received AAS's Edwin Shneidman Award for his research on the elderly. David P. Phillips is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California. Having received the AAS's Edwin Shneidman Award for outstanding contribution in research in suicidology, his work on suicide and the contagion-Werther-effect has resulted in major reflections on the role of the media in suicide. Phillips has published extensively on the epidemiology of suicide and on the subject of motor vehicle fatalities. Daniel G. Smith is a graduate student at the department of sociology, Univer sity of California, San Diego. Antoon A. Leenaars is a psychologist in private practice in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Leenaars has served as an expert witness in cases dealing with wrongful death and suicide. Currently he is president of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP) and a board member of AAS. Having received AAS's Shneidman Award, he has published extensively on suicide, including the recently released Suicide Notes (Human Sciences Press). Susanne Wenckstern is a psychology consultant at the Windsor Board of Education, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She is locally and nationally active address ing suicide in the schools, being a member of CASP's national school committee, PREFACE xi and has published a number of papers and chapters on suicidology and co-edited a book, Suicide Prevention in Schools. Alan L. Berman, a diplomate in clinical psychology, is a professor of psychol ogy at American University, Washington, D.C. He is a past president of the AAS and the recipient of the Shneidman Award. Berman, recognized as an expert on youth suicide, has published over 50 professional articles and chapters and has served as an expert witness on cases dealing with wrongful death and suicide. W. D. G. Balance, a psychology professor, has published extensively in a number of human health areas, most recently suicide and eating disorders. He is especially known in suicidology for his collaborative work with Leenaars on suicide notes. Joseph Richman is professor emeritus at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. He has been active, including as a board member, in AAS since its inception in 1969. Having received AAS's Dublin Award for a lifetime of contribu tions to suicidology, Richman has specialized in crisis intervention and family therapy. He is known for his focus on positive thinking, well-being, and humor throughout the life span, devoting special attention on the lifestyles of the elderly. Jerome A. Motto, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, is also very active at the Medical Center as the associate director of its Psychiatric Consultation Service. Motto is a past president of AAS, past secretary general of IASp, and the recipient of AAS's Dublin Award. His work in depressive and suicidal states has focused on risk assessment and clinical management. Victor I. Rues, associate professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, also holds the position of medical director at the University'S Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American Psychi atric Association, has served as an editorial reviewer to 18 journals, and has published extensively in the area of biological aspects of depression, including the area of suicide. Steven Stack is professor of sociology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama. Stack, a recipient of AAS's Shneidman Award for his outstanding contribution in research in suicidology, has recently focused on media impacts on suicide and the importance of the family in suicide. Dorothy Counts is professor (and chairperson) of anthropology at the Univer sity of Waterloo , Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is known for her field research in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, on its political and economic change, religious syncretism and cargo cult activities, aging and death, domestic violence, and suicide. Among many publications, she has produced a number of papers on suicide from an anthropological perspective. Bonnie Frank Carter is director of research and program director for Youth Suicide Prevention Services and for the Violence Postvention Program, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. Her work and publications have delllt with
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