The Suicidal Mind

The Suicidal Mind is a study of suicide by Dr. Edwin Shneidman. The listed author, Dr. Timothy Moss, does not match the author named in the description. It begins from the point that suicide is a taboo subject, often avoided or softened in language and poorly understood, and it notes that suicide was then the third leading cause of death among fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds in the United States. Shneidman argues that psychology and psychiatry have failed to understand and prevent it because they have lost sight of the plain, everyday words, the pain and the frustrated psychological needs of the suicidal person.

His central idea is that the main cause of suicide is psychological pain, which he calls psychache. On this view, prevention depends less on studying the structure of the brain, social statistics or mental illness, and more on directly studying human emotions. Treating a suicidal person means identifying, addressing and reducing that person's psychache.

Shneidman draws on his experience as both clinician and researcher and explores the inner drama of the suicidal mind through three case studies: Ariel, Beatrice and Castro. Each is told in the person's own words. Castro, a young man, survived with severe disfigurement. The cases are used to show that suicide is an attempt at finding a solution, to illustrate the pain at its core, and to identify frustrated psychological needs as the common stressor.

Throughout, he gives practical, explicit steps that concerned friends and family, as well as professionals, can take to help someone who is suicidal. He describes suicide as a uniquely human response to extreme pain, a desperate and lonely solution chosen when no alternatives can be seen. The book is written for anyone who has considered suicide or knows someone who has.