Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves
By Jesse Bering
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Bering survived. And in addition to relief, the fading of his suicidal thoughts brought curiosity. Where had they come from? Would they return? Is the suicidal impulse found in other animals? Or is our vulnerability to suicide a uniquely human evolutionary development? In Suicidal, Bering answers all these questions and more, taking us through the science and psychology of suicide, revealing its cognitive secrets and the subtle tricks our minds play on us when we’re easy emotional prey. Scientific studies, personal stories, and remarkable cross-species comparisons come together to help readers critically analyze their own doomsday thoughts while gaining broad insight into a problem that, tragically, will most likely touch all of us at some point in our lives. But while the subject is certainly a heavy one, Bering’s touch is light. Having been through this himself, he knows that sometimes the most effective response to our darkest moments is a gentle humor, one that, while not denying the seriousness of suffering, at the same time acknowledges our complicated, flawed, and yet precious existence.
Authoritative, accessible, personal, profound—there’s never been a book on suicide like this. It will help you understand yourself and your loved ones, and it will change the way you think about this most vexing of human problems.
Jesse Bering
Jesse Bering, Ph.D. is a frequent contributor to Scientific American and Slate. His writing has also appeared in New York magazine, The Guardian, and The New Republic, among others, and has been featured by NPR, Playboy Radio, and more. The author of The Belief Instinct, Bering is the former Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at the Queen's University, Belfast, and began his career as a professor at the University of Arkansas. He lives in Ithaca, New York.
Read more from Jesse Bering
Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?: And Other Reflections on Being Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Suicidal
Related ebooks
That's Mental: Painfully Funny Things That Drive Me Crazy About Being Mentally Ill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evil: The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capture: Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist's Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Anatomy of Pain: How the Body and the Mind Experience and Endure Physical Suffering Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor's Revelations about a Profession in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind: How to Be "Normal" in Your Twenties with Anxiety and Depression Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Noonday Demon: An Atlas Of Depression Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Difficult Personalities: A Practical Guide to Managing the Hurtful Behavior of Others (and Maybe Your Own) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Madness: A Bipolar Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass: A Psychologist's Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Engaging Multiple Personalities Volume 1: Contextual Case Histories: Engaging Multiple Personalities, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Psychology For You
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Fun Personality Quizzes: Who Are You . . . Really?! Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Win Friends and Influence People: Updated For the Next Generation of Leaders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Letting Go: Stop Overthinking, Stop Negative Spirals, and Find Emotional Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covert Passive Aggressive Narcissist: The Narcissism Series, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Quiet Strength Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Suicidal
12 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves by psychologist Jesse Bering is an attempt to make sense of the complex phenomenon of suicide from a variety of different angles including psychological, biological, spiritual, and evolutionary. The author admits that he takes an intellectualized, scientific perspective to try to gain a broader understanding, and he does a good job of examining both the strengths and weaknesses of various ideas on the subject. He encourages the reader to set preconceptions aside and consider the array of different experiences of those who struggle with suicidality. He also brings to the table his own "recurring compulsion to end my life, which flares up like a sore tooth at the whims of bad fortune".The book covers a broad range of biopsychosocial contributors to suicide risk. Some information may be familiar to the reader, such as the genetic component to suicide risk, while other information may be new, including anthropological evidence that indicates that suicide occurs across many different cultural groups. The risk of suicide contagion is also discussed, and the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why is considered in this context.Certain phrases in the book resonated very strongly with me and my own experience with suicidality. Bering writes: "For the truly suicidal, consciousness is incapacitating." He also writes about the agonizing slowness of time when one feels suicidal, part of a process called cognitive deconstruction: "When each new dawn welcomes what feels like an eternity of mental anguish, the yawning expanse between youth and old age might as well be interminable Hell itself."This is not a book that sidesteps around the grim reality of suicidality. The author points out the while suicide may appear to come out of nowhere, this is because of the tendency to stay silent about our own unravelling. He also acknowledges the reality that sometimes people will find themselves in "very tricky situations where, frankly, it's hard not to see suicide as a rational decision". He expressed his view that over-emphasis on the semantics of suicide does nothing to actually combat the problem of suicide, and may potentially restrict discourse. While this may be controversial, I'm actually inclined to agree with him.The book includes some controversial and even distasteful ideas, but they are presented in a way that seems geared to inform and examine rather than persuade. Bering cites one researcher who suggested that from a purely ecological perspective, suicide could be considered adaptive, as it may not ultimately affect the likelihood of that person's genes propagating. He also mentions the view (although he disagrees with it) that depression results from social problems, and "should abate when a problem is perceived to be truly unsolvable". The two researchers that put forward this idea described suicide attempts as a sort of trading card to be played to motivate those close to them to help, something one anthropologist referred to this as the "social bargaining hypothesis".One chapter that disturbed me examined the diary left behind on the laptop of a 17-year-old girl who killed herself, which the parents had shared with the author. It is considered in terms of a theoretical perspective of the stages of suicidality. To me this felt like a profound invasion of privacy, and I would be horrified at the idea of my journal being shared with the world if I were to die by suicide. It was not the content of the diary that I found distressing, but the fact that these were her most private, vulnerable thoughts not intended to be shared.A chapter I found fascinating looked at suicide in the context of religion. The author explains that the Christian bible actually does not explicitly mention suicide, and takes a matter of fact tone with regards to the suicide of such biblical figures as Judas, King Saul, and Samson. The Catholic church took a strong stance in the fifth century when St. Augustine deemed suicide to be a sin; later in 1485 Saint Thomas Aquinas declared suicide to be one of the worst mortal sins. The Islamic hadith (sayings of the prophet Mohammed) denounce suicide, and in several Muslim countries attempting suicide is a criminal offense. Hindu scriptures are ambiguous regarding suicide, but for centuries there was an expectation that widows should self-immolate on their husband's funeral pyre. The chapter covered a range of other religious traditions, and presented facts rather than making religious arguments.In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, the author admits he was having thoughts of suicide when he began the book, but found the writing of it cathartic. I was actually experiencing suicidal thoughts as I read the book, but perhaps surprisingly I didn't find it overly triggering. I freely admit to being very much a geek, and the intellectual aspect of this book certainly connected to that inner geek. It was highly informative without having any of the dryness and impersonality an an academic work. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who's interested in finding out more about the phenomenon of suicidality from a broad perspective.I received a reviewer copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One would think that this is a depressing subject to read about and it is, but it is also a very important one to gain some insights in, especially since no one is immune to it. Just think Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. It is also a problem for students of all ages - a reason why I am so interested in it. This books looks at the history of suicide, how various religions view it and provides the reader with insights into how the suicidal mind works. He also makes a compelling argument for the elimination of means for suicide as a deterrent - such as gun control, safety means on high points for jumping, elimination of bars in closets - by providing proof of where these have worked. The author himself knows of which he speaks, having been suicidal himself, so there is a much appreciated degree of credibility to the tone of this book. While often scary and depressing, it is an important topic that needs more public discussion and education.
1 person found this helpful