I'm looking for literature on suicide, classic or contempary doesn't matter.

Anyone know of anything? I tried searching around but didn't get much luck on some german books.

You wouldn't have found a "Suicide for Dummies" book, would you?

Ah the jokes are early

No i'm trying to understad the death of someone close to me, this crowd has some brains

Oh. My deepest apologies and sympathies, mein freund.

Here's one I remember from University:

http://www.amazon.com/Autoerotic-Fatalities-Robert-R-Hazelwood/dp/0669047163

We all thought it was funny to read about the number of ways people have killed themselves while trying to have an orgasm (electrocution, vacuum cleaner mishaps, lots of hanging), until a guy apparently tried one of them on himself.  He wasn't a close friend, just another younger geek in the Physics club, but still...

There's some interesting research into which societies allow suicide and which ones criminalize it. Suicide is illegal in the US I think. The conclusions I've seen are that suicide is the ultimate freedom an individual has to tell society to go fuck itself, and that it is societies obsessed with greater power and control over individuals that criminalize it. Those that permit it are totalitarian or authoritarian states in which individuals are already controlled and thus suicide is not a threat to the public order.

Thats interesting, from what i've been reading today its Chrisitan culture that disallows it as life is a gift from god. Whereas Arabic and far eastern culture allows this more and is more widely accepted (Japan I think the reference was to)

Thats a weird book there Ward, check the "Customers who read this also read" haha some mad suff

Yep, suicide is 'the cardinal sin' according to the Catholic Church, if memory serves correctly.

And suicide - as a matter of saving face, at least - seems acceptable in Japan.

Why Catholicism is anti-suicide: "God hasn't finished punishing you on earth yet."

Lol, sounds about right, heartsheep.

It is highly amusing that suicide is illegal.  If it is successful, the prosecution tends to be difficult.

It mostly isn't successful though. Particularly for women.

Making it illegal is pretty bizarre. For those who survive and are prosecuted, well sheesh, this just confirms the feelings of unfairness and despair that led to the suicide.

I can get behind criminalizing assisted suicide because there is too much room for manipulation and abuse here. Uninsured sick people requiring expensive treatments will be given propaganda films about how the moral choice is to do the right thing and spare their family the financial and emotional burden. This is already the case in medicine in some sectors and would simply become an institutionalized best economic practice if formally allowed.

Which is why I always thought it was illegal. OUr mental health laws go such that unless you are an immediate threat to yourself or others they cannot hold you against your will.

This gives them something to 'hold' you with to force you to be treated. Not entirely bad or barbaric, only at first seeming counterintuitive.

Hm, hadn't thought of that. Isn't that a separate issue though, being able to hold someone for observation vs arresting them and putting them in jail for making an attempt?

if you're under 20 or thereabouts, society is supporting you.

after then you're putting stuff back in. till you retire or start drawing too much medical services out.

in a more cynical world, society would say "kill yourself after you retire, sure, but not before, you haven't paid off your debt to the society bringing you up".

but that's too hard a rule. so: 'no suicide for you!'.

What type of literature do you want?

Whether suicide is permissible or how to deal with a suicidal person?

For the first type:

Assisted Suicide: The Philosophers' Brief http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1237

Hume on suicide
http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/452_r5.html

Both of those topics realy and how to deal with the loss of a parent through suicide.

shit, that sucks. condolences.

Yeah, that sucks.

Only time will heal. Think about the good time.

this isn't literature about suicide, but your parent thing made me remember this book (it's about depression):

http://www.noondaydemon.com/

in it the author, sees and assists his mother's own suicide (when he's only 28 or so himself). he traces back his lifelong struggle with depression to this event.

the book is fabulous by the way.

Thanks for the link

Its been 8 years now and i'm just getting around to processing/dealing/understanding it but its hard to find material on it.

Kevorkian wrote a book on how to suicide, intended for people with fatal, non-operable conditions.

I read parts of it in a bookstore, but decided not to buy it.  I don't own a hand-gun either, for that matter.

I understand Kevorkian recently got out of jail for assisting in a suicide.  He's going to keep a low profile for a while.

Is it suicide if you let yourself die by neglecting your health?

Is it suicide if you overdose on heroin to avoid the emotional and physical pain of Lou Gehrig's?

I'd have to say yes to both, assuming you know that dying is the consequence of your (in)action.