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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Appropriately, this WIP Wednesday falls on All Souls Day

Hopping by from the Thanks For the Books Blog Hop? See the giveaway post here.

Are you an author with a current work-in-progress? Would you like to tease your work on a future WIP Wednesday? If so, please e-mail Erin O'Riordan: erinoriordan (at) sbcglobal (dot) net

Ernest Shulman: A great upsurge in research on causes and prevention of suicide occurred during the last forty or more years, in many European countries, North America, Japan, and elsewhere, accompanied by several academic journals and numerous books. Millions of dollars and hundreds of commissions have been devoted to this cause, along with hundreds of hot-lines, organizations, and movements linking loved ones left behind by those suiciding, as well as other groups with common interests. Yet suicide rates worldwide have scarcely budged.

An established researcher, Ernest Shulman, with a Ph.D. in psychology, is preparing a book -- Thirty Famous Suicides -- using an original approach designed to equip laypeople with an understanding of suicide and what they can do to prevent it in those they care about. It features the analysis of the life stories of famous suicidal people who did or did not kill themselves. The book innovates by delineating the six stages in the lifetime suicidal pathways that end in self-inflicted death. One of the early stages is the development of pathological narcissism ("It must be my way or no way") and a later stage detailing resistance to suicide. Other stages follow accepted but previously unintegrated concepts. No other work on the causes or prevention of suicide deals comprehensively with these concepts.

Erin O'Riordan: While participating in the CoffinHop, I came across the website of David Ewald, whose book is called He Who Shall Remain Shameless. It's a rather remarkable speculative fiction concept, about a man who communicates with the spirits of dead. Some of the spirit characters are based on real people, some of whom died by their own hands. They include Andrew Kehoe, a Michigan farmer who used explosives to kill more than 40 people, including schoolchildren, along with his wife and himself, and Christine Chubbock, a 29-year-old news reporter in Florida who shot herself live on the air. I find the concept of Ewald's collection of linked short stories both disturbing and fascinating.

1 comment:

Nora B. Peevy said...

Battled myself with this issue in high school and I can say, it gets better and things are worth living for. But sometimes, it just seems like the pain won't end. I get it. It makes me sad that people feel that bad and that sometimes people are quick to judge them, without realizing the pain they are in.