Why People Kill Themselves: A 2000 Summary of Research on Suicide

As an annotated review of virtually every suicide study published in the English language between 1990 and 1997, this volume culminates David Lester’s study of 100 years of suicide research worldwide. It is a unique work, reaching beyond the approach of computerized services to focus on abstracts and identify relevant articles in the fields of medicine, biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, criminal justice, and women’s studies. Lester’s investigations in this widely researched area are logically categorized by topics that include inheritance, physiological factors, sex, childhood experiences, sociological theories, rate reliability and validity, sociological correlates, time variations, multivariate studies, meteorological correlates, social relationships, methodological issues, the suicidal act, epidemiology, methods of suicide, communication, psychiatric disorders, medical illnesses, suggestion, aggression, personalities and behaviors, suicidal types, other self-destructive behaviors, suicidal behavior in other species, and theories of suicide. This is an indispensable volume in the modern study of suicide and a fitting companion to the author’s three previous research volumes.