Book Review Critical Suicidology
Critical Suicidology Edited by Jennifer White, Ian Marsh, Michael J. Kral, and Jonathan Morris
This book comprehensively talks about suicide and suicidology. It asks where suicidology is going and how to do the research needed to understand it better. I have broken down this review with a sum of the chapters in the book. The first chapter talks about suicidology and what is meant by the term. It also talks about defining suicide research. Nomenclature was discussed and I thought about the tower of babel paper written by O’Carroll (O’Carroll, Berman et al. 1996). Agree with author that you cannot diagnose suicidality like this paper and later Silverman points out (Silverman 2006). It is too fluid and changes on sometimes an hourly basis. The complexity of suicide and suicide ideation varies between individuals. I was also disappointed that Dr. Julie Cerel’s work on suicide survivors was not mentioned despite being published at the time of the book. There was mention that at least 7 people are affected by suicide which Cerel’s research disputes. According to her research, as many as 125 people can be affected by one single suicide. Bereavement research is not mentioned.
Chapter two was a bit confusing as it gave grounds for quantitative research but then changed gears and wanted qualitative research as the “best”. Author appears a little disgruntled that the editor of the leading US based suicide journal, Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, seems to say one thing but do another. They looked at a few years of studies and found most of them were quantitative yet the editor wanted qualitative. It goes back and forth. At the end, the author sides more on mixed studies (qual and quant) analyses.
Chapter three is about Indigenous youth. This is a special population that needs more attention. Prevention efforts should be what the youth is needing rather than someone else. A power struggle of whether the intervention needs community support or individual support is discussed.
Chapter four talks about youth in general. It was a hard chapter to read as it reminded me of my past struggles.
Chapter five discusses women and how they were expected to care for others and shamed which caused them to be depressed or they were abused. Help seeking was encouraged but some women were shamed further so was not good help. It’s true that men are at greater risk of dying by suicide than women as they often choose more lethal methods. Women have less lethal suicide attempts and gender norms need to be included in the character of women who attempt or self-harm.
Chapter six talked about narrative therapy of suicide survivor loss. Interesting to learn of narrative therapy and that someone got their PhD in suicidology. The narratives of a bereaved survivor were touching. Very sad.
Chapter seven deals with collaborative care, no us/them directive. No diagnosis to prevent stigmatization in treatment. Like that they use whole person rather than diagnosis to treat suicidal ideation and behaviors. Works of Jobes, Lenaars discussed.
Chapter eight is a lived experience chapter written by someone with BPD and how positive psychology helped her. Interesting but thought author was talking around in circles. Kept saying she had recurrent suicidality but then would talk about lived experience and being an academic.
Chapter nine talks about social violence and hate that cause suicide rather than individualize a person’s suicide. Solidarity helps to mitigate when a person dies by suicide. An interesting chapter.
Chapter ten talks about youth suicide among queer identities. How gay men are attributed in film to be sad and suicidal to forming the identity of lesbian/gay/bi. Confusing as fuck with the verbiage.
Chapter eleven discusses poetry in facing suicide survivors. Interesting chapter about how words can convey feelings.
Chapter twelve is about Inuit suicide and how it was high before prevention programs took hold in the community. Best treatment was at the community level rather than individual involvement. Youth suicide decreased when there were peer support and increased when peer support networks weren’t available. Brilliant example of how a sense of belongingness can help to decrease suicide.
Chapter thirteen talks about reimagining youth suicide. Goes back and forth about chapters throughout the book and other research.
Overall, a very important book to have if you are serious about suicidology.
Suicidology finds itself confused and stagnated for lack of a standard nomenclature. This paper proposes a nomenclature for suicide-related behavior in the hope of improving the clarity and precision of communications, advancing suicidological research and knowledge, and improving the efficacy of clinical interventions.
midnightdemons7 