Kay Redfield Jamison

London:Picador, 2000; £16.99
ISBN 0330 481789

Kay Redfield Jamison is well qualified to write on suicide, being an expert in mental disorders and having attempted suicide herself—she publicised her suffering from manic depression in her earlier book, An Unquiet Mind. Again, her style is clear and accessible and she writes with compassion and authority on a difficult subject. The text is comprehensive and Red? field Jamison masterly draws together the disparate areas of the study of suicide. Because most suicides are associated with serious mental illnesses (especially depres? sion, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia), these are naturally covered in the text, mak? ing this a good adjunct to your standard psychiatry textbook. The descriptions of the despair, of depression, or the experience of psychosis are among the most enlightening that I have encountered.

Redfield Jamison makes extensive use of excerpts from writings by the disturbed and suicidal, including both literature from famous authors and extracts from suicide notes. She notes that the content of suicide notes is often surprisingly banal and only rarely sheds light on “the human condition.”

However, the text focuses primarily on suicide, and does not address self harm (which is not always suicidal in nature), and fails to make this distinction in the text. Also the data quoted are largely from American populations and so may not apply to the British experience of suicide.

Naturally, such a book makes a harrowing read. I would caution you not to read this book when you are feeling low or disturbed.