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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 616.85844500973 EAN: 9780375701474 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0375701478 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 448 Publication Date: October 10, 2000 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: October 10, 2000 Studio: Vintage Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com: "Suicide is a particularly awful way to die: the mental suffering leading up to it is usually prolonged, intense, and unpalliated," writes Kay Redfield Jamison. "There is no morphine equivalent to ease the acute pain, and death not uncommonly is violent and grisly." Jamison has studied manic-depressive illness and suicide both professionally--and personally. She first planned her own suicide at 17; she attempted to carry it out at 28. Now professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she explores the complex psychology of suicide, especially in people younger than 40: why it occurs, why it is one of our most significant health problems, and how it can be prevented. Jamison discusses manic-depression, suicide in different cultures and eras, suicide notes (they "promise more than they deliver"), methods, preventive treatments, and the devastating effects on loved ones. She explores what type of person commits suicide, and why, and when. She illustrates her points with detailed anecdotes about people who have attempted or committed suicide, some famous, some ordinary, many of them young. Not easy reading, either in subject or style, but you'll understand suicide better and be jolted by the intensity of depression that drives young people to it. --Joan Price Product Description: From the author of the best-selling memoir An Unquiet Mind, comes the first major book in a quarter century on suicide, and its terrible pull on the young in particular. Night Falls Fast is tragically timely: suicide has become one of the most common killers of Americans between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. An internationally acknowledged authority on depressive illnesses, Dr. Jamison has also known suicide firsthand: after years of struggling with manic-depression, she tried at age twenty-eight to kill herself. Weaving together a historical and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays on individual suicides, she brings not only her remarkable compassion and literary skill but also all of her knowledge and research to bear on this devastating problem. This is a book that helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to recognize and come to the aid of those at risk, and to comprehend the profound effects on those left behind. It is critical reading for parents, educators, and anyone wanting to understand this tragic epidemic. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A disappointingly incomplete analysis from a usually good scholarI've been an admirer of Kay Jamison's research and writing for some time; thus I looked forward to reading this book. I was distressed to find, however, gaps in her analysis that border on irresponsible. This work is completely (and myopically) filtered through the lens of her career focus: treatment of mood disorders, most especially bipolar and depression. If this was intended to be a comprehensive review of issues related to suicide, so many holes exist here that it's actually ... Read More Rating:  - A Study of Suicide with an Insider Point of ViewDr. Jamison's book is written from a unique and compassionate point of view that most other books on suicide are not - she has seriously attempted suicide, and she has bipolar disorder. She accesses a tremendous amount of research to illustrate the epidemic of suicide in the USA - questionnaires such as: How likely is a person to actually go through with the act? Additionally she is able to tell stories of people who have committed suicide that leave everyone wondering - if only... just as in real ... Read More Rating: - Day Has PassedI have read all of Jamison's work, with the exception of _The Exuberance of Life_. The writing presented in this volume has resonance from what I have felt. Night Falls Fast should be considered a guide for families of mentally ill who contemplate suicide. It is tight and concise, from the moral judgements which are placed upon those who attempt it, to instances of unsound internal turmoil. Perhaps it is the chaos within writers like Jamison which creates the flight of the mind. When it lies in artists, ... Read More Rating: - Intellectually helpfulAfter my partner's suicide as a result of his manic depression, this one book above many others provided me the ability to undertsand and hence, turn a much-needed corner in my own grief process. Although this book can be defined as a "study" with its language and statistics, the author does not forego the emotional aspect of those who are surviving the loss of a loved one through suicide. Her citations, some written by actual manic depressives and schizophrenics, -- as well as historical points taken ... Read More Rating:  - Author of Poetic Thoughts from the Heart of a Woman and Mama and UsSome months ago, I appeared on the radio to promote a book of my own, called "Suicide-The Explosion Within" and read this particular book before hand, so that I could have an even better understanding of sucide from both my perspective as well as this particular author's. This book was, not only helpful, both informative and well received. 
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