Author(s): Kay Redfield Jamison

Personal Development

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, an internationally recognized authority on depressive illnesses and their treatment, knows the subject of suicide firsthand. At the age of twenty-eight, after years of struggling with manic-depression, she attempted to kill herself. Her survival marked the beginning of a life's work to investigate both mental illness and self-inflicted death. Weaving together a psychological and scientific exploration of the subject with personal essays about individual suicides, Dr. Jamison in this book brings not only her compassion and literary skill but all of her knowledge, research, and clinical experience to bear on this devastating problem. In tracing the network of reasons underlying suicide, she gives us astonishing examples of the methods and places that people have chosen to kill themselves and a startling look at their journals, drawings, and farewell notes. She also brings us vivid insight into the most recent findings from hospitals and laboratories around the world; the critical biological and psychological factors that interact to cause suicide; the new strategies being evolved to combat them; and the powerful but still insufficiently used treatments available from modern medicine. "Night Falls Fast" dispels the silence and shame that too often surround suicide. It helps us to understand the suicidal mind, to better recognize the person at risk, and to comprehend the profound and disturbing sense of loss created in those left behind. Jacket Description/Flap: 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. Review Quotes: "Jamison writes with authority, clarity and clinical reserve--. Powerful as her medicine is, her poetic accounting of this dark death is more affecting still."--"Baltimore Sun "Jamison brings us face to face with the suicidal mind in a manner so intense and penetrating that, paradoxically, the immersion in despair she offers is a source of great pleasure."--"The Washington Post Book World "This powerful book will change people's lives--and, doubtless, save a few."--"Newsday "A profound and impassioned book--it will stand as the authoritative study of suicide for many years."--William Styron, author of "Darkness Visible "YJamison? writes not only in fierce opposition to suicide, but also in passionate vindication of life."--"The New York Times Book Review