Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves

Jesse Bering

oct 2018 · University of Chicago Press

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This personal inquiry into the psychology of suicide brings “compassion, confessional honesty, and academic perception” to a woefully misunderstood subject (Kirkus Reviews).

Despite his success as a psychologist and writer, Jesse Bering spent most of his thirties believing he would probably kill himself. At times, the impulse to take his own life felt all but inescapable. When his suicidal thoughts began to fade, he felt relieved—but also curious. He wondered where they came from and if they would return; whether other animals experienced the same impulse, or if it was a uniquely human evolutionary development. In Suicidal, Bering answers all these questions and more.

Drawing on personal stories, scientific studies, and remarkable cross-species comparisons, Bering explores the science and psychology of suicide. Revealing its cognitive secrets and the subtle tricks our minds can play on us, Bering helps readers analyze their own doomsday thoughts while gaining broad insight into the subject. Authoritative, accessible, personal, and profound, Suicidal will change the way you think about this most vexing of human problems.

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Jesse Bering is the author of Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us, Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?, and The Belief Instinct. He is the director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand.