More people die by suicide each year than by homicide, wars, and terrorist attacks combined. Witnesses and survivors are left perplexed and troubled. Doctors, clinical psychologists, and social workers try to deal with it through their professional routines; sociologists and psychiatrists attempt to provide theoretical explanations of it. In a study of nearly 7000 suicides from 1900 to 1950, John Weaver documents the challenges that ordinary people experienced during turbulent times and, using witnesses' testimony, death bed statements, and suicide notes, reconstructs individuals' thoughts as they decide whether to endure their suffering. Bridging social and medical history, Weaver presents an intellectual and political history of suicide studies, a revealing construction and deconstruction of suicide rates, a discussion of gender, life stages, and socio-economic circumstances in relation to suicide patterns, reflections on reasoning processes and intent, and society's reactions to suicide, including medical intervention. A Sadly Troubled History marshals thousands of suicide inquests, replete with observations on the anxieties of unemployment, the heartbreak of romantic disappointment, the pain of domestic turmoil, and the torments of mental illness, to demonstrate that history - although, like biochemistry, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry, reliant on remarkable yet imperfect information - can contribute to a better understanding of the suicidal act and its motives. Contents Tables and Graphs ix Preface xiii Illustrations following pages 100 and 256 Introduction 3 PART ONE Theory, Conjecture, and Politics Suicide as a Gauge for the Times: The Nineteenth Century 19 Epistemic Communities and the Suicide Problem: The Twentieth Century 62 PART TWO Rates, Society, and Motives Bearings on a Temporal Compass: Rates, Seasons, Cohorts, and Motives 109 Work and Troubles: Men and Motives 162 Sorrows and Burdens: Women and Motives 213 PART THREE Rationality, Psyche, and Treatment What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted? Intentions, Decisions, and Acts 265 Managing Mental Crises: Psychiatry and Suicidal Patients 304 Conclusion 345 Notes 359 Index 429 Review quotes "Its attempt to combine life course theories of suicide with social and historical factors makes A Sadly Troubled History a valuable resource for anyone interested in integrating social and psychological understandings of suicide. It also makes a significant contribution to suicide studies as it uncovers two rare datasets, allowing the author and potential future researchers to examining raw historical data and draw their own conclusions, rather than rely on government aggregated statistics." Canadian Journal of Sociology John C. Weaver is University Professor at McMaster University, and the author of The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900. |