How not to Kill Yourself : : a Portrait of the Suicidal Mind
Book - 2023 921 Martin, Clancy, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Martin, Clancy 1 On Shelf No requests on this item
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Call Number: 921 Martin, Clancy, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Martin, Clancy
On Shelf At: Downtown Library
Location & Checkout Length | Call Number | Checkout Length | Item Status |
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Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
921 Martin, Clancy | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / General / Martin, Clancy | 4-week checkout | Due 05-25-2024 |
Includes index.
"From the acclaimed author of How to Sell-and based on his viral Huffington Post article-comes a deeply intimate, insightful, and at times even funny portrait of the suicidal mind, combining the author's personal experience with a philosophical, literary, and journalistic inquiry into the subject "If you're going to write a book about suicide, you have to be willing to say the true things, the scary things, the humiliating things. Because everybody who is being honest with themselves knows at least a little bit about the subject. If you lie or if you fudge, the reader will know." The last time Clancy Martin tried to kill himself was in his basement with a dog leash. It was one of over ten attempts throughout the course of his life. But he didn't die, and like many who consider taking their own lives, he hid the attempt from his wife, family, coworkers, and students, slipping back into his daily life with a hoarse voice, a raw neck, and series of vague explanations. In How Not to Kill Yourself, Martin chronicles his multiple suicide attempts in an intimate depiction of the mindset of someone obsessed with self-destruction. He argues that, for the vast majority of suicides, an attempt does not just come out of the blue, nor is it merely a violent reaction to a particular crisis or failure, but is the culmination of a host of long-standing issues. He also looks at the thinking of a number of great writers who have attempted suicide and detailed their experiences (such as David Foster Wallace, Yiyun Li, Akutagawa, Nelly Arcan, and others), at what the history of philosophy has to say both for and against suicide, and at the experiences of people who have reached out to him across the years. The result is a work that powerfully gives voice to what to many has long been incomprehensible, while showing those presently struggling with suicidal thoughts that they are not alone, and that the desire to kill oneself-like other self-destructive desires-is almost always temporary and avoidable"-- Provided by publisher.
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PUBLISHED
New York : Pantheon Books, [2023]
Year Published: 2023
Description: 464 pages ; 24 cm
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780593317051
059331705X
SUBJECTS
Suicide -- Psychological aspects.
Suicide -- Prevention.