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A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It

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Written by: Jennifer Michael Hecht
Narrated by: Jennifer Michael Hecht
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About this listen

Worldwide, more people die by suicide than by murder, and many more are left behind to grieve. Despite distressing statistics that show suicide rates rising, the subject, long a taboo, is infrequently talked about. In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history, poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht channels her grief for two friends lost to suicide into a search for history’s most persuasive arguments against the irretrievable act, arguments she hopes to bring back into public consciousness.

From the Stoics and the Bible to Dante, Shakespeare, Wittgenstein, and such 20th-century writers as John Berryman, Hecht recasts the narrative of our “secular age” in new terms. She shows how religious prohibitions against self-killing were replaced by the Enlightenment’s insistence on the rights of the individual, even when those rights had troubling applications. This transition, she movingly argues, resulted in a profound cultural and moral loss: the loss of shared, secular, logical arguments against suicide. By examining how people in other times have found powerful reasons to stay alive when suicide seems a tempting choice, she makes a persuasive intellectual and moral case against suicide.

©2013 Jennifer Michael Hecht (P)2013 Audible, Inc. History Philosophy Psychology Social Sciences Sociology Mental Health
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Solace in the dark

I've returned to this book again and again when I've struggled and recommend it to anyone touched by suicide in any way, shape or form.

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terrible. saccharine and unimaginative.

I actually asked for a refund because it was so terrible. I never do that, but in this case, I felt it was justified. Not only is it poorly written, but it's poorly researched and offers only treacle. I forgot just how bad bad books can be! I guess I can only be grateful for the reminder.

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