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Scarcely a day passes without the media detailing some form of human aggression, whether it be on its grandest scale in the form of war, random bombings and shootings in the streets, torture in a prison camp, murder by gangs, wife abuse resulting in the murder of the husband, or the physical abuse of children, sometimes resulting in their death. Frequently perpetrators of human aggression, when arrested and tried in court, resort to a psychiatric defense. But are all such aggressors indeed appropriately psychiatric patients? And if so, what are their particular diagnoses and how do these relate to aggression? Also of concern is aggression directed against self, as evidenced in the rising incidence of suicide among young people or the self-mutilation of patients suffering from certain personality disorders. Both violence directed outward and aggression toward oneself pose considerable challenges to clinical management, whether in the therapist's office or in the inpatient unit. Although we have not been able to find successful deterrents to aggression, a sizeable body of evidence does exist, certainly of a descriptive nature. Such data for psychiatric patients are scattered, however, and can be found in literatures as diverse as the biological, ethological, epidemiological, legal, philosophical, psychological, psychiatric, and crimi­ nological. Therefore, given the increased frequency with which mental health professionals encounter cases of violence in their day-to-day work, we believed it important that existing data be adduced in one comprehensive volume.

This volume offers a description and analysis of subtle suicide—a psychological condition whose victims don't care if they live or die, and thus act in self-defeating, self-damaging ways.Over their extensive careers, psychotherapists Michael Church and Charles Brooks have developed the concept of'subtle suicide,'a development of risky behavior where the subject does not care if he/she lives or dies. Now, in this urgent and informative new work, Church and Brooks present their findings on a condition that is often misdiagnosed as a symptom of addictive or mood disorders, when in fact subtle suicide the real underlying problem.Based on thousands of hours of sessions with real clients and filled with dramatic case studies, Subtle Suicide: Our Silent Epidemic of Ambivalence about Living will help professionals, families, and friends to realize when someone may be suffering from subtle suicide. The authors also provide a number of strategies for helping those exhibiting subtle suicidal behavior, including how to react to specific types of comments and how to avoid being pulled into the sufferer's emotional whirlpool.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.