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This book explores how literary reading can enable people considering suicide to stay alive. Written by an academic general practitioner with longstanding expertise in mental health, the book is grounded in the lived experience of patients, intertwined with perspectives from social psychology and moral philosophy. At its heart are reflective descriptions of the author’s encounters with Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and the Terrible Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins, illuminating the therapeutic potential of recursive interactions between literature and experience.
“This is an incredibly powerful book. It is about hope and the power of literature in helping any one of us through the darkest of times. It is a sophisticated book which combines theory, literature and people’s stories in a way that is both enlightening and engaging. I highly recommend this book.” — Rory O’Connor, Professor of Health Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow.
Figures; Acknowledgements; 1. Staying Alive?; 2.Thwarted Belongingness; 3.Escape from Them All and from Myself; 4. Not Choose Not to Be; 5. Points of Transformation; 6. Creating Raisons d’Etre; 7. Staying Alive; Index