Cover of Contemplating suicide
Read Time: ~3.5 hr

Contemplating suicide

by Gavin J. Fairbairn (1995)

About this book

Suicide is devastating. It is an assault on our ideas of what living is about. In Contemplating Suicide, Gavin Fairbairn takes a fresh look at suicidal self harm. His view is distinctive in emphasising the intentions that a person has in acting, rather than external facts. Fairbairn constructs a natural history of suicidal self harm and examines some of the ethical issues it raises. He sets his philosophical reflections against a background of experience in the caring professions and uses a storytelling approach in offering a critique of the current language of self harm. He offers cogent reasons for abandoning the mindless use of terms such as attempted suicide and parasuicide, and introduces a number of new terms including cosmic roulette, which he uses to describe a family of human acts in which people gamble with their lives. By elaborating a richer model of suicidal self harm than most philosophers and practitioners of caring professions currently inhabit, Fairbairn makes a significant contribution to the development of understanding in this area.

Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreContemplating suicide Lead Character

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Contemplating suicide by Gavin J. Fairbairn | Literally Just Books