Suicide Movies: Social Patterns 1900-2009 - Hardcover

Stack, Steven; Bowman, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0889373906 ISBN 13: 9780889373907

Publisher: Hogrefe & Huber Pub, 2011

Synopsis

How is suicide portrayed in the cinema and what does it mean for suicide prevention? The first-ever comprehensive study of film suicide analyzes more than 1,500 film suicides.

The portrayal of suicide in cinema can impact public understanding and effective prevention of suicide. This book presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of how suicide has been portrayed in films over 110 years, based on a thorough evaluation of more than 1,500 film suicides 1,377 in American films, 135 in British films.

One striking finding is that while the research literature generally attributes suicide to individual psychiatric or mental health issues, cinema and film solidly endorse more social causes.

In a compelling blend of social science and humanities approaches, the authors use quantitative methods, as well as the voices of scriptwriters, directors, actors, and actresses, dozens of illustrative frame-grabs, and numerous case examples to answer core questions such as: Are we guilty of over-neglecting social factors in suicide prevention and research? Do cinematic portrayals distort or accurately reflect the nature of suicide in the real world? Has film presentation of suicide changed over 110 years? What are the literary roots of cinema portrayals?

About this title

About the Author:

Steven Stack, PhD, is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Criminology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of over 270 articles and book chapters, most dealing with the social and economic risk and protective factors for suicide. He received the Louis Dublin Award for lifetime contributions to suicide research from the American Association of Suicidology in 2003. His work has been supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Guggenheim Foundation. Barbara Bowman, BA, MA, JD, is a prominent lawyer in Detroit, Michigan. She did her undergraduate and graduate work in the humanities and library science and has previously authored chapters and articles on the presentation of suicide in literature and film.

Review:

[T]he authors provide their readers with a fascinating historical account of dominant cultural representations of suicide within the American cinema. ... made all the more interesting through the inclusion of still frame images and annotations from hundreds of movies depicting suicide over the past 100 years. Throughout the book the authors raise several interesting and important questions about the motivations for suicide throughout history as represented in films and literature. This book will appeal to students, social science scholars, suicidologists and cinephiles.
Jennifer White, University of Victoria, in Social Forces, Febr. 2015
As an original and comprehensive analysis ..., this book serves as a marvelous resource for those working with suicide prevention, cultural researches or anyone who loves film. ... Suicide is an incredibly complex subject, and the insights provided by this careful work are definitely welcome. --Julio Xerfan, Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 59, 2013

The authors clearly have a passion and interest for both cinema and the social factors associated with suicide. [...] For the suicide researcher or for those with a passion for film, the book is a very nice, and remarkably thorough, resource.
Timothy W. Lineberry, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1/2012

At every opportunity, research about real-life trends in suicide is laid next to artistic trends seen in films. This often leads the reader to insightful (and well-supported) conclusions about how social perceptions of suicide either enhance or diverge from the real world facts. "[T]his book [is] a compelling read for lovers of the arts, and data junkies alike (and for those of us who are both) [and] is guaranteed to have something new and insight provoking for both people who are new to Suicidology as a field, and those who have been contributing to it for years. --April Foreman, PhD, in AAS (suicidology.org), July 2015

This book sheds light on the complexity of suicidal behavior, and although the study covers decades of film, the analysis is fine-grained using the best research approaches. The researchers are sensitive to how film distorts rather than mirrors the phenomenon. They successfully pull off a massive undertaking: the detailed analysis of 1,273 movies containing over 1,500 suicides, spanning the entire 20th century and into the 21st. --Thomas Joiner, PhD, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL Editor of Suicide & Life-Threatening Behavior

About this edition

• Publisher: Hogrefe & Huber Pub
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0889373906
• ISBN 13: 9780889373907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 298