Tag: suicide

  • The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death

    This didn’t cross my radar until today’s post on Open Culture. David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech in 2005. If you’re curious it’s about 3 years before he took his own life. The speech is beautiful and will consume you within the first minute: …there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such…

  • How Not to Kill Yourself by Clancy Martin

    Of course the expected content warnings apply: Martin has a history of substance abuse issues as well as suicidal thoughts and actions.  This book is him trying to understand himself and what drives these issues. It’s deeply researched and also deeply personal, digging into Buddhist teachings, ancient and modern philosophers, and contemporary figures like David…

  • Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us by Rachel Aviv

    It’s rare to find a book about mental illness that doesn’t have an angle or an agenda. Aviv is fascinated by the stories of the people she profiles, and by the backgrounds and differences in their (and her) cases, and comes at them with empathy, understanding and some really great writing. It took a while…