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THE LITERATURE ON SUICIDE is extensive and reflects the involvement of diverse lay and professional groups. In the United States, mental health care establishments to record, study, and treat or refer for treatment an increasingly large suicidal segment of the population have mushroomed to over a hundred suicide-prevention centers.
Wahl (1957) has pointed out that the causes of suicide were once thought to be patently evident: it resulted from "worry over ill health" or came about because one had "lost one's mind." In contrast, by the 1950's the recognition that this phenomenon was extremely complex had developed.
Until 1950, according to Farberow (1973), anyone interested in keeping up with research on suicide could do so without difficulty. The Bibliography on Suicide and Suicide Prevention(Farberow, 1969) lists approximately 2,100 publications between 1897 and 1957. Between 1958 and 1967 approximately 1,200 publications appeared, a fourfold annual