Edwin Shneidman, a Professor Emeritus of Thanatology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has devoted many years of his life to the study of suicide from what is essentially a clinical perspective, although he is also quite familiar with its academic aspects. He views suicide from various dimensions.

Although the subject matter of this book is understandably depressing and morbid, the author succeeds in making his exposition lively and, if not exactly entertaining, at least interesting and compelling. His writing style is lucid, and he avoids the pedantry that is often characteristic of many academic psychologists. For a book of this genre, this volume is especially fortunate because there is a natural propensity to avoid getting involved with the feelings and traumas that are associated with self-inflicted death. Death is difficult enough to confront, and suicide, the seeking of what most of us would like to deny, is not only incomprehensible