Teenage Suicide Notes

An Ethnography of Self-Harm

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Suicide, Child & Adolescent, Adolescent Psychology, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Teenage Suicide Notes by Terry Williams, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Terry Williams ISBN: 9780231542500
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: February 21, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Terry Williams
ISBN: 9780231542500
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: February 21, 2017
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

"Picturing myself dying in a way I choose myself seems so comforting, healing and heroic. I'd look at my wrists, watch the blood seeping, and be a spectator in my last act of self-determination. By having lost all my self-respect it seems like the last pride I own, determining the time I die."-Kyra V., seventeen

Reading the confessions of a teenager contemplating suicide is uncomfortable, but we must do so to understand why self-harm has become epidemic, especially in the United States. What drives teenagers to self-harm? What makes death so attractive, so liberating, and so inevitable for so many? In Teenage Suicide Notes, sociologist Terry Williams pores over the writings of a diverse group of troubled youths to better grasp the motivations behind teenage suicide and to humanize those at risk of taking their own lives.

Williams evaluates young people in rural and urban contexts and across lines of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. His approach, which combines sensitive portrayals with sociological analysis, adds a clarifying dimension to the fickle and often frustrating behavior of adolescents. Williams reads between the lines of his subjects' seemingly straightforward reflections on alienation, agency, euphoria, and loss, and investigates how this cocktail of emotions can lead to suicide—or not. Rather than treating these notes as exceptional examples of self-expression, Williams situates them at the center of teenage life, linking them to abuse, violence, depression, anxiety, religion, peer pressure, sexual identity, and family dynamics. He captures the currents that turn self-destruction into an act of self-determination and proposes more effective solutions to resolving the suicide crisis.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"Picturing myself dying in a way I choose myself seems so comforting, healing and heroic. I'd look at my wrists, watch the blood seeping, and be a spectator in my last act of self-determination. By having lost all my self-respect it seems like the last pride I own, determining the time I die."-Kyra V., seventeen

Reading the confessions of a teenager contemplating suicide is uncomfortable, but we must do so to understand why self-harm has become epidemic, especially in the United States. What drives teenagers to self-harm? What makes death so attractive, so liberating, and so inevitable for so many? In Teenage Suicide Notes, sociologist Terry Williams pores over the writings of a diverse group of troubled youths to better grasp the motivations behind teenage suicide and to humanize those at risk of taking their own lives.

Williams evaluates young people in rural and urban contexts and across lines of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. His approach, which combines sensitive portrayals with sociological analysis, adds a clarifying dimension to the fickle and often frustrating behavior of adolescents. Williams reads between the lines of his subjects' seemingly straightforward reflections on alienation, agency, euphoria, and loss, and investigates how this cocktail of emotions can lead to suicide—or not. Rather than treating these notes as exceptional examples of self-expression, Williams situates them at the center of teenage life, linking them to abuse, violence, depression, anxiety, religion, peer pressure, sexual identity, and family dynamics. He captures the currents that turn self-destruction into an act of self-determination and proposes more effective solutions to resolving the suicide crisis.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan . . . and Beyond by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Heritage Film by Terry Williams
Cover of the book From Abyssinian to Zion by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Duchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance by Terry Williams
Cover of the book The Cinema of Latin America by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Eric Walrond by Terry Williams
Cover of the book All the Nations Under Heaven by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Autobiography of an Archive by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Understanding Brain Aging and Dementia by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Fear of Breakdown by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Beyond Individualism by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Displacing the Divine by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Let the Right One In by Terry Williams
Cover of the book The New Censorship by Terry Williams
Cover of the book Stanford White by Terry Williams
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy