Suicide in Literature (IN: Suicide and the Creative Arts, edited by S Stack & D Lester)

This chapter opens with an exploration of general areas of interaction between psychology & literature. Subjects of discussion include understanding human behaviour in historical times, psychological analyses of literature, psychological studies of the author & the reader, & other points of contact – psychologizing as a literary genre & the effect of psychological thought upon writers. The arguments of Jaffe against this interaction of literature & psychology are briefly reviewed. The latter part of the chapter is on the study of suicide through literature, including the understanding of suicide, the understanding of a culture, & understanding a suicidal writer. (40 refs.)