Fatal Attachments

Description

"Five-year-old Tommy killed himself at home, where he lived with parents who said he was unwanted and deficient. College student Jennifer committed suicide by swallowing a huge mixture of pills at a motel, miles from the house where she lived with an imposing, unemotional mother who had long considered the girl a burden. Bob, a father of two and computer company manager, might have survived his attempt at suicide, but his wife did not call 911 for 10 minutes after she found him in his running car in the garage; he died en route to the hospital." "Each person was clearly motivated by an instigator - someone who provoked the suicide. Instigators create crushing relationships with potentially suicidal people, and these relationships become "fatal attachments." Mecke believes instigators are responsible in a significant number of the 30,000+ suicides that occur in the United States each year. She illuminates the minds of suicide victims and their instigators, and shows how early trauma associated with death or abandonment can lead a person to become an instigator. Finally, she shows us how we can intervene to break the instigator's grip and foil the dangerous attachment. One of Mecke's primary points, relating to both the suicide victims and their instigators, is that children require careful nurturing, especially during their early lives." "In addition to stories drawn from her practice, Mecke also describes the instigators in larger scale suicides and those of historical figures, including the cult suicide moved by Jim Jones at Jamestown, the suicide bombings by Osama bin Laden, and the suicide of poet Sylvia Plath and the person who precipitated her death. Classical literature and Greek mythology are also used to address the issue of what triggers suicide. This is a must-read for clinicians, counselors, and anyone interested in knowing about suicide and its causes."--BOOK JACKET.

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