The Pain of Suicide: A Phenomenological Approach to Understanding ‘Why?’ by Dr. Jo-Ann Rowland

Stars: ****

Clink Street Publishing (2019)
Suicide/World Issues
148 pages

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: Every suicide is an individual tragedy whose origins challenge our mental capacity.

Suicide is a global phenomenon. Each year there are over 800,000 reported suicides worldwide and that is expected to increase to over 1.5 million by 2020. More people attempt suicide than die from suicide.

Family-member survivors and communities are left with many unanswered questions, not understanding why the person chose to commit suicide. Persons responding to suicide and suicide attempts are very often not prepared for what they encounter and this exacerbates the problem.

This book looks at the struggles of a high-risk people group and presents interventions and postventions proffered in a consultation forum.

The Pain of Suicide

This book is different from most on suicide because it reads more like a report on studies (which it basically is) and focuses on the suicides of the culture that has the most suicides and is therefore the most high risk group in the world.

The Indo-Guyanese are a subset of people from the country of Guyana in South America.

“This small coastal South American country in 2012 and 2014 boasted the highest population of suicide victims in the world, and the third highest in 2016.”

The author interviewed some suicide attempters from the area as well as the family of some suicide completers from the area and shares research from the area as well. It’s an eye opening book both on the topic of suicide but also that how suicides are treated in a country can actually make people more likely to do it and less likely to ask for help when they have suicidal feelings.

Although the book mostly read as a series of reports and statistics I found it interesting, especially as someone who struggled with suicidal thoughts regularly (as part of my Bipolar.) The book is not very long and highlights some changes that should be made in Guyana to try to help this area of the world to lower their suicide count.

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