Suicide and the creative arts / Steven Stack and David Lester, editors.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Suicide and the arts : from the death of Ajax to Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe / Karolina Krysinska -- The suicide of Ajax : a note on occupational strain as a neglected factor in suicidology / Steven Stack -- Suicide in movies : gender and choice of suicide method / Steven Stack & Barbara Bowman -- The legacy of Lucretia : rape-suicides in art, 509 BC-2008 / Steven Stack & Barbara Bowman -- Suicide films about adolescents / Burcu Sevim -- Pain and altruism : the suicides in John Wayne's films / Steven Stack & Barbara Bowman -- Suicide motives in 61 works of popular world literature and comparison to film / Steven Stack & Barbara Bowman -- Suicide in detective fiction / Fred Mench & Lisa Honaker -- Suicide in the opera / Beverly Vaughn & David Lester -- Suicide in literature / David Lester -- The psychodynamics of suicide in Sophocles's plays / David Lester -- Suicide in artists : national epidemiology / Steven Stack -- Suicide in creative women / David Lester -- Vincent van Gogh / Maurizio Pompili -- Artist suicide in the cinema / Steven Stack & Barbara Bowman -- Copycat effects of fictional suicide : a meta-analysis / Steven Stack -- Gloomy Sunday : did the "Hungarian suicide song" really create a suicide epidemic? / Steven Stack, Karolina Krysinska & David Lester -- The Kabuki effect / Karolina Krysinska & David Lester -- Poetry as therapy : the life of Anne Sexton / David Lester & Rina Terry -- Masked depression and suicidal ideation in the drawings of schizophrenic patients / Dalia Merari -- Future work : points of departure and data sources / Steven Stack & David Lester.

Print version record.

Artistic work itself has been thought of as a life-saving behavior for some suicidal artists. Artistic depictions of suicide can also have a contagion effect, causing suicides among members of the real-world audience. Guidelines are still needed for institutions such as the motion picture industry for minimizing possible copycat effects of suicides in feature films and other artistic displays of suicide. Perhaps one of the most important reasons for studying suicide art is for insights into the motives for suicide. Artists portrayed many motives for suicide long before the rise of the science of suicidology in the 20th Century. Motives including social factors such as death of a loved one, honor, economic strain, and betrayal in love have roots in many historical artistic products. Sophocles's plays, dating from 2,500 years ago, contain several motives that are still found today. The history of suicide in art, especially if film is included, may be subject to continuities as well as changes in the motives for suicide. -- Publisher.

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