Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Book Reports Night Falls Fast Undertanding Suicide By Kay Redfield Jamison Night Falls Fast Undertanding Suicide By Kay Redfield Jamison “Encompass’d with a thousand dangers, Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors....I...in fleshy tomb, am Suicide has long been interpreted, studied, and at many times ignored. The existence of suicide and its whereabouts are not actually known. For the fact that no one knows the first person who intentionally walked into a blizzard knowingly that they will not return, or the first person who jumped off a cliff with intentions of not surviving. Nor do we know the first person who had the sudden urge to commit harm to oneself. We do not know this for the fact that the human mind is one piece of work and creation that is still being misinterpreted today. These facts and many more are what Kay Redfield Jamison, author of “Night Falls Fast, Understanding Suicide”, try’s to convey and express to the reader. She directs her facts and studies towards teenagers and young adults who seek the knowledge of why people do such harm to themselves. Jamison expresses how the fact that what we do not know is what actually kills, also how suicide is one of the most unpublicized deaths, and the varieties of mental illness that plague the minds of so many to commit suicide Jamison brings up the notion of how much we can determine about a person through heredity. We can determine if mental illness exists, if there is a history of impulsive and/or violent temperament and also the social class of a person. As stated “ It should not be necessary, at the end of a century so rich in literature, medicine, psychology and science, to draw arbitrary lines in the sand between humanism and individual complexities”. We do know though, what can drive a person to commit themselves to kill themselves to a certain extent. Such as romantic failures, economic and/or job setbacks, trouble with law or authority, illness, a situation that may seem to humiliate one, and so on. But the true meaning of why a person takes their life is only known to that person. As much history is known and as much of the personality of the person that is found out, the person dies leaving behind many who suffer throughout life not knowing why, and that is why what we do not Murder, homicide, shoot outs, drugs, and accidents all contribute to the world wide effects of News. Suicide though, is rarely publicized for the fact that it is the most awful way to bring a person to death, or so that is how many believe because of the many stereotypes that they have grown up with. As far back as the 1800’s people have treated suicide as a “disease”. They would try to keep it away and if one is affected by it then they are taken care of with much precaution. Religion basically enforced this. Strong religious and legal sanctions against suicide are scarcely surprising. It would be strange of course if society as a whole had no reaction to such a dramatic, frequently violent, and potentially infectious form of death. For example, the Europeans were known to bury suicide victims at night, and by crossroads and these victims were not given ordinary/proper burial services, also, for the fact that they thought the heavy traffic would keep the soul of the deceit from haunting others. They also would tie weights to the body and throw them into the ocean because they believed the soul couldn’t swim. The argument over suicide has long been argued by philosophers against any kind of social or religious acceptance of suicide. The public even considers suicide to be due to weakness or sin, rather than unbalanced minds. This is why suicide is so unpublicized, because the public cannot recognize nor understand the minds of the helpless. Kay R. Jamison explains that the mind of a suicidal is extremely complex. Most contain mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, manic depression, or personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and medical illness. Depression is rated to be the highest cause of suicides today followed by those who have substance abuse problems. It has long been discussed if suicide has a genetic connection. Many times those who commit suicide have had a family history of suicides. Rarely but strangely there have been few families that have been completely destroyed and brought to death through suicide. But there still continues to be research on this. There also seems to be a “significant increase in life events prior to the onset of both manic and schizophrenic episodes”, although the influence of psychosocial stress appears to be less important in later stages of manic-depressive illness. One explanation that is conveyed is the fact that over recent years, youth suicide has increased, but through observation the average age of puberty has decreased, and also has the age of when depression occurs. Explaining why depression is such a high mental illness associated to suicide. Because of depression and other forms of mental illness, there at the root of the heart of many suicide victims, and to these disorders of terrible despair, confusion, and helplessness that we Kay R. Jamison explains that, suicide is an absolute and definite way out of problems, problems to many, who rather end their life then face. Each and every way to suicide is its own intensely private and “unknowable terror”. For those who leave behind messages, just defines the question of “why”, but doesn’t actually answer this. For example: a young boy wrote on a sheet of paper and pinned it to his shirt, then walked toward his family Christmas tree and hung himself from a ceiling beam. The note on his shirt had read “Merry Christmas”, leaving behind many questions and a heartbroken family that will always remember his message. This is a complete shame, today we survive and thank our existence to the knowledge and technology we have, yet we cannot help those who suffer internally and stop them from doing such a harmful sin to themselves. Suicide will never be understood and in away that is for the better, “One would not expect it to be easy to define or classify suicide..Death by ones own hand is far too much a final gathering of unknown motives, complex psychologies, and uncertain circumstances...and it insiuates itself far too corrosively into the rights and fears and despairs of the living...for the definition of suicide to say locked within the crisp categories chipped out by scientists or for it to adhere to abstruse elaboration’s spun out by linguists and philosophers” states Kay Redfield Jamison in “Night Falls Fast, Bibliography: "Night Falls Fast, Undertanding Suicide" By: Kay Redfield Jamison Word Count: 1145
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.