November of the Soul
Page 97
twin studies, 198–99
Ueki, Mieko, 341
Uganda, tribal suicide customs in, 364
Ulysses (Joyce), 471
Undertaking, The (Lynch), 239
Underwood, Mark, 191–92, 193, 201
unemployment, 247, 253
United States:
antisuicide laws in, 165
ethnic minorities of, 234–35, 248, 251–61, 263, 557n–58n
euthanasia legislation in, 366, 376, 377
gun ownership in, 347–49
migrations within, 248, 256–57
suicide prevention begun in, 291–93, 294–95
suicide rates in, 9, 37–38, 56–57, 247–49, 252, 256, 258–59, 307
Western states of, 247–48
urban life, 3, 177, 183, 185, 186, 248–49
Urquhart, A. R., 470
utilitarianism, 167, 421
Utopia (More), 159–60, 164, 443
Utter, Robert, 337
Valentine’s Day, 249
Valerius Maximus, 147, 149
Van Helmont (physician), 179
van Praag, Herman, 201
Varah, Chad, 294
Veith, Ilza, 354
Vermont, suicide rate of, 248
Victorian era, 471
Victoroff, Victor, 117–18
video games, 541n
Vienna, Austria, suicide prevention in, 293
Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, 86, 188, 190, 347
Vierkandt, Alfred, 551n
Vietnam War, 38, 235, 247
Vigny, Alfred-Victor de, 176
Vikings, 131, 134
Villemair, 184
violence:
in African-American experience, 252–55
family history of, 252–53
media portrayals of, 54–55, 90–91, 541n, 542n–43n
of suicide method, 237, 407
Virgil, 156, 166
Vitelli, Karen (fictitious name), 499–501
Vitelli, Linda (fictitious name), 499–500, 501
Vitelli, Mary (fictitious name), 499–501
Vitelli, Rose (fictitious name), 499, 500–501
Voices of Death (Shneidman), 229
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), 167, 168–69, 174, 469
voluntary euthanasia, 375, 388–91
see also euthanasia
Voluntary Euthanasia Society, 366–67, 393, 400, 404, 436
Vonnegut, Kurt, 444
Wacker, Warren, 96
Wajagga, 132
Wallace, Samuel, 354
Walpole, Horace, 174
Walters, Paul, 42
“Wanting to Die” (Sexton), 238
war:
biblical murder prohibition vs., 415
military suicides and, 84, 145, 150, 186, 275
soldiers’ heroism in, 275
suicide rates during, 186, 247
thrill of, 275
warning signs, 37, 42, 79, 112–16, 163, 304, 312–13, 316
Warren, Henry Marsh, 291–93
Warren, Henry Marsh, Jr., 293
warrior cultures, 134, 137–38, 145, 259, 291
Washington, assisted-suicide ballot measure in, 385, 405
Web sites, suicide-related, 91, 143
Webster, Daniel, 222
Wechsler, James, 475–76
Wechsler, Michael, 476
Weisman, Avery, 314
Weiss, Nathan, 188
Weissman, Myrna, 80
Welch, Tom, 512–13, 515–16, 522, 524–25, 526, 531, 533
“Welcome to the Monkey House” (Vonnegut), 444
welfare policies, 244, 245
Weller, Sheila, 491
Welles, John, 375–76
Wells, H. G., 366
Werther effect, 89, 90
Wertherism, 87
Wesley, John, 174
Westchester County Mental Health Association Interagency Task Force on Adolescent Depression and Suicide, 113–14, 119
Westchester suicide cluster, 11, 78–79, 82–83, 88, 92, 114
Westermarck, Edward, 364–65
Whalley, Elsa, 303
Wheat, William, 328–29
Wheeler, Jim, 265–66
Whitaker, Robert, 194
Whose Life is It Anyway? (Clark), 369
Why Survive? (Butler), 437, 439–40
Wickett, Ann, 394, 395, 404, 573n–74n, 575n
widows:
sacrificial suicides of, 135–36, 145, 222, 226, 235
see also suicide, surviving family members of
Wiener, Jerry, 331
Williams, Huntington, 375–76
Williams, S. D., 366
Wiltsie, Gordon, 275
Winslow, Forbes, 83, 179, 180, 470–71
Winter Name of God, The (Carroll), 277–78
witchcraft, 548n
Wobber, Harold, 340, 342
Wolf, Diana, 27, 31–32, 33, 35, 124
Wolfgang, Marvin, 275
Wolf Man (Freudian case history), 189
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 241
Woman at Scotland Yard, A (Wyles), 203
women:
eating disorders of, 273
elderly, 443
male depression rates vs., 43, 95
in male-dominated professions, 251
male suicide rates vs., 38, 39, 43, 185, 221, 250–51, 256, 427, 438, 503, 558n
Wood, J. M. S., 470
Woolf, Virginia, 224
Worden, William, 314, 488
Wordsworth, William, 49, 175
World Trade Center, 1, 2, 268
wrist-cutting, 96–97, 271, 327–28
Wurtzel, Elizabeth, 319
Wyles, Lilian, 203
Wyoming:
Native-American suicide cluster in, 259
suicide rate of, 247
Xanax, 482
Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program, 120
Yolles, Stanley, 303
Youk, Thomas, 382, 389
Young, Edward, 174
Youngner, Stuart, 418
Youth in Crisis, 117
Zeno, 147
Zilboorg, Gregory, 43, 202, 205, 295, 558n
Zimri (biblical figure), 151–52
Zoloft, 319, 321
SCRIBNER
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Copyright © 1991, 2006 by George Howe Colt
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Colt, George Howe.
November of the soul: the enigma of suicide / George Howe Colt.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York: Summit Books, c1991.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Suicide. I. Title.
HV6545.C598 2006
362.28—dc22 2005056327
ISBN-13: 978-0-671-50996-5
ISBN-10: 0-671-50996-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-6447-1 (Pbk)
ISBN-10: 0-7432-6447-9 (Pbk)
eISBN-13: 978-0-7432-8202-4
Originally published in hardcover as The Enigma of Suicide
Grateful acknowledgment is made for the following permissions:
Extract from The Poems of Stanley Kunitz, 1928–1978, by Stanley Kunitz, copyright © 1971 by Stanley Kunitz. By permission of Little, Brown and Company. Extract from The Children of Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897), courtesy of Macmillan Publishing Company, A Division of Macmillan, Inc. Extract from Suicide Solution, words and music by Joan Osbourne, Robert Daisley and Randy Rhoads, copyright © 1981 Essex Music International, Venice, CA. Used by permission. Extract from The Savage God by A. Alvarez. Published by George Weide
nfeld and Nicholson, Ltd. Extract from The Vital Balance by Karl Menninger, copyright © 1963 by Karl Menninger, M.D. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, a Division of Penguin Books USA, Inc. Extract from The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman, copyright © 1936 by Barclays Bank Ltd. Copyright © 1964 by Robert E. Symons. Copyright © 1965 by Holt Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Extract from Wanting to Die by Anne Sexton, copyright © 1966 by Anne Sexton. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. Extract from “Perhaps Love,” lyrics by John Denver, copyright © 1980 Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co., Inc. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.