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Ed Shneidman

Ed Shneidman, the founder of suicidology, an absolute genius, and a major hero of mine passed away on Friday at the age of 91.

His obituary can be read here.
A few fairly recent articles: http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/1178078.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-goulston-md/a-good-man-a-good-death_b_204205.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-dying28-2009feb28,0,6235243.story?page=1

The American Association of Suicidology, which Shneidman began, will be hosting tributes and donations in his name: http://www.suicidology.org/web/guest/shneidman

Internet and Suicide

I think this article makes some interesting points about how the Internet could be used as such a valuable resource by those ambivalent about suicide, but instead often exacerbates the problem. It's sickening that when somebody writes about their suicide attempt, and shows video of it, people egg them on instead of trying to get them to stop and seek help.

In a world where people increasingly turn to the Internet as a source of information and a way to document their lives, there should be less of these kinds of problems, not more. About 80% of people give somebody an indication that they are planning to commit suicide before actually doing so. I would not be surprised if that number went up, given obsessions with web forums and social networking pages (status indicators included). The question is: What will people do with that information? Hopefully in the future, people will offer help, or at the least discouragement, rather than treating the suicidal individual as an anonymous source of entertainment, as seemed to happen in the tragedy in the article above.

MySpace--Suicide

There are a number of things interesting that I find interesting about the case of a girl who committed suicide after a fictional love interest on MySpace spurned her.

My first reaction after reading the article linked above, though, relates mostly to the terms of service argument. Basically, it is ridiculous. If somebody went into a court room and said they didn't read the laws of the United States, so they didn't have to follow them, it wouldn't mean a damn thing. I can't see the not reading TOS argument holding any weight here.

CNN: Post-Election Blues

Article on post-election "depression"

Conceptual Knowledge

As a kid, I often felt frustrated going to Hebrew school because I was taught to read and chant Hebrew without knowing its meaning. Essentially, I was trained to stand up for my Bat Mitzvah and sound good, even if I had no clue what I was saying. I figured if I was going to spend all that time, I should at least be able to speak Hebrew somewhat conversationally and know what was going on.

These days, my statistics class feels rather similar to Hebrew school. I'm learning how to plug things into formulas to determine significance of just about anything. However, I generally don't know why I'm using one test or another, or really even what is going on within the test. If I had a giant set of data, I probably wouldn't know all that well what to do with it on my own. It's quite frustrating, and I've been attempting to get more books and do more internet research to fill in the gaps, but having difficulty. Hopefully this will change over time. I keep wishing the information would magically implant itself into my brain, but no such luck yet...

TGIF

Today is a very happy Friday. My general life desire lately has leaned toward running away from PhD land to play with dolphins. As that is clearly not an option right now, I'm doing my best to just recognize that the first year sucks and tough it out.

Today, though, both clinical supervision and professional development seminar are canceled. Which means I can stay home and work on my stats quiz. Okay, the stats quiz is not happy. But the staying home is, especially if it snows as predicted.

The Memoir Project

Grad school has generally been miserable, painful, and tedious lately. I think this is largely due to my overemphasis on memorizing criteria and stats, both of which are highly detached from real people. The detail-oriented studying serves its purpose, but is not enjoyable, and ultimately not as memorable (which doesn't help come finals and comprehensive exams).

So, I have a new plan, and we'll see how it goes. I'm trying to compile memoirs and other kinds of supplementary texts associated with my courses. I have a little bedtime reading and tea drinking ritual, and these books are going to become a part of it. This week, for example, as I'm reading and memorizing the minutia of schizophrenia, I will also read a memoir (The Center Cannot Hold). I should have DSM-IV Made Easy by Morrison soon, as well, which is supposed to be helpful for remembering criteria and looking at case studies. Hopefully this will all help me paint a more conceptual, memorable picture, remind me that there are real people involved in this stuff, and perhaps more importantly, remind me why I loved psych in the first place--before the massive stress overload.

The downside of more reading is of course that I already have a shitload of required reading and homework, and not enough time for that. But I think if I want to maintain my sanity and not have a total crisis of faith in what I'm doing, this is a pretty necessary initiative. And it is highly school-related, so should not feel too guilty while doing the reading.

If anybody has suggestions of psych-related books, I'm very open to them!

P.S. I also have two undergrad classes of papers to grade this week. Yuck. There is some magical force that makes it so the two classes I TA for both have papers due at the same time. One of the profs has the unfortunate habit of not telling me about the papers until after he already has them turned in, so that I can't plan for this. Makes me rather grumpy, but have to put up with it. That is why I get the stipend, after all.

Poll: Young Unmarried Women for Obama

Check out this poll showing the gigantic margin for Obama among young unmarried women. I wonder if it perhaps has something to do with him not trying to take away our rights to do as we please with our own bodies (among, of course, so many other things). Interesting, no?

Taxes=Socialism?!?

Warning: Angry political commentary ahead

The increasingly discussed concept of Obama's tax plan as "socialism" is a bunch of crap as far as I'm concerned.

For one, I don't think most republicans would ever have thought of this on their own. I believe that the word was used and they all thought it was a good idea, so started throwing it around themselves.

Second, I don't know what republicans think taxes are, exactly. Perhaps most of them are so rich that they haven't been paying them much in the past, and are thus unfamiliar with what taxes are and what they do. Americans have been paying taxes for quite some time. Before that, they fought with the Brits about paying them without representation. Jokes about their inevitability are common (death, taxes, can't avoid either...) So, the concept of "spreading the wealth" (if that's what you want to call it) to fund federal programs is not really a new idea. That's how we have public roads and schools and things. When somebody offers to give me some of that money back, I say "Yes, thank you" and stop bitching and whining and calling them names. Of course, I'm just a grad student, and do not make anywhere near $250,000 a year. (Though, I'm really perplexed about how a plumber could be making that much?? Why don't I end this pain and misery right now and go fix some toilets and sinks instead??)

Ahem, anyway, I can see how it behooves somebody with a lot of money to be a republican. However, most of us do not fit that criteria (95% of American families, I believe, the Obama campaign would say). I guess that is why Obama is up so far in the polls right now. And I suppose if taxes are somehow now equal to socialism, then we have been a socialist country for a long time. This is not an idea I think the republicans would enjoy. I would be interested, though, in seeing McCain's plan for running the US without taxing people.

(P.S. I received a call from Obama for America while writing this post. How poetic. They wanted me to volunteer at an office in Van Nuys. Unfortunately, a bit far away from me now. Like...2,000 miles. Wouldn't mind doing some campaigning here if I can find some time in the perpetual business that is my life.)

Rising Suicide Rates in US

Have mentioned before that I expect an increase in suicides with the way the economy has been. This study published by CNN today seems to echo that belief:

Rising Suicide Rates

Keeping an Eye on WM3 Hearings

This is certainly not a WM3 blog, but the topic is one that remains incredibly important to me, so here is just a little encouragement for people to keep reading and learning about this case. I may not focus my writing on the WM3 in particular, but I do focus on troubled adolescents, a population just as at risk of being targeted as outsiders as these men were when they were arrested as teenagers.

Rule 37 hearings are ongoing for two of the WM3, though the remainder is postponed until November. Information about the hearings (really interesting stuff) can be found at:

WM3 Blog

There are also a few ongoing fundraising projects for the defense team and generally supportive things:

Photo wall
Store
Broken Justice Shirt (my personal favorite)
CD (also a favorite)
Damien Echol's book (haven't purchased this myself quite yet, but read it and loved it, and hope to obtain this and other books about the case in the near future)

Staying informed about the world seems to be more and more depressing these days, but that makes it even more important, not less. I've been too busy with grad school goings on to blog much lately; however, I'm still reading and thinking about all the things I want to say here, and I hope to return to my little corner of the web on a more regular basis soon (now that I have Internet in my apartment, not just the coffee shops).

At some point I will write an actual entry...in the meantime, apparently economy-related suicides are becoming more common:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Interesting addendum to this story:
Loan Forgiven

While I am certainly glad this woman no longer has to worry about whether or not she's going to have a home, I worry about the repercussions of this for other people. I've seen more and more stories lately about people killing themselves and now even their family members because of financial difficulties--difficulties so great that they think they will never recover. In this day and age, these fears can be justifiable, but I would hate to see anybody attempt to kill themselves, or make it look like it, because they think it will get them out of their foreclosure.

WM3 Update

Motions for new trials based on DNA evidence and jury misconduct denied. This depresses the hell out of me. Getting the case tried fairly in Arkansas under the same judge as before doesn't seem possible. I am not surprised, either. Judge Burnett is not going to want to admit to a mistake of such magnitude. Hopefully the case will move to federal court soon.

BBC--Chinese youth 'face suicide risk'

Suicide leading cause of death in Chinese youth.

Economy and Suicide

Read this really tragic article the other day about a woman who killed herself after having her home foreclosed so that her insurance money could allow her family to keep the place. Her family didn't know what was going on, but she told the mortgage company ahead of time that she was going to kill herself. I suppose it isn't their responsibility, but I can't help but wonder what might have happened if they had even tried to alert somebody...

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/owner-of-foreclosed-home-found-dead/n20080723211609990002

The Urge to End It--NYT

One of my former professors, Dr. Lovett, was nice enough to think of me when reading this article about suicide in the New York Times. It has some really interesting philosophical discussion of suicide, as well as some research I had not read about before. Highly recommend this for a well-written, logical piece that veers in the direction of taking away some easy means to suicide to dramatically reduce the number of impulsive deaths.

CNN--More than half firearm deaths are suicides

More than half firearm deaths are suicides

ATLANTA, Georgia, (AP) -- The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves from intruders in their homes. But research shows that surprisingly often, gun owners use the weapons on themselves.

The Supreme Court's landmark ruling on gun ownership last week focused on citizens' ability to defend themselves.

Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There was nothing unique about that year -- gun-related suicides have outnumbered firearm homicides and accidents for 20 of the last 25 years. In 2005, homicides accounted for 40 percent of gun deaths. Accidents accounted for 3 percent. The remaining 2 percent included legal killings, such as when police do the shooting, and cases that involve undetermined intent.

Public-health researchers have concluded that in homes where guns are present, the likelihood that someone in the home will die from suicide or homicide is much greater.

Studies have also shown that homes in which a suicide occurred were three to five times more likely to have a gun present than households that did not experience a suicide, even after accounting for other risk factors.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court on Thursday struck down a handgun ban enacted in the District of Columbia in 1976 and rejected requirements that firearms have trigger locks or be kept disassembled. The ruling left intact the district's licensing restrictions for gun owners.

One public-health study found that suicide and homicide rates in the district dropped after the ban was adopted. The district has allowed shotguns and rifles to be kept in homes if they are registered, kept unloaded and taken apart or equipped with trigger locks.

The American Public Health Association, the American Association of Suicidology and two other groups filed a legal brief supporting the district's ban. The brief challenged arguments that if a gun is not available, suicidal people will just kill themselves using other means.

More than 90 percent of suicide attempts using guns are successful, while the success rate for jumping from high places was 34 percent. The success rate for drug overdose was 2 percent, the brief said, citing studies.

"Other methods are not as lethal," said Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.

The high court's majority opinion made no mention of suicide. But in a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer used the word 14 times in voicing concern about the impact of striking down the handgun ban.

"If a resident has a handgun in the home that he can use for self-defense, then he has a handgun in the home that he can use to commit suicide or engage in acts of domestic violence," Breyer wrote.

Researchers in other fields have raised questions about the public-health findings on guns.

Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, estimates there are more than 1 million incidents each year in which firearms are used to prevent an actual or threatened criminal attack.

Public-health experts have said the telephone survey methodology Kleck used likely resulted in an overestimate. iReport.com: Watch William Bernstein share his views on gun ownership

Both sides agree there has been a significant decline in the last decade in public-health research into gun violence.

The CDC traditionally was a primary funder of research on guns and gun-related injuries, allocating more than $2.1 million a year to such projects in the mid-1990s.

But the agency cut back research on the subject after Congress in 1996 ordered that none of the CDC's appropriations be used to promote gun control.

Vernick said the Supreme Court decision underscores the need for further study into what will happen to suicide and homicide rates in the district when the handgun ban is lifted.

Today, the CDC budgets less than $900,000 for firearm-related projects, and most of it is spent to track statistics. The agency no longer funds gun-related policy analysis.

Life of a Psychology Ph.D. student: How to explain "research"

I really enjoyed this post about explaining research to people who aren't doctoral students, particularly in clinical psych programs.

Life of a Psychology Ph.D. student: How to explain "research"

Still Alive

I'm not around so much now that school is out. Have been traveling quite a bit. Back home now and writing, driving, finding a place to live. Staying very busy, as always, but in different ways.

I finally found an apartment, which was very exciting. I'm pretty sure the application for it is more complicated than my apps to get into grad school, but hopefully there's a higher acceptance rate.

Things should be back up to speed once school starts again. The summer will probably remain fairly slow, but if I come across any research, books, or movies that I particularly like, I'll be back here to share.