How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin

Written by For the Novel Lovers on November 18, 2023. Posted in Current News

Book Review

Title: How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin

Genre: Non-Fiction, Psychology, Mental Health

Rating: 3.75 Stars

I wanted to mention before getting into my review that the reason I requested How Not to Kill Yourself on NetGalley was because I have a personal history with the subject and was fascinated to see the thoughts and perspective of someone else who has been in the same situation.

I also want to mention that despite the introduction to the book being quite long, don’t skip it, since it gives us some vital background information on the author for their history with alcohol and substance abuse as well as their history of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation which are key to understanding a lot of the point that Martin is going to make through the book.

Part One really focuses on Clancy Martin’s story, from how he began to have suicidal thoughts and ideation at a really young age to his first attempt in his teens. Martin had a tough childhood which a lot of people can relate to with some abusive elements to those relationships.

He also had siblings that committed suicide and struggled with self-harm which might have added to this ideation in his formative years. However, Martin makes it clear he seems to be an outlier in the fact, that there wasn’t a distinct catalyst that led to his suicide attempts but rather there had been a lingering fascination and obsession with suicide from his childhood.

As he got older and struggled to keep control of his depression, he turned to abusing alcohol and substances like cocaine which led to breakdowns of relationships which only increased his depressive and suicidal thoughts.

Martin does look into some of the psychology behind this but focuses more on himself and other people he has met with similar stories at the moment. Learning about his life and the lives of the people he has meet, known and interviewed over the years really brings a lot of information to light on how the social stigma around suicide relates to the ever increasing suicide rate.

In the USA at the time of writing the book the suicide rate was equal to what it was during the Great Depression with those at highest risk of suicide being middle aged white men. Martin also shares his stories of being hospitalized and therapy and how most of the time these didn’t help only made him more secretive about those feelings and attempts but one thing that did help was speaking to others like himself and writing about those feelings.

This is something I can personally relate to and I bet a lot of other people can as well and while I am feeling more stable than I have in the past decade I know it doesn’t take much to slide back into those habits.

I also really liked the fact that Martin sees suicide as a compulsion rather than a conscious choice which is why most people can’t give a definite reason for their attempts because it could be something small that ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to mental health and balancing on that scale.

Part Two begins to touch on more of psychological topics that might lead someone to have suicidal ideation. As Martin himself states, he was brought up in a turbulent home with a step father who wasn’t the best and personally experienced a sibling committing suicide and another attempting which all had a huge impact on him.

Martin beings to expand on the philosophical argument for and against suicide, the obvious one is things are never as bad as they seem in those moments of panic but there is far more to this than meets the eye. Some of the argument he goes into include the right to die with dignity in the case of those that have terminal illness and how mental illness could be classified under this but has some ethical issues that would need to be overcome.

Another argument goes into the freedom of choice and how people shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed because of that choice and he provides several examples here. Martin also looks into suicide pacts but these often turn out to be coercive and more harmful than they initially seem.

The third act of the book blends together the elements of philosophy and psychology that Martin has presented throughout. As he covers the different types of suicidal people, himself included among them, he presented way that they can help themselves and how others can support them.

One issues I had with the book was it was extremely long especially for the genre but it was interesting. Martin intrigued me with his dialogues on Thanatos, forms of suicide and literature relating to death and why this issue isn’t openly discussed even in the modern world we live in.

Martin even goes into the discussion about whether suicide is based on the theory that death releases people from suffering or whether it’s narcissistic in nature. However, reader must be aware that this book doesn’t take a neutral stance on suicide given the author’s close relationship with the topic and might be harmful to people already in a suicidal mindset.

Overall, it was an intriguing read but long and difficult to get through at times.

Buy it here:

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk                                 amazon.com

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk                                           amazon.com

Source: Forthenovellovers

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