Facing Suicide
Understanding Why People Kill Themselves and How We Can Stop Them
A deep dive into a national catastrophe that examines how and why suicide happens so that we can prevent it
Suicide has reached epidemic proportions in America, claiming over 45,000 lives each year—more than car accidents or homicides. For every person who dies there are about 10 unsuccessful attempts. Yet suicides are preventable, if we can grasp the complex factors behind it and look out for suicide’s signs in our families, communities, and colleagues. In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed journalist James Barrat delivers these insights with a deep dive into America’s suicide crisis.
With profiles of survivors and their families, and interviews with experts, Barrat assembles a thorough, nuanced portrait of this confounding killer. He examines suicide’s many risk factors, including genetics,…
James Barrat is the journalist and documentary filmmaker behind this book’s PBS companion film, entitled Facing Suicide and the author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era. Time Magazine named him one of “5 Very Smart People Who Think Artificial Intelligence Could Bring the Apocalypse.”
