What you know about your behavior provides only a fragmentary aspect of the total of your mind. To understand human acts, including suicide, you must be conversant with the concept of the unconscious. Suicidology would be a barren study without it.

Today there is a wealth of experience in the study of suicide from many diverse perspectives, including anthropology, criminology, epidemiology, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology. However, when unconscious processes are neglected, research fails to provide us with an adequate understanding of the wish to kill oneself.

Suicide and the Unconscious synthesizes the breadth of knowledge about suicide, both conscious and unconscious. It explores the role of the unconscious in the varying styles of suicidal behavior as well as the meaning of suicide in particular ethnic and social groups. The assessment and treatment of suicidal patients are discussed and numerous case studies and examples of suicide notes are included.