| Summary: | "Suicide is one of the voluntary human acts on which statistical works have dwelt with special predilection, and is one of the chief subjects of social physics. The psychological meaning of this moral fact has always been enveloped in great metaphysical obscurity, because suicide appears less susceptible of positive appreciation than all other expressions of the human will. The social significance of voluntary death began to be evident when a comparison was made between homicide and suicide, and therefore the true literature of suicide did not arise before the time of the philosophic movement which distinguished the second half of last century. This book is divided into two parts, the analytical and the synthetic. For the analytical part we have before us a long series of facts and reports to investigate; that is to say, beyond the social phenomena of suicide in itself, all those influences whether of an external nature or proceeding from individual temperament which affect the number and the methods of voluntary deaths. After having shown the increase of suicide during this century, we shall employ ourselves especially with: 1. Cosmic or natural influences, 2. Ethnic or social (demographic) influences, 3. Social influences, 4. Individual biological influences, and 5. Individual psychological influences (determining motives). Studying finally the mode and place of suicide, we shall see how even in the choice of these man is subject to the numerous influences just named. In the second part, the synthetic, we shall be as brief and measured as possible. After having drawn an inference from facts of what is the true nature of the suicidal epidemic of our age, we shall add a few observations on the prophylactics and therapeutics of this fatal disease of civilized peoples"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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