ABSTRACT
Why did I choose to edit a journal symposium and then a book on suicide? On reflection I now realize that there was one main reason: a young friend, who I had known since his childhood, became distressed about current overwhelming life issues and then committed suicide (see Palmer, 1997). Another sad experience reinforced my interest: on a Boxing Day (26 December) in the 1990s, my family and I watched a person commit suicide by walking fully clothed into the rough and cold Atlantic. He was only 500 yards away from help but it might as well have been miles. Unlike the fictional BBC television sitcom character, Reggie Perrin, he did not return alive. By the time the helicopter crew from the nearby naval base came to rescue him, he was dying. They had arrived within minutes and put their lives at risk in the rescue bid. In response the local community wanted the access steps to the beach restored. Probably this would have made little difference. In both of these cases, I felt powerless to intervene. In parallel with these experiences I had already been to Beijing, China, on two different occasions to give a paper and run a workshop on suicide prevention. It is now easy to see how my experiences focused my mind on suicide.
