ABSTRACT
On June 27 and 28, 1996, the author interviewed and audio taped Edwin Shneidman under his birch tree at his Kingsland Street house in Los Angeles. Dr. Shneidman wanted his story told. The author used the recordings for the interstitial material for his/her edited volume of his selected works, Lives and Deaths: Selections from the Works of Edwin S. Shneidman. Later the author used the tapes to construct two articles on Dr. Shneidman after his death. Yet the bulk of the material has never been published. It seems fitting on occasion to present some verbatim transcripts of the discussions. Shneidman did not know whether suicide was looking for him or he was looking for suicide. But that was part of his motivation on that day in 1949, he believes. Part of what was in his head was that he was restless and looking for some niche in psychology or someplace in which to have career.
