Bøker av David Lester

A graphic exploration of action, resistance, and radicalism among eighteenth-century pirates

The revolutionary life of an eighteenth-century dwarf activist who was among the first to fight against slavery and animal cruelty

Police and corrections personnel must always be mindful of the possibility that those in their custody may attempt suicide or commit an act of self-mutilation. Persons housed in prisons, jails, and police lockups tend to be at a higher risk for such destructive behavior than members of the general population. Reasons for this can be found by examining the mental health, substance abuse, and physical/sexual abuse histories of inmates in addition to deficits in their coping skills and the stress and uncertainty generated by incarceration. This book explores several topics pertaining to suicide and deliberate self-harm in the corrections setting, including who tends to commit these acts; where, when, and how these incidents occur; screening mechanisms; the role of environmental stimuli in facilitating or preventing acts of self harm; interpersonal relations among inmates and between inmates and staff; and the role of the courts in setting and ruling on suicide prevention policies. The authors discuss the role of prevention techniques that offer a balance between strict opportunity-reduction and softer motivation-reduction strategies. The book also includes suggestions for diversion programs that can keep mentally ill inmates out of prisons and jails and transition planning programs to better prepare outgoing inmates for their re-entry into the community.

This book explores the role of culture in explaining suicidal behaviour. Explanations based on the genes and physiology of individuals, and theories based on psychological variables have difficulty explaining the suicide rate of societies, as well as the occurrence of suicide in individuals. This book illustrates the strong role of culture in determining the suicide rate of societies by looking at the role of the major religion of a society, in particular, Islam, as well as national differences in suicide rates, and the variation of suicide rates within a nation (for example, over the states of the USA). Descriptions of suicidal behaviour in some groups are provided, including African American slaves in the 1700s and 1800s, Siberian indigenous peoples, and the Roma. Cultural scripts for suicide are described, such as seppuku, sati, and victim-precipitated homicide, and types of suicide in which the staging of the suicidal act is determined by the culture. Finally, it is argued that, not only does culture have an impact on the suicide rate of a society, but also that culture is the primary determinant of the staging of the suicidal act, that is, the location chosen for suicide (for example, at home versus away from home), the method chosen for suicide, the clothes worn, the motive for the suicidal act, and other choices that the would-be suicide has to make.

Refutes the idea that a human being has a single unified self. Instead, David Lester argues, the mind is made up of multiple selves, and this is a normal psychological phenomenon. Lester expands on his earlier work on the phenomenon, illuminating how a "multiple-self theory of the mind" is critically necessary to understanding human behaviour.

Suicide-proofing a room can prevent suicidal behaviour in incarcerated prisoners and in psychiatric patients. This book addresses the question whether suicide-proofing the general environment prevents suicide in the general population.

Addresses the question of why people kill themselves and presents the background of some famous suicides. This book includes papers which informs us that suicides peak in the spring, that the majority suicides would probably be given a psychiatric diagnosis, that loss of a parent is common in the childhoods of suicides, and various other results.

Aims to explore the phenomena of the low suicide rate in the concentration camps during the Holocaust, and why its survivors seem to become susceptible to suicide, as they grow older. This book explores this area of history by the case study method utilising the biographies of famous survivors.

The book of suicidal behaviour has been truly interdisciplinary.