Reading to stay alive : Tolstoy, Hopkins and the dilemma of existence / Chris Dowrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dowrick, Christopher, author.

Series:

Anthem Studies in Bibliotherapy and Well-Being

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910. Anna Karenina.

Tolstoy, Leo.

Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910--Criticism and interpretation.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 1844-1889--Criticism and interpretation.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley.

Reading--Psychological aspects.

Reading.

Suicide--Prevention.

Suicide.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 148 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2022.

Summary:

This book explores how literary reading can enable people considering suicide to stay alive. Written by an academic general practitioner with longstanding expertise in mental health, the book is grounded in the lived experience of patients, intertwined with perspectives from social psychology and moral philosophy. At its heart are reflective descriptions of the author's encounters with Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, and the Terrible Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins, illuminating the therapeutic potential of recursive interactions between literature and experience.

Contents:

Cover

Halftitle Page

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgements

1. Staying Alive?

Five Stories

Suicidal Ideas and Actions

Caring for People with Suicidal Thoughts

Acknowledge the Deeply Unconsolable

Themes of This Book

Perspectives

Notes

2. Thwarted Belongingness

Anomie and Alienation

Melancholia and Thanatos

Social Roots of Suicide

Belonging and Burden

Defeat and Entrapment

Sense of Safety

Suicide as a Communicative Act

Informing Literary Reading

3. Escape from Them All and from Myself

It's All So Unimportant

So as Not to Be Ashamed

You Will Regret This

The Zest Is Gone

He Acted and Lived Unfalteringly and Definitely

Serving the Universe

4. Not Choose Not to Be

Simple and Beautiful Oneness

A Continually Jaded and Harassed Mind

My Lament Is Cries Countless

It Brings a Closeness

Can Something, Hope

Leave Comfort Root-Room

Plough Down Sillion Shine

5. Points of Transformation

An Everyday Temptation

A Denial of Experience

Prate Not to Me of Suicide

The Artist Must Play

I Can't Wrap This Up

What Good Is Done?

And Then We Shall Dwell Together

Points of Transformation

6. Creating Raisons d'etre

A Vain, Fruitless, and Self-Contradictory Effort

Intentional Entity

Desire Is the Very Essence of Man

Vastly More Intersubjectivity

The Struggle Towards the Heights

Continually Completely New?

7. Staying Alive

Sunt Lacrimae Rerum

Back to Black

Final Reflections

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 09 Dec 2022).

ISBN:

9781785278921

1785278924

9781785278938

1785278932

OCLC:

1323251293