Women and Attempted Suicide

Attempted suicide began to increase inexorably in western societies following World War II. In Britain, it reached epidemic proportions in 1976 when 120,000 cases were reported. More accurately termed “self-poisoning” as the majority of cases involve deliberate, non-fatal overdosing on pills, this remarkable social-medical phenomenon remains without any generally accepted explanation. First published in 1992, Women and Attempted Suicide suggests that two factors have contributed to this failure,