684718 research-article2017
APY0010.1177/1039856216684718Australasian PsychiatryBook Reviews
Australasian
Psychiatry
Book Reviews
Australasian Psychiatry 2017, Vol 25(4) 411–413 © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav journals.sagepub.com/home/apy https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856216684718
The Ethics of Suicide Margaret Pabst Battin Oxford, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015 ISBN 978-0-19-513599-2 This is the most important book to enter the field since Emil Durkheim’s Suicide, in 1897. Battin is a renowned philosopher, at the University of Utah, with an abiding interest in suicide and euthanasia. As Editor, she has collected 46 Consulting Editors, all with academic appointments. They have produced a book of “Historical Sources”. In her Introduction, Battin observes that suicide takes many forms, from physician-assisted suicide, to politically motivated hunger strikes, to suicides of honour, and suicide bombing. These, along with less clearly understood forms, are the cause of death of 12/100,000 population, globally, each year. She notes a “spectrum of views about the ethics of ending one’s own life”, extending from being morally wrong to a basic human right. So, to the purpose of the book: “to facilitate exploration of such current practical issues” – the facilitation to be achieved by locating, summarising and presenting original texts, from across recorded history and around the world. Some sources are against suicide, but many support the practice, at least in particular circumstances. Battin states the collection “has no interest in taking sides in these debates”. Nevertheless, she observes that from the 20th century to the present time, much Western thinking has been “monolithic”, as suicide is considered “primarily a
matter of mental illness”. And this book is intended to “broaden the currently largely monolithic view”. It is a gift of inestimable value to scholars (including the current writer) who have experienced insurmountable difficulty in accessing historical documents. The Editors provide brief accounts of the life and beliefs of original authors and then present selected document extracts. Contributions from different cultures are fitted to a single time line, so the first selection is from Egypt (c. 1937–1759 BC), the second from India (c. 1500–c. 500 BC), and the third from the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha (c. 12th–1st centuries BC). Preliterate societies are represented by the accounts of first-contact explorers and associates. Among the last selection are those from Murtaza Mutahhari (born 1920) who wrote The Martyr: On Jihad, Suicide and Martyrdom, and Daniel Callahan (born 1930) who wrote Reason, Selfdetermination and Physician-assisted suicide. It was surprising to learn the Fante (Africa) and the Tligngit (Alaska) believe the responsibility for suicide rests with an outside party, and not the person who kills themselves, which not surprisingly provides a mechanism of control. What a time we live in! There is also an associated Digital Archive which holds further information and is open to any reader using the Web. This archive can also be approached using QR-codes which appear at the beginning of each selection. Above, mention of Durkheim’s Suicide was made to get your attention. Durkheim provided new concepts of his own. Battin and her
colleagues, most succinctly and successfully, provide a host of concepts from others; some will be new to all readers, so we may have the benefit of a broader view. Saxby Pridmore Hobart, TAS DOI: 10.1177/1039856216684718
Music Therapy in Mental Health for Illness Management and Recovery Michael Silverman Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015; 330 pp. ISBN 978-0198735366 The benefits of music have been recognised since time immemorial. Aristotle postulates that music not only calms and soothes but also stimulates and motivates, while Schopenhauer refers to the effects of music as much more powerful than any other form of art. Notwithstanding, music therapy does not seem to be widely applied in psychiatry. I was hoping that Music Therapy in Mental Health would enable me to learn about its optimal use, but since it is directed to music therapists, psychiatrists will find it excessively detailed and too technical. The first two chapters, barely mentioning music therapy, deal with the clinical features and treatment of severe enduring mental illness. The next chapter, purportedly an overview of music therapy in psychiatry, jumps about from its history to reimbursement to aims of treatment; moreover, the perspective is overwhelmingly Americo-centric. In the next section the reader is introduced to the theory and practice of music therapy, but lack of structure 411
APY0010.1177/1039856216684718Australasian PsychiatryBook Reviews
Australasian
Psychiatry
Book Reviews
Australasian Psychiatry 2017, Vol 25(4) 411–413 © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav journals.sagepub.com/home/apy https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856216684718
The Ethics of Suicide Margaret Pabst Battin Oxford, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015 ISBN 978-0-19-513599-2 This is the most important book to enter the field since Emil Durkheim’s Suicide, in 1897. Battin is a renowned philosopher, at the University of Utah, with an abiding interest in suicide and euthanasia. As Editor, she has collected 46 Consulting Editors, all with academic appointments. They have produced a book of “Historical Sources”. In her Introduction, Battin observes that suicide takes many forms, from physician-assisted suicide, to politically motivated hunger strikes, to suicides of honour, and suicide bombing. These, along with less clearly understood forms, are the cause of death of 12/100,000 population, globally, each year. She notes a “spectrum of views about the ethics of ending one’s own life”, extending from being morally wrong to a basic human right. So, to the purpose of the book: “to facilitate exploration of such current practical issues” – the facilitation to be achieved by locating, summarising and presenting original texts, from across recorded history and around the world. Some sources are against suicide, but many support the practice, at least in particular circumstances. Battin states the collection “has no interest in taking sides in these debates”. Nevertheless, she observes that from the 20th century to the present time, much Western thinking has been “monolithic”, as suicide is considered “primarily a
matter of mental illness”. And this book is intended to “broaden the currently largely monolithic view”. It is a gift of inestimable value to scholars (including the current writer) who have experienced insurmountable difficulty in accessing historical documents. The Editors provide brief accounts of the life and beliefs of original authors and then present selected document extracts. Contributions from different cultures are fitted to a single time line, so the first selection is from Egypt (c. 1937–1759 BC), the second from India (c. 1500–c. 500 BC), and the third from the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha (c. 12th–1st centuries BC). Preliterate societies are represented by the accounts of first-contact explorers and associates. Among the last selection are those from Murtaza Mutahhari (born 1920) who wrote The Martyr: On Jihad, Suicide and Martyrdom, and Daniel Callahan (born 1930) who wrote Reason, Selfdetermination and Physician-assisted suicide. It was surprising to learn the Fante (Africa) and the Tligngit (Alaska) believe the responsibility for suicide rests with an outside party, and not the person who kills themselves, which not surprisingly provides a mechanism of control. What a time we live in! There is also an associated Digital Archive which holds further information and is open to any reader using the Web. This archive can also be approached using QR-codes which appear at the beginning of each selection. Above, mention of Durkheim’s Suicide was made to get your attention. Durkheim provided new concepts of his own. Battin and her
colleagues, most succinctly and successfully, provide a host of concepts from others; some will be new to all readers, so we may have the benefit of a broader view. Saxby Pridmore Hobart, TAS DOI: 10.1177/1039856216684718
Music Therapy in Mental Health for Illness Management and Recovery Michael Silverman Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015; 330 pp. ISBN 978-0198735366 The benefits of music have been recognised since time immemorial. Aristotle postulates that music not only calms and soothes but also stimulates and motivates, while Schopenhauer refers to the effects of music as much more powerful than any other form of art. Notwithstanding, music therapy does not seem to be widely applied in psychiatry. I was hoping that Music Therapy in Mental Health would enable me to learn about its optimal use, but since it is directed to music therapists, psychiatrists will find it excessively detailed and too technical. The first two chapters, barely mentioning music therapy, deal with the clinical features and treatment of severe enduring mental illness. The next chapter, purportedly an overview of music therapy in psychiatry, jumps about from its history to reimbursement to aims of treatment; moreover, the perspective is overwhelmingly Americo-centric. In the next section the reader is introduced to the theory and practice of music therapy, but lack of structure 411
