While engaged in a little late-night Twitter scrolling, I came across a fascinating post and thread questioning the utility of suicide screening for low risk populations (e.g., schools). Having been mildly opposed (along with the UK and Canada), to general population suicide screenings, I felt validated, especially upon discovering that Craig Bryan was author of the Twitter thread. Dr. Bryan is one of the best and most authoritative resources on suicide in the world. As of two nights ago, I was only familiar with his professional book with David Rudd (Brief cognitive-behavior therapy for suicide prevention) and his excellent work with military veterans, suicide, and lethal means management. I also knew he had recently published a new book titled, “Rethinking Suicide.”

Then, today, I checked out Rethinking Suicide online. I was gob smacked. It’s fantastic.

This post is mostly to pitch Craig Bryan’s book.

Among other gems, Dr. Bryan frames suicide prevention as a “wicked problem” and tells us about the origin of the term, wicked problem. What’s not to love about that.

Here’s a quote from his introduction: “Consistent with the perspective of suicide as a wicked problem, I will argue in this book that we need to replace our solution-based approach to suicide prevention with a process-based approach focused on creating and building lives worth living” (p. 7). Wow. That’s like music to my ears.

Dr. Bryan also weaves in “confirmation bias” (more music) as part of his critique of using so-called “mental illness” as an explanatory mechanism in suicide (I know if you know me and this blog, you know I don’t even use the term mental illness unless I’m explaining why I don’t use the term mental illness, and so I’m destined to love Dr. Bryan’s deconstruction of that concept).

Anyway, you can find Rethinking Suicide through your favorite online bookseller. I recommend it highly. I’ve ordered my copy.  It’s about time we all started rethinking suicide.