The Paradox of Suicide and Creativity

M. F. Alvarez is postdoctoral diversity and innovation scholar in the Department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire.

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: ‘You Will Rescue Objects from Oblivion’: The Case of Iris Chang

Chapter 2: ‘Haunted by the Vivid Memories of Killings’: The Case of Kevin Carter

Interlude I: Is Creativity Intrinsically Healing?

Chapter 3: ‘Give Me One Good Reason to Stay’: The Case of Phyllis Hyman

Chapter 4: ‘A Dry Place to Call Their Home’: The Case of Kurt Cobain

Chapter 5: Individuation through Poetry and Death: The Case of Sylvia Plath

Interlude II: Creativity and Temporality

Chapter 6: ‘The Soul We Have Loved, the Soul that Has Left Us’: The Case of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan

Chapter 7: A Lifelong Project of Resurrection: The Case of Alan Turing

Interlude III: Suicide as Authentication of the Self

Chapter 8: Existence through Annihilation: The Case of Yukio Mishima

Chapter 9: ‘Beauty Is a Dissident Force’: The Case of Reinaldo Arenas

Chapter 10: The Drama of the Disintegrating Self: The Case of Robin Williams

Interlude IV: The Medicalization of Life and Death

Conclusion

References