- Table View
- List View
Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging
by Melvin A. KimbleUse Frankl's insights and techniques to improve life for your aging clients or parishioners. Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor who experienced firsthand the horrors of Auschwitz, saw man as “a being who continuously decides what he is: a being who equally harbors the potential to descend to the level of an animal or to ascend to the life of a saint. Man is that being, who, after all, invented the gas chambers; but at the same time he is that being who entered into those same gas chambers with his head held high and with the 'Our Father’or the Jewish prayer of the dying on his lips.”Dr. Frankl's insights led him to found the therapeutic system of logotherapy, which views man as a spiritual being rather than simply as a biological construct. Logotherapy has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology). He left a rich legacy of theory and insights especially relevant to the search for meaning in later life. The tenets of logotherapy provide many clues and approaches to what an ever-increasing body of evidence suggests regarding the crisis of aging as a crisis of meaning. Frankl&’s insightful work increased man&’s understanding of the spiritual dimension of humanity and the dignity and worth of every person in the face of what he called “the tragic trial of human existence: pain, guilt, and death.”Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging presents an essential overview of logotherapy and explores: the search for and the will to meaning in later life the connection between logotherapy and pastoral counseling-bringing psychology and theology together to effectively counsel the aging the role of logotherapy in the treatment of adult major depression aspects of meaning and personhood in dementia the search for meaning in long-term care settingsViktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging represents varying professional perspectives on the application of Frankl's logotherapy for ministry with older adults. The chapter authors represent diverse professional backgrounds in medicine, pastoral theology, the behavioral sciences, and pastoral ministry. They address issues such as death and dying, dementia and depression, and the spiritual meaning of aging, as well as Frankl's conception of the nature of humanity. Everyone interested in the connection between theology and psychology in the context of the aging will want to own this book.
Viktor Frankl's Search for Meaning
by Timothy PytellFirst published in 1946, Viktor Frankl's memoir Man's Search for Meaning remains one of the most influential books of the last century, selling over ten million copies worldwide and having been embraced by successive generations of readers captivated by its author's philosophical journey in the wake of the Holocaust. This long-overdue reappraisal examines Frankl's life and intellectual evolution anew, from his early immersion in Freudian and Adlerian theory to his development of the "third Viennese school" amid the National Socialist domination of professional psychotherapy. It teases out the fascinating contradictions and ambiguities surrounding his years in Nazi Europe, including the experimental medical procedures he oversaw in occupied Austria and a stopover at the Auschwitz concentration camp far briefer than has commonly been assumed. Throughout, author Timothy Pytell gives a penetrating but fair-minded account of a man whose paradoxical embodiment of asceticism, celebrity, tradition, and self-reinvention drew together the complex strands of twentieth-century intellectual life.
The Village Effect
by Susan PinkerIn her surprising, entertaining and persuasive new book, award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker shows how face-to-face contact is crucial for learning, happiness, resilience and longevity. From birth to death, human beings are hard-wired to connect to other human beings. Face to face contact matters: tight bonds of friendship and love heal us, help children learn, extend our lives and make us happy. Looser in-person bonds matter, too, combining with our close relationships to form a personal "village" around us, one that exerts unique effects. And not just any social networks will do: we need the real, face-to-face, in-the-flesh encounters that tie human families, groups of friends and communities together. Marrying the findings of the new field of social neuroscience together with gripping human stories, Susan Pinker explores the impact of face-to-face contact from cradle to grave, from city to Sardinian mountain village, from classroom to workplace, from love to marriage to divorce. Her results are enlightening and enlivening, and they challenge our assumptions. Most of us have left the literal village behind, and don't want to give up our new technologies to go back there. But, as Pinker writes so compellingly, we need close social bonds and uninterrupted face-time with our friends and families in order to thrive--even to survive. Creating our own "village effect" can make us happier. It can also save our lives.From the Hardcover edition.
The Village Effect
by Susan PinkerIn her surprising, entertaining, and persuasive new book, award-winning author and psychologist Susan Pinker shows how face-to-face contact is crucial for learning, happiness, resilience, and longevity. From birth to death, human beings are hardwired to connect to other human beings. Face-to-face contact matters: tight bonds of friendship and love heal us, help children learn, extend our lives, and make us happy. Looser in-person bonds matter, too, combining with our close relationships to form a personal "village" around us, one that exerts unique effects. Not just any social networks will do: we need the real, in-the-flesh encounters that tie human families, groups of friends, and communities together. Marrying the findings of the new field of social neuroscience with gripping human stories, Susan Pinker explores the impact of face-to-face contact from cradle to grave, from city to Sardinian mountain village, from classroom to workplace, from love to marriage to divorce. Her results are enlightening and enlivening, and they challenge many of our assumptions. Most of us have left the literal village behind and don't want to give up our new technologies to go back there. But, as Pinker writes so compellingly, we need close social bonds and uninterrupted face-time with our friends and families in order to thrive--even to survive. Creating our own "village effect" makes us happier. It can also save our lives.Advance praise for The Village Effect "A terrific book . . . Pinker makes a hardheaded case for a softhearted virtue. Read this book. Then talk about it--in person!--with a friend."--Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human "What do Sardinian men, Trader Joe's employees, and nuns have in common? Real social networks--though not the kind you'll find on Facebook or Twitter. Susan Pinker's delightful book shows why face-to-face interaction at home, school, and work makes us healthier, smarter, and more successful."--Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business "Provocative and engaging . . . Pinker is a great storyteller and a thoughtful scholar. This is an important book, one that will shape how we think about the increasingly virtual world we all live in."--Paul Bloom, author of Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil "A fascinating, nuanced study of that most fundamental need: the need for human connection."--Maria Konnikova, New York Times bestselling author of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes "The Village Effect is a fascinating explanation of why we need regular contact with people, not just screens--and why time spent with your neighbors will enrich and extend your life in ways you never imagined."--John Tierney, New York Times bestselling co-author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength "With a raft of surprising data, this compulsively readable, lively and meticulously researched book shows that direct and frequent human contact is at least as important to our survival as clean air or good nutrition."--Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Freedom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Why It Matters TodayFrom the Hardcover edition.
Vilonia Beebe Takes Charge
by Kristin L. GrayVilonia is determined to prove she’s responsible enough to care for a dog in this hilarious and utterly lovable debut novel.Being responsible is NOT easy. Fourth grader Vilonia hasn’t lost her rain coat in the three weeks she’s had it and she’s brushed her teeth every night and she’s volunteered to be the Friday Library Helper. But all that hard work is worth it if it means she can get a dog. Besides, this dog isn’t just because Vilonia has wanted one for pretty much ever. It’s also to help Mama, who’s been lost in one, big sadness fog for forty-three days—ever since Nana died. But Vilonia read that pets can help with sadness. Now all she has to do is keep the library goldfish alive over spring break, stop bringing stray animals home, and help Mama not get fired from her job. And she’s got to do all of it before the Catfish Festival. Easy as pie, right? Tremendous voice, humor, and heart make this debut novel utterly lovable.
Vintage Sacks
by Oliver SacksVintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions."It is Dr. Sacks's gift that he has found a way to enlarge our experience and understanding of what the human is." --The Wall Street JournalDubbed "the poet laureate of medicine" by The New York Times, Oliver Sacks is a practicing neurologist and a mesmerizing storyteller. His empathetic accounts of his patients's lives--and wrily observed narratives of his own--convey both the extreme borderlands of human experience and the miracles of ordinary seeing, speaking, hearing, thinking, and feeling. Vintage Sacks includes the introduction and case study "Rose R." from Awakenings (the book that inspired the Oscar-nominated movie), as well as "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; "The Visions of Hildegard" from Migraine; excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind; "A Surgeon's Life" from An Anthropologist on Mars; and two chapters from Sacks's acclaimed memoir Uncle Tungsten.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Vintage Sacks
by Oliver SacksVintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers presented in attractive, accessible paperback editions."It is Dr. Sacks's gift that he has found a way to enlarge our experience and understanding of what the human is." --The Wall Street JournalDubbed "the poet laureate of medicine" by The New York Times, Oliver Sacks is a practicing neurologist and a mesmerizing storyteller. His empathetic accounts of his patients's lives--and wrily observed narratives of his own--convey both the extreme borderlands of human experience and the miracles of ordinary seeing, speaking, hearing, thinking, and feeling. Vintage Sacks includes the introduction and case study "Rose R." from Awakenings (the book that inspired the Oscar-nominated movie), as well as "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; "The Visions of Hildegard" from Migraine; excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind; "A Surgeon's Life" from An Anthropologist on Mars; and two chapters from Sacks's acclaimed memoir Uncle Tungsten.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Vintage Sacks
by Oliver SacksOliver Sacks' empathetic understanding and compelling storytelling ability have turned his accounts of his patients and his own life into literature, as evidenced in "Uncle Tungsten," "Stinks and Bangs," and "Cannery Row" from Uncle Tungsten; the Foreword and "Rose R." from Awakenings; "A Deaf World" from Seeing Voices; and excerpts from "Island Hopping" and "Pingelap" from The Island of the Colorblind.
Violence: Prevention and Treatment in Groups
by George GetzelThis informative and thoughtful book demonstrates the value of social group work concepts applied to domestic and other forms of violence. Written by social work practitioners, each chapter focuses on a different form of violence and the appropriate models of social work with groups. Using detailed accounts of their own practice and research, professionals explain behavioral, interactional, and humanistic approaches toward varying service service populations--including perpetrators, as well as victims or “survivors.” The samples of creative interventions with victims of childhood sexual abuse, rape, and domestic battering will inspire sympathy and reflection among all professionals who too often see the consequences of victimization in their own practices.
Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic
by James GilliganDrawing on firsthand experience as a prison psychiatrist, his own family history, and literature, the author unveils the motives of men who commit horrifying crimes, men who will not only kill others but destroy themselves rather than suffer a loss of self-respect. <p><p>With devastating clarity, Gilligan traces the role that shame plays in the etiology of murder and explains why our present penal system only exacerbates it. Brilliantly argued, harrowing in its portraits of the walking dead, Violence should be read by anyone concerned with this national epidemic and its widespread consequences.
Violence: A Public Health Menace and a Public Health Approach (The Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series)
by Sandra L. BloomThis book provides practical information to design specific intervention strategies aimed at preventing the escalation of violence in any community. It provides both practical advice and theoretical stimulation for introductory students and for senior practitioners of forensic psychotherapy.
Violence – Reason – Fear: Interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical approaches
by Jutta Ecarius Johannes BilsteinThe book explores the question of the significance of fear and reason in the context of cultural violence and subjective different experiences of violence. Perspectives from the social sciences, educational philosophy and cultural studies open up an interdisciplinary approach to violence of culture and media, the experience of fear and vulnerability as well as strangeness and rage.
Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons: Research, Practice, and Advocacy
by Emily M. Lund Claire Burgess Andy J. JohnsonAs violence against LGBTQ+ persons continues to be a pervasive and serious problem, this book aims to inform mental health providers about the unique needs of LGBTQ+ survivors of interpersonal and structural violence. Individual chapters analyze unique aspects of violence against specific subpopulations of LGBTQ+ persons in order to avoid ineffective and sometimes simplistic one-size-fits-all treatment strategies. Among the topics covered: Macro Level Advocacy for Mental Health Professionals: Promoting Social Justice for LGBTQ+ Survivors of Interpersonal Violence Intimate Partner Violence in Women’s Same-Sex Relationships Violence Against Asexual PersonsInvisibility and Trauma in the Intersex CommunitySexual and Gender Minority Refugees and Asylum Seekers: An Arduous JourneySexual and Gender Minority Marginalization in Military ContextsNavigating Potentially Traumatic Conservative Religious Environments as a Sexual/Gender Minority Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons prepares mental health professionals for addressing internalized forms of prejudice and oppression that exacerbate the trauma of the survivor, in order to facilitate healing, empowerment, healthy relationships, and resilience at the intersection of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and diverse social locations. This is a valuable reference for psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, mental health professionals, and graduate students, regardless of whether they are preparing for general practice, treatment of LGBTQ+ clients, or treatment of survivors and perpetrators of various forms of violence.
Violence and Abuse Issues: Cross-Cultural Perspectives for Health and Social Services
by Lee Ann HoffAfter centuries of being considered a private matter in most societies, violence and its profound effect on the physical health, mental health, and social well-being of victims and their families, as well as on the assailants themselves, has started to take centre stage as a public issue of worldwide concern. Health and social service providers are in pivotal positions to provide preventive and restorative services to those affected by violent and abusive behaviour. This comprehensive textbook presents theoretical background and practical strategies for doing so, providing a solid knowledge base for good practice in this area. It emphasizes the interdisciplinary aspects of violence and victim/survivor care and addresses violence over the lifespan, covering: child sexual and physical abuse sexual assault of adults battering and emotional abuse of intimate partners elder abuse perpetrators of violence and abuse violence in learning and work environments vicarious trauma and self-care interconnections between various forms of violence, including socially approved violence in the media and in war. This text is an essential resource for qualified practitioners wanting to learn more about this area and for students starting out in health and social care. Each chapter includes case studies and thinking points, and suggestions for application in practice settings. A companion website provides materials for students and educators, enabling the inclusion of violence issues in an already busy curriculum. Lee Ann Hoff is a nurse-anthropologist and crisis specialist. She has published widely and is the author of the award-winning textbook People in Crisis. She has extensive experience as an educator, consultant, clinician, and crisis service manager.
The Violence and Addiction Equation: Theoretical and Clinical Issues in Substance Abuse and Relationship Violence
by Christine Wekerle Anne-Marie WallThe Violence and Addiction Equation is an empirically based book that bridges the relationship between violence and substance addiction with a focus on the overlap of issues. It is a groundbreaking collection of contributions by prominent clinicians in the field, and the timely chapter's include clinical commentary that identifies and elaborates on points of transfer from theory to clinical practice.
Violence and Aggression: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice (Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression)
by Peter SturmeyThis book provides a concise-yet-comprehensive overview of the broad-ranging topics in the field of violence and aggression. It uses a functional approach that acknowledges the evolutionary, cultural, and operant nature of violence and aggression. The book defines the nature of different forms of violence and aggression; examines epidemiology and risk factors; describes biological, cultural and individual causes; and discusses individual and societal prevention and treatment. Key areas of coverage include: Epidemiology of violence and aggression.Biological and social causes of violence and aggression.Cultural interventions, psychotherapies, and individual biological interventions.The effects of violence and aggression in special populations. Violence and Aggression: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice is a must-have resource for researchers, academics, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in forensic psychology, public health, criminology/criminal justice, developmental psychology, psychotherapy/counseling, psychiatry, social work, educational policy and politics, health psychology, nursing, and behavioral therapy/rehabilitation.
Violence and Mental Disorders (Comprehensive Approach to Psychiatry #1)
by Bernardo Carpiniello Antonio Vita Claudio MencacciThis book explores the issue of violence in detail, taking into account the role of contextual factors, as well as the epidemiology, risk factors and clinical aspects of violence related to the main mental disorders. It also offers practical information on its management – from prevention to treatment.Covering all aspects of the problem of violence in mental disorders, the book is divided into four parts: general aspects; risk factors, phenomenology and characteristics of violence in mental disorders; contexts of violence; and prevention and management of violence in mental health. It also discusses violence in the various settings of mental health system, an aspect that has not previously been fully addressed. The volume is intended for all those who are interested in mental health, including scholars, professionals, and students.
Violence and Mental Health
by Jutta Lindert Itzhak LevavViolence is one of the most important challenges, not only for public health systems, but also for public mental health. Violence can have immediate as well as long-term and even transgenerational effects on the mental health of its victims. This book provides a comprehensive and wide-ranging assessment of the mental health legacy left by violence. It addresses the issues as they affect states, communities and families, in other words at macro-, meso- and microlevels, beginning by describing the impact of violence on neurobiology and mental health, as well as the spectrum of syndromes and disorders associated with different forms of violence. The work moves on to tackle violence at the international--and intranational--level before zeroing in on the nature of violence in communities such as villages or city districts. It also examines the results of violence in the family. Each type of violence has distinct effects on mental health and in each chapter specific groups are explored in depth to demonstrate the heterogeneity of violence as well as the diversity of its outcomes in the realm of public mental health. Finally, the book addresses the notion of 'undoing violence' by detailing case studies of effective interventions and prevention occurring in countries, communities and families. These cases give us pause to reflect on the nature of resilience and dignity in the context of violence and mental health. All the chapters have been written by leading authors in the field and provide a state-of-the-art perspective. The authors, from different fields of expertise, facilitate interdisciplinary and international insights into the impact of violence on mental health.
Violence and Mental Illness: An Overview (SpringerBriefs in Criminology)
by Lia AhonenThis brief summarizes the existing body of knowledge about the links between mental illness and violence, recommends improved methods to deal with potentially violent individuals with mental illness, and identifies pressing implementation and research needs. In public perception and media reports, mental illness and violence - particularly gun violence - are unquestionably linked. However, empirical research presents a more nuanced and complex view of this relationship.Taking into account differences between youth and adults, as well as gender and racial difference, this innovative volume will be useful to policy-makers, legislators, researchers and students interested in addressing the growing public concern about mentally ill individuals at risk for violence.
Violence and Mental Illness: Rethinking Risk Factors and Enhancing Public Safety (Psychology and Crime)
by Eric B. Elbogen Nico VerykoukisShows that the myth that mental illness is strongly linked to violence makes us all less safeMass shootings have become a defining issue of our time. Whenever the latest act of newsworthy violence occurs, mental illness is inevitably cited as a preeminent cause by members of the news media and political sphere alike. Violence and Mental Illness: Rethinking Risk Factors and Enhancing Public Safety exposes how mental illness is vastly overemphasized in popular discussion of mass violence, which in turn makes us all less safe.The recurring and intense focus on mental illness in the wake of violent tragedy is fueled by social stigma and cognitive bias, strengthening an exaggerated link between violence and mental illness. Yet as Eric B. Elbogen and Nico Verykoukis clearly and compellingly demonstrate in this book, a wide array of empirical data show that this link is much weaker than commonly believed—numerous other risk factors have been proven to be stronger predictors of violence. In particular, the authors argue that overweighting mental illness means underweighting more robust risk factors, which are external (e.g., poverty, financial strain, inadequate social support), internal (e.g., younger age, anger, substance abuse), or violence-defining (e.g., lacking empathy, gun access, hate group membership). These risk factors need to be taken into consideration when crafting policies that concern public safety, with emphasis on strategies for reducing the viability and acceptability of violence as a choice.
Violence and Serious Theft: Development and Prediction from Childhood to Adulthood
by Rolf Loeber David P. Farrington Magda Stouthamer-Loeber Helene Raskin WhiteIn this volume, top experts in the field of delinquency discuss the implications of the findings of the Pittsburgh Youth Study for current conceptualizations of antisocial behavior. Violence and Serious Theft is unique in that it combines the strengths of three disciplines to explain delinquency in young people: developmental psychopathology, criminology, and public health. The book addresses questions in two main areas: serious offending as an outcome over time and developmental aspects of serious offending; and factors which explain why some young males become violent and/or commit serious crime while others do not. Violence and Serious Theft is a resource for researchers, practitioners and students in developmental, school and counseling psychology; psychopathology, psychiatry, public health and criminology.
Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home: Current Issues in Spousal Battering and Child Maltreatment
by Susan Sorenson Paula Lundberg LoveViolence and abuse that occur behind closed doors are not just personal concerns or issues. Family violence is a major mental health, social service, health care, and criminal justice problem that society cannot continue to ignore. Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home gives you the facts of spouse/partner and child maltreatment, an analysis of the intervention and prevention techniques commonly used, and alternative approaches and theories for understanding and reducing instances of family abuse.The factors behind maltreatment are multiple and diverse. Because there are so many approaches to treating perpetrators and victims, choosing a treatment strategy can sometimes feel overwhelming. Use Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home to help you decide which treatment models will be most effective in particular situations. Don’t risk low success rates with your patients. This comprehensive guidebook can help you refine your treatment strategies, as you better your understanding of: mutual combat the ethical issues and legal mandates involved in reporting family maltreatment biological issues and aggression the causes of the physical maltreatment of children maltreatment of children with disabilities the debate surrounding “parent alienation syndrome” difficulties in diagnosing incest offenders the impact of child sexual maltreatment on the survivor&’s sexuality and sexual functioning the repression, dissociation, and delayed recall of traumatic eventsViolence and Sexual Abuse at Home shows clinicians, researchers, advocates, and other professionals the importance of broadening their perspectives of all types of family maltreatment. Anyone working with people who abuse and/or with adults and children who are or have been abused should understand the developmental, social, psychological, cultural, and biological issues at play in violent home environments.
Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People
by Lacey Sloan Nora GustavssonViolence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People helps you look past the stereotypical picture of violence against sexual minorities--the public physical assaults on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth by hypermasculine male thugs--and directs you toward the many daily acts of quiet violence that go on, unhindered, in the workaday settings of our legal, social, educational, and law-enforcement institutions. You’ll learn about the frightening prevelance of complacency, homophobic ignorance, and apathy that pervades our police departments, courts, high schools, and churches. Also, armed with this critical insight and statistical research, you’ll be better equipped to wage a non-violent war of fairness and mutual respect against the daily, senseless violence of policy and practice that threatens to render gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people unwelcome and battered citizens in their own communities.You’ll find that Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People is ideal for aiding social workers, counselors, teachers, and criminal justice officials in removing the unseen acts of violence from the policies and practices of the public sector. These and other specific areas will give you the information and the fortitude necessary to evoke positive change in your community: legal issues relating to same-sex marriage the connection between social injustice and violence violence against sexual minority youth sexual identity and ethnic minorities practice and policy recommendationsAs this book shows, violence against sexual minorities can be subtly woven into the very fabric of some of our most long-standing, respected social institutions. For too long, the sexual minorities of color, for example, and the lesbian who suffers physical assault at the hands of a partner, have had little or no help from social workers, law enforcement, or education for fear of receiving either complete negligence or increased antagonism. But now, in Violence and Social Injustice Against Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People, you’ll find the facts and tools necessary for turning the ugliness of communal violence into social justice for people of all sexual orientations.
Violence and Society: A Reader
by Matthew SilbermanFocusing exclusively on the explanation of violence, this anthology examines why violent conduct occurs-whether or not it is defined as a crime. It reflects a distinctive perspective on the social construction of violence as normative conduct, deeply rooted in the cultural traditions of society, and supported by specific legal traditions that are difficult to change. The book also explores the structural origins of social violence, such as the role patriarchal social institutions play in explaining gender violence. A six-part organization contains articles by well-known scholars on the social construction of anger, social inequality and the production of violence, culture: violence and values, family violence, sexual violence, and criminal violence. For individuals seeking to understand the social causes of violence, and working to reduce the level of violence in families, gender relations, and a wide variety of social contexts in which violence appears to be an all too frequent occurrence.
Violence And Suicidality: Clinical And Experimental Psychiatry
by Herman M. van Praag Robert Plutchik Alan ApterFirst published in 1990. This monograph series, published under the auspices of the Department of Psychiatry of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, is meant to keep track of important developments in the profession pf psychiatry, to summarize what has been achieved in particular fields, and to bring together the viewpoints obtained from disparate vantage points-in short, to capture some of the excitement ongoing in modern psychiatry, both in its clinical and experimental dimensions. Violence and suicidality have always been major public health issues, but it is only fairly recently that they have become the focus of some major clinical and biological research efforts. This is due partly to a large increase in suicide and homicide rates in the young and partly to a realization that effective management of psychiatric patients cannot be based on categorical diagnosis alone, but requires an understanding of the patient's entire behavioral profile. This volume attempts to describe some of the most important advances in the psychobiological understanding of the behavioral dimensions of suicide and violence that have been made over the last 10 years. It is comprised of papers presented at two symposia held under the auspices of the department of psychiatry of Albert Einstein College of Medicine that were devoted to the topics of violence and suicide.