Half in Love with Death (Managing the Chronically Suicidal Patient) - 9781032335063

The second edition of Half in Love with Death gives therapists new tools to help manage chronically suicidal patients. Clinicians will learn how to tolerate suicidality, understand the inner world of patients, avoid repeated hospitalizations, and focus on life situations that maintain suicidal ideas and behaviors. This new edition includes a number of major updates and a new chapter on the epidemiology of suicidality.

Each chapter develops a theoretical perspective based on empirical data, and many are illustrated by clinical examples. Topics addressed throughout the text include:

• Distinctions among various types of suicidality
• The inner world of the chronically suicidal patient, with a particular focus on pain, emptiness, and hopelessness
• The relationship between chronic suicidality and personality disorders, especially the category of borderline personality
• The effectiveness of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for chronically suicidal patients
• The risks of litigation in managing this patient population

This is a crucially important resource for clinicians who treat chronically suicidal patients, one that provides enlightened and evidence-based guidelines.