Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-372) and index.
Contents
pt. 1. Tradition: a repressed question -- ch. 1. Suicide in the Middle Ages: nuances -- ch. 2. Legacy of the Middle Ages: between madness and despair -- ch. 3. Classical heritage: perfecting the timely exit -- pt. 2. Renaissance: a question raised, then stifled -- ch. 4. Early Renaissance: rediscovery of the enigma of suicide -- ch. 5. To be or not to be: the first crisis of conscience in Europe -- ch. 6. Seventeenth century: reaction and repression -- ch. 7. Substitutes for suicide in the seventeenth century -- pt. 3. Enlightenment: suicide updated and guilt-free -- ch. 8. Birth of the English malady, 1680-1720 -- ch. 9. Debate on suicide in the Enlightenment: from morality to medicine -- ch. 10. Elite: from philosophical suicide to romantic suicide -- ch. 11. Common people: the persistence of ordinary suicide.
