Attempted suicide began to increase inexorably in western societies following World War II. In Britain, it reached epidemic proportions in 1976 when 120,000 cases were reported. More accurately termed “self-poisoning” as the majority of cases involve deliberate, non-fatal overdosing on pills, this remarkable social-medical phenomenon remains without any generally accepted explanation. First published in 1992, Women and Attempted Suicide suggests that two factors have contributed to this failure, the neglect of gender issues and the influence of psychiatry on explanations of deviant behaviour.

The book offers a new psycho-social explanation based on the theory of Causal Attribution. This suggests that as a result of their socialization, individuals differ in the causes to which they attribute their problems and that some causal attributions are more helpful than others in coping with problems. The volume argues that certain women – and others such as the unemployed and underprivileged who may have limited control over their lives – acquire a “helpless” attributional style. This renders them less able to cope with adversity, more likely to turn to doctors when it befalls them, and more likely to be prescribed psychotropic drugs. When pills fail to solve problems, helplessness may turn to hopelessness and self-poisoning.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers in many disciplines and particularly of psychology, medical sociology, and women studies.