Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- Edwin S. Shneidman (1918-2009), Psychologist and Professor of Thanatology, was a leader in suicide research, or suicidology as he called it. His interest in the nature of suicide and the suicidal mental state began in the late 1940s, and he dedicated his life to understanding and prevention of suicide. Shneidman's theory of suicide was based on his idea of psychological pain he termed "psychache." His theories are vastly influential in today's suicide research and prevention. Shneidman founded the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center in 1955, developed a national suicide prevention center program with the NIMH in the 1960s, and authored 20 books and hundreds of articles. In 1987 Shneidman received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Service. The collection contains research files on suicide, restricted patient information, correspondence, related audio-visual materials, and a small collection of Herman Melville ephemera.
- Extent:
- 37.0 linear feet (37 boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Edwin S. Shneidman papers (Collection Number 385). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
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The collection contains research on suicide, including restricted materials on suicidal patients, professional and personal correspondence, documents related to Shneidman's professional responsibilities, literature authored by Shneidman, and documents and correspondence related to Herman Melville. There are several boxes containing audio-visual materials of transcripts, radio and television appearances, patient conversations, and a NIMH suicide training manual.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Edwin S. Shneidman (1918-2009), Psychologist and Professor of Thanatology, was a leader in suicide research, or suicidology as he called it. His interest in the nature of suicide and the suicidal mental state began in 1949. He found hundreds of suicide notes in the Los Angeles County Coroner's office while researching two cases. The rest of his life was dedicated to the understanding and prevention of suicide. Shneidman held appointments at Harvard, the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Center for Advanced Studies of Behavioral Science at Stanford, and at UCLA. His theory of suicide was based on the notion that there is a threshold of mental/emotional pain upon which some individuals come to feel that cessation of life is the one and only solution. Shneidman termed this pain "psychache," and could be researched without resorting to biological or genetic causation. Shneidman concluded that most suicidal individuals, while in the fatal suicidal state, are ambivalent about dying and can be saved. His theories are vastly influential in today's suicide research and prevention.
Shneidman became the first Professor of Thanatology at UCLA in 1970 and remained a full-time professor there until 1988. Shneidman also founded the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center in 1955, with Norman Farberow and Robert E. Litman. In 1966, he was asked to develop a national suicide prevention center program at the NIMH. Shneidman authored 20 books and hundreds of articles. Shneidman believed that suicidology should be about the understanding of the whole individual. He developed the "psychological autopsy," a method of figuring out an equivocal death, or a retrospective investigation of the intention of the decedent. Shneidman also believed that post-vention, the treatment of an attempted-suicide and the suicide's family, was just as important as prevention and intervention.
In the late 1960s, Shneidman founded the American Association of Suicidology and its journal, Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior. As an internationally recognized scholar on suicide and suicide prevention, he was active in developing suicide or life-threatening behavior prevention programs in various centers at UCLA, as well as in Japan. In 1987 Shneidman received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Service.
As a fan of Herman Melville, Edwin Shneidman wrote extensively on the suicidal connections in Melville's life and his writings, such as Moby Dick. Shneidman was a member of the Herman Melville Society and donated his Melville Collection to UCLA in the late 1980s. Shneidman's personal collection contains left over Melville ephemera and related correspondence with the Melville Society and Shneidman's work on Melville.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Edwin Shneidman, 2009.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Daniella Perry and Amanda Stemen with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), October 2011.
Updates to Conditions Governing Access and Arrangement notes by Tess Livesly-O'Neill, 2021.
The processing of this collection was generously supported by Arcadia funds.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.
- Arrangement:
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This collection is arranged in the following series:
Series 1: Biographical
Series 2: Correspondence
Series 3: ESS Publications
Series 4: Herman Melville Documents
Series 5: Professional and Academic Activities
Series 6: Reference Materials
Series 7: Suicide Prevention Centers
Series 8: Suicide Research
- Physical / technical requirements:
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CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed audiovisual materials. Audiovisual materials are not currently available for access, unless otherwise noted in a Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed digital materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Open for research, with the exception of materials protected under HIPAA or for which there is sensitive health information in Series 1: Biographical, Series 2: Correspondence, Series 5: Professional and Academic Activities, and Series 8: Suicide Research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
In order to access materials that are protected under HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or for which there is sensitive health information, please submit a research protocol to Library Special Collections at speccoll@library.ucla.edu.
- Terms of access:
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Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Edwin S. Shneidman papers (Collection Number 385). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
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A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988