Waking Up Alive

These stories of recovery by attempted suicides shed light on the stages through which people emerge from the adversity that originally drove them to try to kill themselves. Heckler, adjunct professor of counseling psychology at John F. Kennedy University in California, interviewed some 50 people for this study. The ``penetrating hopelessness-the loss of faith'' that has led many to attempt suicide is recalled in these accounts of people who translated their pain, whether psychic or physical, into the wish to die. Of particular significance is the section on stages of recovery, as described by those whose attempt was foiled; for them, suicide is no longer an option. These testimonies of survivors now actively engaged in life are a declaration of hope. (Oct.)