A young woman is abandoned by her boyfriend, an older man retires and feels worthless and lonely, a young man learns that his wife is having an extramarital affair. They all see suicide as the only solution.

Usually, after a suicide attempt, people are treated in a hospital, where professionals try to work out the underlying psychiatric illness. Ladislav Valach and Annette Reissfelder, however, argue that suicide is not an illness but an action. Since this understanding is based on a high regard for everyday accounts of one's own experiences, the suicidal persons are given the stage in this book.

The textbook presents twelve different cases after a suicide attempt. In the analysis of the conversations, attention is paid to the theory of action in everyday life. By presenting the long-term, medium-term and short-term concerns of the patients or the actions in the stories, practitioners gain a detailed insight into the underlying causes of the suicidal act and its treatment.

Contributions by: Kornelia Helfmann, Jaromira Kirstein