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t Steps in Survivor Research: Studying 2023 Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology Conference
Survivors in the Community at Large
to Gain Better Insights Into Their
Characteristics and Grieving Problems
Invited lecture · William Feigelman
Prof. William Feigelman, PhD, is Professor Emeritus Professor of Sociology from
Nassau Community College (Garden City, New York), where he taught for 50 ye-
ars. He is the author or co-author of seven books and more than 80 journal ar-
ticles and has written on a wide variety of social science subjects including child
adoptions, youth alcohol and drug abuse, problem gambling, tobacco use and
cessation, and intergroup relations. Since 2002, after his son Jesse’s suicide, Dr
Feigelman has focused his professional writings on youth suicide and suicide be-
reavement. His bereavement and suicide writings have appeared in Suicide and
Life-Threatening Behavior, Death Studies, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying,
Archives of Suicide Research, Crisis, and Illness, Crisis and Loss. He is one of the
authors of Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope with the Death of a Child to
Suicide or Drugs (NY: Springer, 2012). He is a member of the American Associa-
tion of Suicidology, the International Association of Suicide Prevention and the
Association for Death Education and Counseling, a frequent presenter at berea-
vement conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Norway and Japan, and a co-
facilitator of a suicide survivors’ support group. In 2019 Bill and his wife Beverly
were chosen to receive the Farberow Award by IASP for their service and accom-
plishments in the field of suicide postvention. Bill feels greatly humbled to be a
recipient of this award and deeply honoured to be chosen to serve as a SIG co-
chair.
Abstract. The field of suicide bereavement research has moved with glacial
slowness to acquire an understanding of the characteristics and extent of su-
icide bereavement. It took nearly 40 years to dispel the myth of six ‘survivor-
victims’ affected by any single suicide, posited by Edwin Schneidman in 1973.
Numerous quantitative studies such as Crosby and Sacks (2002) with natio-
nal data and Cerel et al. (2013) with Kentucky data found evidence of much
higher rates of suicide exposures and bereavements than those claimed by
Schneidman. Yet, the myth still held firm for another five years until it was
finally demolished by a great many more studies documenting mental heal-
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-251-0.3 11
Survivors in the Community at Large
to Gain Better Insights Into Their
Characteristics and Grieving Problems
Invited lecture · William Feigelman
Prof. William Feigelman, PhD, is Professor Emeritus Professor of Sociology from
Nassau Community College (Garden City, New York), where he taught for 50 ye-
ars. He is the author or co-author of seven books and more than 80 journal ar-
ticles and has written on a wide variety of social science subjects including child
adoptions, youth alcohol and drug abuse, problem gambling, tobacco use and
cessation, and intergroup relations. Since 2002, after his son Jesse’s suicide, Dr
Feigelman has focused his professional writings on youth suicide and suicide be-
reavement. His bereavement and suicide writings have appeared in Suicide and
Life-Threatening Behavior, Death Studies, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying,
Archives of Suicide Research, Crisis, and Illness, Crisis and Loss. He is one of the
authors of Devastating Losses: How Parents Cope with the Death of a Child to
Suicide or Drugs (NY: Springer, 2012). He is a member of the American Associa-
tion of Suicidology, the International Association of Suicide Prevention and the
Association for Death Education and Counseling, a frequent presenter at berea-
vement conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Norway and Japan, and a co-
facilitator of a suicide survivors’ support group. In 2019 Bill and his wife Beverly
were chosen to receive the Farberow Award by IASP for their service and accom-
plishments in the field of suicide postvention. Bill feels greatly humbled to be a
recipient of this award and deeply honoured to be chosen to serve as a SIG co-
chair.
Abstract. The field of suicide bereavement research has moved with glacial
slowness to acquire an understanding of the characteristics and extent of su-
icide bereavement. It took nearly 40 years to dispel the myth of six ‘survivor-
victims’ affected by any single suicide, posited by Edwin Schneidman in 1973.
Numerous quantitative studies such as Crosby and Sacks (2002) with natio-
nal data and Cerel et al. (2013) with Kentucky data found evidence of much
higher rates of suicide exposures and bereavements than those claimed by
Schneidman. Yet, the myth still held firm for another five years until it was
finally demolished by a great many more studies documenting mental heal-
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-251-0.3 11
