This is a reprint of the 1999 publication in which Szasz (psychiatry, the State U. of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse) seeks to demedicalize and destigmatize voluntary death, to enable readers to distinguish between describing and condemning (or recommending) suicide, and to recognize it as a behavior that has been and always will be part of the human condition. He compares suicides to other human behaviors which historically were seen as sins, then as crimes, and more recently as mental illnesses. A brief, new preface has been added to this edition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)