On Books 2 and 3 of História do Suicídio

I would like to use this space to write in the first person about several projects connected with the creation of LYSIS that began long before it. Many people have asked why I have yet to write Book 2 of A História do Suicídio, whose first volume appeared in 2020. The truth is that, from the time it was published, Book 1 called for additions and further inquiry. My research delved deeply into ancient sources to show how Romans, Greeks, Jews, and Christians understood the problem of voluntary death, and how these understandings helped shape the Western views that have come down to us. Many of them, admittedly, were opposed and buried as Christianity came to prevail. Studying the sources, however, has revealed surprisingly modern perspectives that deserve another look. That has been my task.

I spent years examining these sources, and some of the results are already available in two recent short books, Ensaio sobre o Martírio Cristão and Quem Escreveu os Evangelhos? They are part of a more extensive study of the grammar of suicide, undertaken in my second doctoral dissertation, which I will defend on 15 December 2025 in the Graduate Programme in Philosophy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre.

After the defence, the dissertation will be available in UFRGS’s repositories and will be adapted into a book. I have been carrying out this research since the first volume of História do Suicídio, a total of five years of study. My dissertation is entitled As Confissões de Lucrécia: Agostinho e as Gramáticas do Suicídio. The title will be retained when it is published, as planned, in 2026 or 2027.

At the same time, the Press of the Federal University of ABC will publish a substantial work in early 2026 entitled A Invenção do Suicídio: Genealogia dos Nossos Preconceitos Morais e Crítica da Psiquiatria. The book examines a range of contemporary issues and is already being typeset. I will announce it as soon as the press gives the go-ahead. It is a particularly important publication, assessed by EdUFABC editorial reviewers through double-blind peer review and requiring rigorous work on both the sources and the text. Above all, writing it allowed me to take positions of my own on complex issues, including my criticism of the idea of “prevention” and my reflections on euthanasia.

All these projects were necessary to pursue the subject of the first book in greater depth, and all required time and dedication. With those stages complete, I have resumed work on A História do Suicídio 2 and 3, which will complete the series. The second volume is due to be published by Literíssima in the second half of 2026, probably alongside the third.

In Book 2, I examine how discussion of suicide revived in the early modern period, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as ancient literature was rediscovered and the dominance of the condemnation established by Augustine was called into question. I also analyse how these discussions gradually entered the field of medicine, culminating in the birth of psychiatry, which came to dominate the subject.

In Book 3, I address contemporary issues, exploring debates on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, as well as examining the question in Eastern cultures and among non-Western peoples more broadly.

The series thus travels from antiquity to current debates, tracing the historical, philosophical, and cultural complexity of suicide. I hope readers of the next volumes will be surprised by the connections that emerge between past and present, and among ethics, medicine, and culture, as well as by the richness of the sources that gave rise to our contemporary ideas about voluntary death.

Finally, I have completed an older project, begun in 2015, that I have pondered, thought through, and taken chances with over the years: my first novel, O Filósofo da Rua XV. I will have more news about it soon, and I hope it will stir in readers the same unease and reflection that have guided my academic work.

Warmly,
Alexandre H. Reis