Author Talk & Signing: “Life After Death: Surviving Suicide” by Richard Brockman

“When Richard Brockman found his mother’s body, the simple narrative of his childhood ended. Life After Death tells the story of a boy who died and of a man who survived when the boy and the man are one and the same. It tells a very personal—yet tragically common—story of irredeemable loss. It tells the story of story itself. How story forms. How it grows. How it changes. How it can be broken. And finally, how sometimes it can be repaired.

Now an expert in genetics, epigenetics, and the biology of attachment, Brockman chronicles his evolution from a child overwhelmed by trauma to a man who has struggled to reclaim his past. He lays bare the core of one who is both victim and healer. By weaving together childhood despair and clinical knowledge, Brockman shows how the shattered pieces of the self—though never the same and not without scars—can sometimes be put back together again.”

“This is a shockingly original book: the subjective story of his mother’s suicide, as experienced by the little boy Richard Brockman, miraculously interwoven with an objective story about the relevant neurobiology, told by an esteemed psychiatrist—the very same Richard Brockman.”

—Mark Solms, science director of the American Psychoanalytic Association

“A brilliant wrestling of the mind and heart. Brockman brings the reader into his shattered world where chaos and annihilation reign in the long shadow of trauma. His soulful search to find healing and wholeness is disarming and breathtaking.”

—Kathleen M. Pike, PhD, professor and director at Columbia-WHO Center for Global Mental Health

Author Bio:

Richard Brockman, MD is Clinical Professor, Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Visiting Professor at the University of Namibia, School of Medicine. He has written over 40 papers published in peer review journals primarily focusing neural science and clinical psychiatry. His book, A Map of the Mind, towards a science of psychotherapy was published by International Universities Press to critical acclaim. Life After Death, surviving suicide was published in August ’23 by Arcade Press/Simon&Schuster, again to critical acclaim. His teaching has been honored by the Victor J. Teichner Visiting Scholar Award, from the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis as well as the Nancy C.A. Roeske, MD, Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in medical student education from the American Psychiatric Association.

He has lectured widely in the United States and abroad on neuroscience and psychotherapy. Brockman is also a playwright whose work has been produced in New York, Los Angeles, London as well as numerous other cities. His articles have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times.