American Association of Suicidology

About This Association

AAS was founded by clinical psychologist Edwin S. Shneidman, PhD, in 1968. After co-directing the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center (LASPC) since 1958, Dr. Shneidman was appointed co-director of The Center for Suicide Prevention at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD. There he had the opportunity to closely observe the limited available knowledge-base regarding suicide. Consequently, under the sponsorship of the NIMH, he organized a meeting of several world-renowned scholars in Chicago, determined the need for and fathered a national organization devoted to research, education, and practice in “suicidology,” and advancing suicide prevention. With his years of leadership directing a suicide prevention center, Shneidman was quick to recognize a contemporaneous and rapid expansion of the crisis center/hotline movement across the United States. The newly established AAS embraced these centers as sources of research information on suicidal clients. Soon, the relationship between AAS and these centers was symbolic. AAS became the central clearinghouse for support and the hub of a many-spoked wheel, networking these centers to common needs, training materials, and goals.

Publications

Conventions

57th Annual AAS Conference

Specialties:

1. Suicide

Information Summary