In Disappearing Persons, psychoanalyst Benjamin Kilborne looks at how we control appearance as an attempt to manage or take charge of our feelings. Arguing that the psychology of appearance has not been adequately explored, Kilborne deftly weaves together examples from literature and his own clinical practice to establish shame and appearance as central fears in both literature and life, and describes how shame about appearance can generate not only the wish to disappear but also the fear of disappearing. A hybrid of applied literature and psychoanalysis, Disappearing Persons helps us to understand the roots of the psychocultural crisis confronting our increasingly appearance-oriented, shame-driven society.

Missing Persons is a memoir about dealing with death in a culture that gives no help. As the last of her family, Greene’s losses are stark, first her aunt, then her mother, in quick succession. She is as ill-equipped for the challenges of caring for a dying person at home as she is for the other losses, long repressed, that rise to confront her at this time: the suicide of her younger brother, the death of her father. As the professional identity on which she’s based her selfhood comes to feel brittle and trivial, she is catapulted into questions of “who am I?” and “what have I done with my life?” The memoir is structured as an account of her mother's and aunt’s final days and the year that follows, a year in which she reconstructs her life. This is a powerful story about family, what it means to have one, to lose one, never to have made one, and what, if anything, might take its place. It’s the story of a vexed mother-daughter relationship that mellows with age. It is also a search for home, as the very landscape shifts around her and the vast orchards are dug up and paved over for tract housing, strip malls, freeways, and the Santa Clara Valley, once known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight, is transformed to “Silicon.”

An intellectually adventurous account of the role of nonpersons that explores their depiction in literature and challenges how they are defined in philosophy, law, and anthropology In thirteen interlocking chapters, Absentees explores the role of the missing in human communities, asking an urgent question: How does a person become a nonperson, whether by disappearance, disenfranchisement, or civil, social, or biological death? Only somebody can become a “nobody,” but, as Daniel Heller-Roazen shows, the ways of being a nonperson are as diverse and complex as they are mysterious and unpredictable. Heller-Roazen treats the variously missing persons of the subtitle in three parts: Vanishings, Lessenings, and Survivals. In each section and with multiple transhistorical and transcultural examples, he challenges the categories that define nonpersons in philosophy, ethics, law, and anthropology. Exclusion, infamy, and stigma; mortuary beliefs and customs; children’s games and state censuses; ghosts and “dead souls” illustrate the lives of those lacking or denied full personhood. In the archives of fiction, Heller-Roazen uncovers figurations of the missing—from Helen of Argos in Troy or Egypt to Hawthorne’s Wakefield, Swift’s Captain Gulliver, Kafka’s undead hunter Gracchus, and Chamisso’s long-lived shadowless Peter Schlemihl. Readers of The Enemy of All and No One’s Ways will find a continuation of those books’ intense intellectual adventures, with unexpected questions and arguments arising every step of the way. In a unique voice, Heller-Roazen’s thought and writing capture the intricacies of the all-too-human absent and absented.

With Missing Persons in hand you'll find the types that commonly become PIs - ex-cops, macho criminal wannabes, reporters; the easiest people to find (men, property owners and professionals) and the hardest (women, scoundrels and those with common names); profiles of the missing and profiles of those searching; how and why people hide; what can be gleaned from public record; secret and not-so-secret databases; and the lowdown on interviewing, surveillance and the benefits of a good scam. Missing Persons goes beyond the basic search, and details the process of looking for someone, typical clients and the reaction once the missing is found. There's more than a presentation of facts here. Faron backs up her clues with anecdotes from Rat Dog case files. As with any good whodunit, Faron's engaging style and true-life adventures will have you turning pages. In short, every gumshoe's search should begin here.

A missing person is an individual whose whereabouts are unknown and where there is some concern for his or her wellbeing. In the UK, around 250,000 people are reported missing every year, with the majority being children under the age of 18. Despite the fact that missing persons are a social phenomenon which encompasses vast areas of interest, relatively little is known about those who go missing, what happens to them while they are missing, and what can be done to prevent these incidents from occurring. This groundbreaking book brings together for the first time ideas and expertise across this vast subject area into one interconnected publication. It explores the subjects of missing children, missing adults, the investigative process of missing person cases, and the families of missing persons. Those with no prior knowledge or professionals with focused knowledge in some areas will be able to expand their understanding of a variety of topics relevant to this field through detailed chapters which advance our understanding of this complex phenomenon, discuss what is unknown, and suggest the best and most important steps forward to further advance our knowledge.

Twelve extraordinary tales of disappearance: a collection of true crime writing by New Zealand's award-winning master of non-fiction. Former journalist Murray Mason, found dead in the Auckland Domain; the mysterious death of Socksay Chansy, found dead in a graveyard by the sea; the tragic disappearance of backpacker Grace Millane, victim of public enemy #1; the enduring mystery of the Lundy family murders... These are stories about how some New Zealanders go missing - the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The work of finding and identifying missing persons is complex and requires the expertise of many people, such as historians hunting through archives, biological anthropologists reconstructing skeletons, and psychologists preparing investigators to interview families of the disappeared. Uniting the voices of 22 experts from around the world, Derek Congram’s collection of original papers centres its attention on those who are engaged in the location, identification, and repatriation of missing persons. The contributors to this timely volume represent multiple disciplines and various fields, including academia, government, and civil service, but are connected by a shared conviction that accounting for the missing is vital for a just society. The chapters concentrate on victims of physical or structural violence, including armed conflict, repressive regimes, criminal behaviour, and racist and colonial policies towards Indigenous persons and minority populations. Some contexts are familiar—morgues, mass graves, and battlefields—while others are surprising, such as schoolyards and a museum in Canada. Although the circumstances of the disappearances vary greatly, Missing Persons illustrates the connections between these disparate contexts. Multidisciplinary in scope, this edited collection is a valuable comparative resource for students, academics, and practitioners in forensic anthropology, anthropological/archaeological ethics, forensic psychology, criminal justice, and human rights.