Michael French
Writer, Professor, and Lover of Stories
The Art of Murder: Paris
Ex-pat J. Edgar O'Shaughnessy moves with the artistic elite while harboring a secret ambition: elevating murder into an art. By day, he is a philanthropist and sponsor of the arts; but by night, he carries out his own art, bringing darkness upon the City of Light. As whispers of fascination and prices for photographs of his murders grow, Edgar becomes emboldened. But as the weight of his actions build, so does police scrutiny and danger of exposure. Can Edgar make his mark in the Parisian art scene before he finds himself beneath the blade of the guillotine.
The Art of Murder blends psychological suspense, macabre humor, and ethical complexity, delving into the seduction between brutality and beauty, as Edgar's carefully curated world begins to crack.
About Michael French
Michael French is a writer and professor whose work explores our search for hope and beauty in the darkest and most difficult part of ourselves. As an academic, his research focuses on ethics, mental disorders, and suicide. In fiction, he explores the difficult balance between hope and despair, and how we find meaning in between them.
After a traumatic car accident, writing became an outlet and opportunity to better understand himself and his struggles. He is grateful for the opportunity to share his stories.
Selected Academic Works
Death Awaits Me: An Existential Phenomenology of Suicide
This paper begins with an examination of the self and the breaks that occur within the world that the suicidal individual endures. This includes an examination of suicidal hopelessness, and follows with the role in which hope plays in the suicidal. The paper then turns to carrying out the action of suicide, including a discussion of the suicide note and the developing form of the suicide notes in the internet era. The paper makes use of suicide notes, video suicide notes, and stories of suicides.
Interpreting Suicide Notes: A Tripartite Method
This paper will present a new method of interpreting suicide notes. It will begin with a discussion of the limitations of interpreting suicide notes. The paper will then clarify the purpose of interpretation as attempt at communication and how to understand the suicide note as an object of interpretation. This is followed by introduction of three traditional methods of interpretation: the pluralist, intentionalist, and psychoanalytic methods. Each suicide note is then interpreted using the appropriate method. The paper culminates in presenting a method to interpret suicide notes as a form of self-narration.
Bioethics in Our World: A Reader
This book explores issues related to public health, psychiatry, genetics, and more, and examines the moral worth of actions within these fields. The anthology features collected cases that examine various topics and encourages readers to consider the ethical dilemmas they may face in their futures as clinicians, researchers, and citizens.
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