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A Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain
by  Marilee Strong

   


 

Book Description:
In "an impressive compliment to Mary Pipher's. . . Reviving Ophelia" (Booklist), an award-winning journalist explores one of today's most misunderstood phenomena--self-mutilation

Self-mutilation is a behavior so shocking that it is almost never discussed. Yet estimates are that upwards of eight million Americans are chronic self-injurers. They are people who use knives, razor blades, or broken glass to cut themselves. Their numbers include the actor Johnny Depp, Girl Interrupted author Susanna Kaysen, and the late Princess Diana.

Mistakenly viewed as suicide attempts or senseless masochism--even by many health professionals--"cutting" is actually a complex means of coping with emotional pain. Marilee Strong explores this hidden epidemic through case studies, startling new research from psychologists, trauma experts, and neuroscientists, and the heartbreaking insights of cutters themselves--who range from troubled teenagers to middle-age professionals to grandparents. Strong explains what factors lead to self-mutilation, why cutting helps people manage overwhelming fear and anxiety, and how cutters can heal both their internal and external wounds and break the self-destructive cycle. A Bright Red Scream is a groundbreaking, essential resource for victims of self-mutilation, their families, teachers, doctors, and therapists.


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Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation
by Steven Levenkron

   


 
Book description:
The author of the seminal and groundbreaking Treating and Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa now explains the phenomena of self-mutilation, a disorder that affects as many as two million Americans. Cutting takes the reader through the psychological experience of the person who seeks relief from mental pain and anguish in self-inflicted physical pain. Steven Levenkron traces the components that predispose a personality to becoming a self-mutilator: genetics, family experience, childhood trauma, and parental behavior. Written for the self-mutilator, parents, friends, and therapists, Levenkron explains why the disorder manifests in self-harming behaviors and, most of all, describes how the self-mutilator can be helped.


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The Scarred Soul: Understanding & Ending Self-Inflicted Violence
 by Tracy Alderman
 

 

Synopsis:
This step-by-step guide is designed to help victims of self-inflicted violence understand why they feel the need to hurt themselves and to take steps to change their behaviour. Most victims tend to be teenage girls or women in their twenties. To hurt themselves is sometimes a way of focusing and controlling overwhelming feelings of chaos. For others, it frees them from the numbness that defends them from the pain of previous abuse. Alderman helps them to explore the reasons for self-abuse and its impact on their lives, and how to break the habit, either through psychotherapy or on their own.

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Skin Game : A Memoir
 by Caroline Kettlewell
 

    

Synopsis:
 Caroline Kettlewell�s autobiography reveals a girl whose feelings of pain and alienation led her to seek relief in physically hurting herself, from age twelve into her twenties. Skin Game employs clear language and candid reflection to grant general readers as well as students an uncensored profile of a complex and unsettling disorder. "[This] mesmeric memoir examines the obsession with cutting that is believed to afflict somewhere around two million Americans, nearly all of them female," Francine Prose noted in Elle. "[Kettlewell�s] language soars and its intensity deepens whenever she is recalling the lost joys and the thrilling sensation of sharp steel against her tender skin."

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Bodies Under Siege: Self Mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry
 by Armando R. Favazza
 


Synopsis:
 This work analyzes the complex issues surrounding self-mutilation, drawing on case studies from clinical psychiatry and cultural anthropology to show that the phenomenon is deeply embedded culturally, and far more common than is often thought. Although body modification and blood rituals are shown to be common in many religions, rites-of-passage ceremonies, and therapeutic procedures, deviant self-mutilation, the author argues, is a distinct syndrome of impulse dyscontrol beginning in adolescence and often associated with eating disorders. According to the author, up to half of all female chronic self-mutilators have a history of anorexia or bulimia. This edition contains new information on the diagnosis and treatment of self-mutilation; the link between self-mutilation and eating disorders; and new research on the neurotransmitter serotonin, and associated advances in drug therapy.
 

 

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Secret Scars: Uncovering and Understanding the Addiction of Self-Injury
 by V. J. Turner
 


Book Description:
What is self-injury? Why would people deliberately hurt themselves? Why can't they stop? What can I do to help? These question are asked and answered in SECRET SCARS, a revealing look at the addiction of self-injury. Self-injury is one of the fastest growing health problems among teenage girls today. Despite its prevalence, however, self-injury remains a behavior shrouded in mystery and misconceptions. SECRET SCARS is a groundbreaking book that demystifies self-injury by explaining it as an addiction.
The author takes both an engaging and scholarly approach to help the reader understand the dynamics involved in self-injury. Not only does Turner share case histories and her personal struggle as a former self-injurer, she backs it up by citing studies, research findings, and clinical outcomes.

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Bodily Harm : The Breakthrough Healing Program for Self-Injurers
 by Karen Conterio, Wendy Lader
 


Synopsis
Two pioneers in the treatment of selfinjury problems offer a comprehensive look at this epidemic psychiatric disorder, in which people feel compelled to mutilate themselves, examining potential treatments, discussing case histories, and presenting success stories. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

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