The tender cut : inside the hidden world of self-injury / Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adler, Patricia A.

Contributor:

Adler, Peter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Self-injurious behavior.

Adaptability (Psychology).

Social isolation.

Stress (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Cutting, burning, branding, and bone-breaking are all types of self-injury, or the deliberate, non-suicidal destruction of one’s own body tissue, a practice that emerged from obscurity in the 1990's and spread dramatically as a typical behavior among adolescents. Long considered a suicidal gesture, The Tender Cut argues instead that self-injury is often a coping mechanism, a form of teenage angst, an expression of group membership, and a type of rebellion, converting unbearable emotional pain into manageable physical pain. Based on the largest, qualitative, non-clinical population of self-injurers ever gathered, noted ethnographers Patricia and Peter Adler draw on 150 interviews with self-injurers from all over the world, along with 30,000-40,000 internet posts in chat rooms and communiqués. Their 10-year longitudinal research follows the practice of self-injury from its early days when people engaged in it alone and did not know others, to the present, where a subculture has formed via cyberspace that shares similar norms, values, lore, vocabulary, and interests. An important portrait of a troubling behavior, The Tender Cut illuminates the meaning of self-injury in the 21st century, its effects on current and former users, and its future as a practice for self-discovery or a cry for help.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction

2 Literature and Population

3 Studying Self-Injury

4 Becoming a Self-Injurer

5 The Phenomenology of the Cut

6 Loners in the Social World

7 Colleagues in the Cyber World

8 Self-Injury Communities

9 Self-Injury Relationships

10 The Social Transformation of Self-Injury

11 Careers in Self-Injury

12 Understanding Self-Injury

Notes

References

Index

About the Authors

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8147-0541-3

OCLC:

744354029