The Tender Cut: Inside the Hidden World of Self-Injury

by Patricia A. Adler, Peter Adler

Overview

Choice's Outstanding Academic Title list for 2013
2013 Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Book Award presented by the Midwest Sociological Society
Honorable Mention for the Charles H. Cooley Award for Outstanding Book from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction

Illuminates the misunderstood meaning of self-injury in the 21st century

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 1990s 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814705070
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/22/2011
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. They are the co-authors and co-editors of numerous books, including Peer Power, Paradise Laborers, and Constructions of Deviance. Both Adlers collaboratively received the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. They are the co-authors and co-editors of numerous books, including Peer Power, Paradise Laborers, and Constructions of Deviance. Both Adlers collaboratively received the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature and Population 22

3 Studying Self-Injury 38

4 Becoming a Self-Injurer 53

5 The Phenomenology of the Cut 66

6 Loners in the Social World 94

7 Colleagues in the Cyber World 108

8 Self-Injury Communities 128

9 Self-Injury Relationships 144

10 The Social Transformation of Self-Injury 167

11 Careers in Self-Injury 181

12 Understanding Self-Injury 199

Notes 219

References 231

Index 250

About the Authors 252

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Insightful and sympathetic…The extraordinary depth of knowledge of the dimensions of self-injuring will increase the understanding of those who see self-injurers in their work and private lives.” -Ruth Horowitz,author of Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community

"Timely, important…In their thorough treatment of the subject, the authors include a history and literature review of this difficult topic, discussions of case histories, and examinations of relational dynamics and social contexts that may lead to cutting…This is a must read for those connected in any way to this topic." -Library Journal,

"But more than a compendium of personal accounts, The Tender Cut charts self-injury's shift from a behavior regarded as pathological and practiced by demonstrably mentally ill to a more widely accepted coping mechanism and a vehicle for the assertion of will or identity...thought-provoking books sheds a many-rayed light on a topic often shrouded in darkness."-Haili Jones Graff,Bitch Magazine

"Social, psychological and cultural insights abound in this recommendation for college-level health holdings."-The Midwest Book Review,

"Adler views self-harm as a kind of 'self-help', rather than a near-suicidal expression."-Emine Saner,The Guardian

Editorial Reviews

"Social, psychological and cultural insights abound in this recommendation for college-level health holdings."

The Midwest Book Review

"Adler viewsself-harm as a kind of 'self-help', rather than a near-suicidal expression."

The Guardian - Emine Saner

"successfully gives a face to self-injury and how it fits into the larger realm of social understating"

J Youth Adolescence

"The Tender Cut presents a comprehensive discussion of self-injury through a sociological lens...[it] will be...relevant to other people providing support and advice to people who self-harm."

Sociology of Health & Illness - Emily Klineberg

"The Tender Cut is an exhaustive, compelling...sociological study."

Metapsychology

"Adler and Adler's expansive work draws in and integrates multiple perspectives and addresses timely and important issues in the field of self-injury."

Contemporary Psychology - Stephen P. Lewis + Michele L. Davis

"But more than a compendium of personal accounts, The Tender Cut charts self-injury's shift from a behavior regarded as pathological and practiced by demonstrably mentally ill to a more widely accepted coping mechanism and a vehicle for the assertion of will or identity...thought-provoking books sheds a many-rayed light on a topic often shrouded in darkness."

Bitch Magazine - Haili Jones Graff

"Insightful and sympatheticThe extraordinary depth of knowledge of the dimensions of self-injuring will increase the understanding of those who see self-injurers in their work and private lives."

Ruth Horowitz

"Adler views self-harm as a kind of 'self-help', rather than a near-suicidal expression."-Emine Saner, The Guardian

"Social, psychological and cultural insights abound in this recommendation for college-level health holdings."- The Midwest Book Review

"Adler and Adler's expansive work draws in and integrates multiple perspectives and addresses timely and important issues in the field of self-injury."-Stephen P. Lewis + Michele L. Davis, Contemporary Psychology

"Timely, important…In their thorough treatment of the subject, the authors include a history and literature review of this difficult topic, discussions of case histories, and examinations of relational dynamics and social contexts that may lead to cutting…This is a must read for those connected in any way to this topic." - Library Journal

"But more than a compendium of personal accounts, The Tender Cut charts self-injury's shift from a behavior regarded as pathological and practiced by demonstrably mentally ill to a more widely accepted coping mechanism and a vehicle for the assertion of will or identity...thought-provoking books sheds a many-rayed light on a topic often shrouded in darkness."-Haili Jones Graff, Bitch Magazine

"successfully gives a face to self-injury and how it fits into the larger realm of social understating"- J Youth Adolescence

" The Tender Cut is an exhaustive, compelling...sociological study."- Metapsychology

“Insightful and sympathetic…The extraordinary depth of knowledge of the dimensions of self-injuring will increase the understanding of those who see self-injurers in their work and private lives.” -Ruth Horowitz,author of Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community

" The Tender Cut presents a comprehensive discussion of self-injury through a sociological lens...[it] will be...relevant to other people providing support and advice to people who self-harm."-Emily Klineberg, Sociology of Health & Illness

From the Publisher

This timely, important book is not an easy read. Although, according to the authors, "self-injury has existed for nearly all of recorded history," the quantum growth in the last 20 years of people, especially the young, engaging in self-cutting, burning, branding, scratching, picking at skin, reopening wounds, biting, hair pulling, and more supports the need for a comprehensive discussion about self-injury. Patricia A. Adler (sociology, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) and Peter Adler (sociology & criminology, Univ. of Denver) present a clinical but compassionate scholarly treatment. While the recent use of cyberspace for "practitioners" of self-injury to communicate with each other about formerly very private behaviors now provides alarming evidence of this "cult youth phenomenon," it also offers the possibility for mutual support among practitioners and, perhaps, interventions by professionals and caring families. In their thorough treatment of the subject, the authors include a history and literature review of this difficult topic, discussions of case histories, and examinations of relational dynamics and social contexts that may lead to cutting. VERDICT While literary references and clinical terms may be beyond the average reader, this is a must-read for those connected in any way to this topic.—Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ

Library Journal