Rating: 
Summary: Extremely perceptive, many valuable insights
Review: Having been in family therapy practice for almost ten years, I have dealt with about half a dozen people--mainly young women--who were/are cutters.I met my first "cutter" back in grad school, and I soon heard about it in the literature. But this is the best explanation of the whole issue I've read. Strong's book is extremely useful for my understanding both as a therapist and as a concerned person. This is something that is very important for people to understand. The connection she makes to childhood abuse and abandonment problems is critically important at a time when so many shoddy and irresponsible books are casting doubt on almost all of the facts about the extent of child abuse in America. Most of us who see abuse victims on a daily basis know that this kind of thing is an epidemic, which is why we get people who self-injure, eating disorders, and a host of other problems. Ms. Strong should be congratulated for spending the time in researching the issues and the people to produce a most valuable work, and for pointing out the connection with child abuse which, sadly, is not a popular cause these days.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: This is a wonderful book! It is balanced with science, psychology, and stories. Marilee does a beautiful job at explaining the theories behind cutting, PTSD, eating disorders, and how the three work together. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Based on over 5 yrs of research & interviews:
Review: I wrote this book to provide both hope and help to people who self-injure. No one need suffer in silence, believing that they are alone in their pain. There are ways to heal both the internal and external wounds. I am grateful to the fifty-plus self-injurers from across the U.S. (and in the U.K., Canada, and Australia) who so bravely shared their stories with me and a like number of researchers and experts who treat self-injury whose insights helped me understand this very complex phenomenon.
Rating:
Summary: I am a "cutter" and this book touches my soul
Review: I heard about Marilee Strong's book from an online self-help group. When I read the stories in the book I felt like I was in a room full of caring, honest friends. I think this is a very, very healing book.I've never found a therapist who really understands what it's like to actually have a problem with self injury anything like the way this book explains it and makes sense of womething that's very hard to make sense of. It's cathartic and liberating!
Rating:
Summary: Marilee Strong actually understands what cutters feel!
Review: I live in the Bay Area and first read Marilee's article on cutters in a local magazine. A friend has shown me a "sneak preview" copy of the book Marilee has written which is filled with the kind of true stories that only cutters know about. It is extremely powerful... and soothing because it makes us feel we're not alone. That is what people who self-injure most need to know. That we're not alone and not crazy.
Rating: 
Summary: i recommend it to people who want to understand SI
Review: This book was a good read because it tells stories of SI and explains why people may do it, and gives lots of refrences to get help. If you SI i think the stories might help you understand it, but the authors explanation for SI is very intresting too.
Rating:
Summary: The book with the answers to "Why would someone do that?!"
Review: This book is amazing. Even though it's not written by a doctor or a psycholgist, this book is filled with more true information than other books I've read. Interviews with self-injurers of every age and background make this book very well-researched and help people to realize that it's not just something that teenagers do to get attention. I highly recommend this book for friends or family members of people who SI. It might help something that seems "disgusting" and "wrong" and "gross" seem more understandable.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely perceptive, many valuable insights
Review: Having been in family therapy practice for almost ten years, I have dealt with about half a dozen people--mainly young women--who were/are cutters.I met my first "cutter" back in grad school, and I soon heard about it in the literature. But this is the best explanation of the whole issue I've read. Strong's book is extremely useful for my understanding both as a therapist and as a concerned person. This is something that is very important for people to understand. The connection she makes to childhood abuse and abandonment problems is critically important at a time when so many shoddy and irresponsible books are casting doubt on almost all of the facts about the extent of child abuse in America. Most of us who see abuse victims on a daily basis know that this kind of thing is an epidemic, which is why we get people who self-injure, eating disorders, and a host of other problems. Ms. Strong should be congratulated for spending the time in researching the issues and the people to produce a most valuable work, and for pointing out the connection with child abuse which, sadly, is not a popular cause these days.
Rating:
Summary: Bright indeed
Review: Not for the faint-hearted, this is a book that can be beneficial even if you're not a "cutter" or know someone who is. I was first introduced and interested in this area after I read a disturbing short story ("Early Sunday Morning") by Jackson McCrae, from his latest book, THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. It was harrowing with its dead-pan telling and suspense. That started me on a quest. I have been studying up on different disorders for a year or so now and I wanted to read this since it was one of the only books on SI at my local library, which is quite sad. I know some cutters and so it helped me a lot, from a friendship standpoint and personally. It is a good mix of information and personal accounts. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in the subject. Would also recommend CUT for another great read on this subject.
Rating:
Summary: Too Glorified
Review: The most disturbing part of this book, for me, was not the tales of people slicing, burning, scratching, piercing their bodies. Though the novel is graphic, it is done to describe the stories of people who self-injure as told by those people.
My problem with this author and this book is that self-injury is glorified throughout. The book repeatedly uses quotes such as, "cutting was my only relief", "cutting was the only thing to calm me down", "seeing the blood let me know I was alive", "cutting was my mother and father", "cutting was the only way to stay sane"... and on and on. In this fashion the author only explains 'cutting' as the ultimate relief. As if it were, in fact, the only option. Not only that, the author writes in such a way that self-injury seems almost sensible... it can be done anytime anyplace at little to no financial cost. Certainly cheaper and more accessible than long term therapy, and apparently more effective.
The author fails to mention what self-injury costs in terms of hospital bills, rising insurance costs, and the anguish caused to others from witnessing someone rip their own skin apart. The author seems to accept that cutting is indeed quite natural for persons who were abused or neglected during childhood. Often the author points to 'cutters' suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This raises the question of why not then are veterans of war and other trauma victims shoving razors and knives into themselves? The author does not address this.
I agree that childhood trauma may cause numerous problems throughout a victim's life. Especially in the area of interpersonal relationships. Certainly a person whose father raped them while their mother stood by, or was abused herself, would have trust issues.
I do not however agree that cutting is as soothing and therapuetic as the author would have the reader believe.
Another MAJOR problem I have with this book is that the author often describes specific techniques people use to hurt themselves. Examples including where to hide razors, how to cut, where to cut, how to cut in a hospital, etc are rampant. I can see no reason at all for this information. Unless this is a how- to guide for self-injury. I think the author blatantly disregards the fact that this book provides many innovative ideas of how to harm. I had never thought of some of the methods described and I can only assume that someone who is trying to find a new way to 'cut' would relish this information. Again, the author presents this in a way that seems completely rational.
I understand that much of the stories are told to explain 'cutting' from the 'cutter's' point of view. This was accomplished in the first two chapters. Needlessly the stories continue throughout the book... seemingly with no other purpose than to evoke shock and sympathy from the reader.
The first 100 pages of this book could be deleted and it would still be useful.
Finally, in the later chapters, the author talks about treatment and how to move away from self-injury. I found this part of the book very practical and insightful.
Overall this could be a good book. I would not recommend it to anyone trying to recover from self-injury. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the topic or anyone who works with self-injurers.
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