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

Rating:
Summary: nothingness
Review: Written well, but some of it bothered me, it seems that the people who's names have been changed had a very accurate 'story' to tell with Self-mutilation. While however, I found that the rest of the book didn't suit all of every self-mutilator's needs and they problems. I found that out of myself and my friends who do self-mutilate that it was somewhat wrong. That it was not the mother's touch with the child's skin that bothered them, but the mother's inability to see the abuse that was happening. That a lot of cutter's world revolves around keeping the secret of cutting, seeing how long it will take for another to notice (especially those that one lives with).

However, the book gives very good information on what it is like inside a cutter's mind on another basis. I will definately take that to my group therapy. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Long overdue is right
Review: Marilee Strong truly understands what goes on inside the mind of a cutter. I have never found another book on this subject that described the thoughts, the feelings so accurately. I even gave a copy of the book to my therapist, because Strong said all the things I wanted to say---just more eloquently than I could have.
I would recommend this book to any parent, friend, or therapist of the person who cuts or self-injures.

Rating:
Summary: It's Great, But . . .
Review: Marilee Strong has written a brilliant, compassionate book filled with heartbreaking testimony from many people who "SI" (short for self-injure), and she seasons this first person material with a lot of medical research into a particularly modern condition that has baffled many, even those who do it and their friends and parents. Even if you are not directly implicated in the topic, this book is so well written it might serve as the locus classicus for thinking on the subject, at least in the terms of the pop culture we live in.

I do have one caveat however.

Was Princess Diana really a cutter? The evidence for thinking so is flimsy at best, and Ms. Strong probably knows this, and still she decides oh, well, she's dead and won't be complaining if I brand her a cutter in my book, it will sell a few more copies (all the promo material features Diana's name prominently). I wonder who else Marilee Strong will "out" as a cutter as soon as they pop off in the future.

Rating:
Summary: The book with the answers to "Why would someone do that?!"
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.