Rating: 
Summary: Helpful, but should not blame families
Review: We suddenly found out this spring that our beautiful, wonderful daughter, a girl everyone seems to love, was cutting herself. She had mentioned to me two years ago that one of her friends did, and I thought it was the weirdest thing I ever heard. Maybe my reaction made her hide it from us?Levenkron's book was not the first one I read, but I found it helpful mainly in getting inside the mind of a girl who does this, and in mechanisms she can use to help herself stop it. I also think he comes across as a kind, wise person. I wish we could consult him in person. I did not feel he was arrogant, as some readers did. What was very much less than helpful, though, was the way Levenkron blames the family, saying that no cutter comes from a healthy family. Well, that is easy to say once someone is in your office, isn't it, Dr Levenkron? Certainly some girls who have been abused must do this. But look at it in reverse-- could you take any "normal" family and promise they were safe from cutting? The answer is no. I think that we are a normal, loving, intact family, and that something else is going on. Genetic factors and non-family environmental factors certainly enter in. Otherwise, why would we find out that my daughter's paternal first cousin and aunt (who have always lived in a different country from us, and themselves have met perhaps six times in their lives) also cut themselves; or that on my side of the family there is autism (autistic people also often self-mutilate)? Can you explain why this practice spreads among classmates? And are you aware (you certainly should be) that a genetic link has been demonstrated for bulimia, which resembles cutting in many ways? It could be very important for a girl who cuts--I am not talking about girls who have really suffered abuse-- to know that she has an unusually terrible reaction to stress(rather than unusually terrible circumstances),partly because of her genes and her environment. I have enormous love and compassion for my daughter, but I don't think it would help her get better to believe that her family caused her cutting. This book still helped me understand her better--especially her perfectionism and inability to get angry. I am also grateful to have learned more about other girls who do this-- the problem is a lot more common than I would ever have dreamed, and needs to be treated with love and not prejudice. So thank you, Dr Levenkron, but think twice about blaming families and remember Bruno Bettelheim.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and On the Mark
Review: This is a great book which gives anyone wanting to know more insight and a good honest look at the disorder of cutting. Anyone wanting to feel comfort from their isolation of cutting will find many things very relevant and at home.
Rating: 
Summary: Be open minded about this book
Review: Whether or not you like Levenkron this book should be read by anyone with issues of self-mutilation. The book describes actual accounts of real people dealing with depression, anorexia, and of course self-mutilation.
I wasn't to enthralled with everything Levenkron said, but to read about other people who do and feel some of the same, and very personal, things I do was almost like therapy in itself. I was so happy to read this book. It made me feel less alone.
Books don't have to be perfect, I enjoyed this book and I think that anyone interested should give it a chance.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good as it should be
Review: this book, while sometimes helpful, is for the most part a series of anecdotes that merely show off levenkron's success as a therapist. it may well have useful aspects for the therapist seeking help on how to treat a patient, but even some of those are a little scary from a patient's perspective. it seems that although levenkron states things like "it took five years of therapy to get this patient through this journey" or what have you, he glosses over the length and concentrates on the many miraculous breakthroughs he makes. if you are a teenage "cutter" or "self-mutilator" or whatever you want to call it, it may be more helpful than someone who is 29 and therefore out of his age group. i don't fit into any of his categories - i had a wonderful upbringing, was never abused and didn't start self-mutilating until i was 22. perhaps this is why the book seems so far-fetched to me. however, i do think his data-tracking skills are suspect. i highly recommend marilee strong's "a bright red scream" instead of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Good Book for Many
Review: I found this book wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Though Dr. Levenkron does a great job speaking highly of himself and classifying self-mutilators into one narrow group, this book lacks a global view of the problem as well as much needed answers. The tone the book was written was also disturbing as Dr. Levenkron goes to lengths describing how his colleagues view self-mutilators as "sick cookies" (his actual words). He offers little to no helpful advice on curing self-mutilation except dwelling on your past. If nothing else, reading this book could damage a person's self esteem and make him/her avoid seeking therapy or a cure to his/her self-mutilation altogether. I recently discovered that my own problem was linked to nutrasweet. I self-mutilated for 13 years (since I was 16 - the time I started drinking diet coke on a regular basis) until I gave up diet coke. Since I quit drinking diet coke because I've read that nutrasweet can cause neurological problems and I've had no more episodes since then. It's ashame that environmental factors such as this aren't examined more by psychiatrists as self-mutilation continues to become a growing epidemic.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Misleading and Disappointing
Review: I bought and read this book almost immediatly after it came out. To be honest, I had never heard of Mr. Levenkron before, but I was excited because someone had actually written a book on cutting--a "disorder" that at the age of 21, I thought I was the only person who suffered it. However, as I read it, I became angry and offended. Mr. Levenkron seems to group all cutters into one catagory--we are all from dysfunctional homes and also have eating disorders. This did not include me at all. As a result, I felt even more displaced. This was in 1997--before self-injury became the "affliction of the new-millenium" as so many people like to put it. I wish I had a different non-fiction book about self-injury to recommend in place of this one, but I don't. And believe me, I have read extensively on this topic. Most of the books that I have read are one-dimensional or only suggested one possible route for cutters to get help. In fact, the only good book that I have read that deals with this subject is the novel "Cut". It is distressing to me that this "problem" (and I don't mean to offend anyone for calling it that) is not being dealt with in non-fictional ways by anything other than speculative psycho-babble or fast-tracked memoirs that offer only one viewpoint that is supposed to encompass all those who self-injure (i.e. "Skin Game") In truth, to see a fair portrayal of self-injury, you're better off seeing an independant movie such as "Secretary" or "Thirteen" than reading anything that's out there right now. And as far as Mr. Levenkron, I hope he has realized that not all of us who cut fit neatly into his box. If we did, we'd probably all be cured by now.
Rating:
Summary: The worst book on SI I've ever read...
Review: I think he spends too much time telling everybody how disturbed we are and how bad we need help...I need to read with compassion....not reading something that makes me feel even more guilty, sick or wrong..I know that what I do is bad for me but reading his book didn't make me wanna get better...just my two cents.
Rating:
Summary: best book on the subject
Review: all of levenkron books are very in insightful on the art of self-injury.Cutting is the first book i've ever read that actually had something to say;and the stories that are in it are 98-99% true for most self-mutilators.so,i'd really recommend this book over most others,to those suffering from this disorder or for those who know someone suffering from the disorder.
Rating:
Summary: Author Got Inside My Head
Review: This book is the first time time since college that I have actually highlighted passages in a book. This author wrote like he could see the thoughts inside my head. When I finished the book, I gave it to my therapist so she could read it too. Very impressive.
Rating: 
Summary: some good information, but not what I was looking for
Review: This book provided some good information, a few things I could identify with, but overall wasn't what I was hoping to find. As a person with a long-time cutting problem, I was hoping to find guidance to help me stop. The author seems to primarily focus on one segment of cutters; teenage girls who come from dysfunctional families. I'm not a teenage (I'm much older), and I'd like for my family to be able to read something also, to help them understand my problem, but this wouldn't be appropriate, since the author seems to at every opportunity blame the young self-injurers problems on her family. I'm still looking for the right book for me, this definitely wasn't it.
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