Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding tool for understanding self-mutilation.
Review: As a self-mutilator for almost 20 years, I found Dr. Levenkron's book one of the most succinct and easy-to-read descriptions of why people might become self mutilators. Although the book was a bit too anecdotal in places and I would like to have seen some additional clinical support for some of the conclusions drawn, this book is one of the simplest, easiest-to-read and most comprehensive books on self-mutilation. An essential tool for learning why we do this to ourselves and a must-have for those seeking to understand a self-mutilator.
Rating: 
Summary: This an important, albeit popular account of self-mutilation
Review: In "Cutting" Dr. Levenkron has done for self-mutilation what he previously accomplished for anorexia, namely bringing a disturbingly prevalent yet underappreciated topic to the surface. In this respect the book succeeds. As cutter and anorexic, I found the book lacking in depth particularly when it came to the issue of how to break these viscious behavioural cycles. Clearly, no book can accomplish that which requires extensive therapy. These critisisms notwithstanding, "Cutting" is an extremely valuable addition to the paltry literature on this disorder and I believe will serve as an excellent "talking tool" for self-injurers to, as the author describes, build a bridge out of their suffering.
Rating:
Summary: An important book.
Review: I was speaking with a friend of mine about self-mutilation, and her response was mixed with anger, frustration, confusion and repulsion. Dr. Levenkron addresses issues that are all too common reactions by the general public. Just like he did nearly two decades ago with anorexia, Levenkron brings an important insight into a harmful disorder. He very astutely points out the fact that when anorexia was first being noticed, many in the medical field and the public reacted in the same manner that they do with self-mutilation. I recommend that anyone who knows, or thinks they know of someone who might be suffering from this disorder, reads this book. Even if you don't, do so just because you care. A better understanding, awareness and compassion needs to be attained.
Rating:
Summary: Cuts to the skin, a product of the soul
Review: I read this book because it was on my roommate's (who happens to be a youth crisis counselor)bookcase. For the first time ever, I realized I wasn't the only one who does this. And suddenly, the need to do it began to deminish. As I read on, I began to understand the eating disorders I was also experiencing. As well as the periodic dissociative episodes. I entered therapy, and have been on the track to recovery ever since. Dr. Levenkron's look at these disorders through the eyes of a cross-section of pacients as well as his own proved enlightening.
While he points out different disfunctions of family life and how they negatively impact his pacients, predisposing them to eating and self mutilation disorders, readers who feel his opinion is a pious one need read deeper, and look deeper. One must confront the situation for what it is in order to learn new coping mechanisms that prove to be less destructive. This does not mean that to speak of the issue is to "blame" others, but rather identify the root causes. To verbalise these things is against the self-mutilator's natural behavior. Learning to use words, rather than actions against one's self, to punish one's self. Learning that the flaws of others do not need to equal hurt on your own body. Although I have confronted many demons in my quest for recovery, I have not "blamed" anyone, or seen them as anything "worse" than I saw them before...in fact, I now see these people in a better light, less recklace than I remember thinking of them from childhood, and more as flawed humans, such as myself. They harbored the same fears I did, but theirs manifested outward. Mine, just the opposite. In short, one must critisize the behavior, and not the individual behind it. As long as a reader is willing to see things in this way, this book will not only prove helpful; but will find no limit to their successful recovery.
Rating:
Summary: Male Cutter
Review: What I found helpful about this book was the way Levinkron described how a patient should get help. It never occured to me that I should ask if a therapist/counselor/psychiatrist has had experience with self-mutilation or the importance of their medical knowledge and ability to treat a wound. Also helpful was his approach to how the cutter should heal. Levinkron understands that it is unrealistic to ask a cutter to stop cold turkey. Yet, I have never had a shrink who didn't ask me to. After reading Levinkron's book, I think I have a better understanding of how a cutter heals, and the importance of finding a good therapist/psychiatrist who can do that for me.
However, what disturbed me most about this book was the focus on female cutters. While I am well aware that statistics show most self-mutilators are female, I couldn't help feeling a little more lonely and isolated reading this book. It's really kind of a catch 22: Statistics show that most cutters are girls, so most therapists/writers don't worry so much about the guys. But many men won't come forward with their disorder, thus changing the statistics, because they don't feel there is an understanding of male cutters. I think this is an important issue, and that if somebody took the time to address it, many more males would be coming forth and getting help with their disorder.
That said, Cutting does have two (I believe) incidents of male cutters. But their stories are not developed and their scenarios are, at best, stereotypical and shovanist.
If anyone knows of any literature or anything else that addresses the male cutter, I would love to know about it. Thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Arrogance and Vagueness
Review: I disagree with previous reviewers who took exception to Levenkron's alliteration that all cutters come from dysfunctional families. I feel that these reviewers are in denial about themselves and their family structures. Frankly, I don't think there's such a thing as a perfectly functional family, and extremely subtle family dysfunction combined with a sensitive child and hereditary or chemical imbalances can produce a severely disturbed person. Many of Levenkron's examples involved very subtle dysfunction, as in a father that was overly respectful of the church and thus his daughter didn't tell him when a minister raped her. The dysfunction may be slight. But a perfect family doesn't produce ill children. Cutting doesn't appear out of nowhere, and recovery can't be achieved without focusing on the root.
I got a couple of scraps of good information out of this book, like the motivations for the behavior, but aside from that I found it immensely irritating on several fronts:
1. Levonkron makes lots of references to how cutters are viewed as being sick or wacko or repugnant, engendering fear, anger, and revulsion in "normal" people. It never really occured to me before reading his book that anybody would see these actions as being anything other than sad. I'd never seen anybody react to discussion of this disorder with anything other than concern and compassion. Over the course of his constant references to how nauseating cutting is I actually ended up feeling like he had convinced me that I SHOULD view cutting as revolting. A cutter reading this book would no doubt feel that they are viewed as a freak of nature by outsiders and feel even less inclined to disclose to anybody about their illness.
2. Oh geez, the arrogance! I find it hard to believe that every patient experience he was recounting really involved some teenage girl saying "How could you know this about me? Nobody knows this about me!" and then weeping in relief at his incredible insightfulness. Half the time these patients ended up expounding on how he was so much better than the previous shrinks or otherwise complimenting his prowess. There were even a couple of accounts where women took their clothes off to try to seduce him. I'm not calling him a liar, I'm just saying his memory might be colored by his own gradiose opinion of himself.
3. The tinge of sexism. Many times when he was referring to the therapist/patient relationship he made the assumption that the patient was female and the therapist was male. I could not help thinking of Freud, of the patriarchal and patronizing male therapist reining in the hysterical feminine tendencies of a frazzled female patient. It was a subtle thing, but I'm not the only reader who caught it.
4. The guide to recovery went nowhere and was very vague, leaving me with the assumption that he's not quite sure how he gets his patients to recovery. Indeed, several times he talked about particular patients as being essentially hopeless. The cure, he said, was a trusting connection with the therapist, who was to take on a parenting role and who was also supposed to be extremely overconfident. This is apparently the ONLY way out, and friends/family members are only supposed to take a secondary role. There's a couple of problems with this, namely that therapists are human and frequently mess up, and often mess up very, very badly. Many cutters have been through several therapists that have thoroughly bombed (I've known countless therapists who have said and done unbelievably stupid or cruel things in therapy and who were no more educated than any layman.) If the cutter's only profound connection is the one with the therapist, then it leaves her little recourse if the therapist blows it.
5. He didn't deal with gender issues. Is it a coincidence that this is primarily a female affliction? I think the fact that women are expected to be less aggressive and be nurturers causes them to circumvent their feelings of anger or frustration inward instead of outward, so women are more inclined to hurt themselves than others. For example, a boy beaten by his drunk father will likely grow up and beat his children (thus turning his anger outward), whereas a girl beaten by her drunk father will grow up into a meek woman with self-destructive habits, or marry a man who will likewise beat her (thus turning her anger inward). There's no examination of such factors when applied to cutting.
Basically, this is a long-winded way of saying, "Don't buy the book."
Rating:
Summary: Much needed
Review: I read this book because it was on my roommate's (who happens to be a youth crisis counselor)bookcase. For the first time ever, I realized I wasn't the only one who does this. And suddenly, the need to do it began to deminish. As I read on, I began to understand the eating disorders I was also experiencing. As well as the periodic dissociative episodes. I entered therapy, and have been on the track to recovery ever since. Dr. Levenkron's look at these disorders through the eyes of a cross-section of pacients as well as his own proved enlightening.
While he points out different disfunctions of family life and how they negatively impact his pacients, predisposing them to eating and self mutilation disorders, readers who feel his opinion is a pious one need read deeper, and look deeper. One must confront the situation for what it is in order to learn new coping mechanisms that prove to be less destructive. This does not mean that to speak of the issue is to "blame" others, but rather identify the root causes. To verbalise these things is against the self-mutilator's natural behavior. Learning to use words, rather than actions against one's self, to punish one's self. Learning that the flaws of others do not need to equal hurt on your own body. Although I have confronted many demons in my quest for recovery, I have not "blamed" anyone, or seen them as anything "worse" than I saw them before...in fact, I now see these people in a better light, less recklace than I remember thinking of them from childhood, and more as flawed humans, such as myself. They harbored the same fears I did, but theirs manifested outward. Mine, just the opposite. In short, one must critisize the behavior, and not the individual behind it. As long as a reader is willing to see things in this way, this book will not only prove helpful; but will find no limit to their successful recovery.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful and On the Mark
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.
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