Marilee Strong

This book is a comprehensive, riveting look at self-injury. It features stories of people from all walks of life who intentionally hurt themselves for a plethora of reasons: a history of sexual abuse, early trauma, severe neglect, abusive and/or alcoholic caregivers, inconsistent upbringing (other adults in the child's life who deny any abuse ever happened.)

Strong presents a lot of information from psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and the like. She also attains a rapport with the show more subjects of this book. The range of pain is almost overwhelming, but one thing I liked was that the book focused on healing. There's a lot of suffering, but Strong remains steadfast in her journey to understand the psychology of cutting/self-harm. I believe this is an important book for anybody involved with the care of self-injurers, as well as concerned friends and family. show less

This is an interesting but ultimately flawed look at the phenomenon of self-mutilation as it relates to mental illness. Self-mutilation can take many forms, but the most common seem to be self-inflicted cutting and burning. It's not undertaken with an intent to commit suicide; instead, many people who cut or otherwise injure themselves believe it is one of the things that prevents them from committing suicide.

There aren't that many books for the layperson on this issue, despite increased show more exposure in the media. This book, by a journalist, pretty much falls under the "good start" category. My biggest problem with it is that at the outset, Strong mentions that the majority of people who self-injure are women who have been sexually abused, but that a sizable minority don't fit that category. She then proceeds to completely ignore self-injury in people who have NOT been sexually abused for the rest of the book. Almost all of the theories she discusses involve PTSD and dissociative disorder brought on by sexual trauma, and she seems to have disregarded any case history that did not fit this paradigm. This ended up frustrating me a lot, and also made me wonder what other inconvenient theories and case histories she'd disregarded in favor of a tidier narrative. show less

I wish that more people had the opportunity to read this book. As a person who is very familiar with self-harm, I found myself understanding the mindset behind many of the stories in this book. This is an issue that is often not discussed as much as it should be due to its taboo nature, but it is something that really should be discussed as much as possible. Many thanks go to the author who is able to bring light to a very bleak subject.

An excellent insight in the Dark Triad that makes up the character of Eraser killers (men who make their wives/girlfriends,significant others "disappear" ). Examining the pathology of these eraser killers could benefit local police force investigators by making them aware of the behaviors most often associated with these killers. While some steps have been taken by law enforcement to pay stricter attention to atypical behaviors in missing women cases, a more rapid response and intensive show more investigations could lead to quicker resolutions of these cases. This book is a must read for anyone in law enforcement or anyone involved in researching or investigating Intimate Partner Violence. show less