Product Description

This work reveals the traumatic experiences underlying self-injury, food misuse and alcohol abuse. As well as offering hope and relief to other sufferers, the stories in this book aim to give those who have contact with sufferers a deeper understanding of self-destructive behaviour.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453346 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Marjorie Orr, Director, Accuracy About Abuse
'This book is a giant leap forward in making self-harm understandable to professionals and self-harmers alike.'

Stress News
'will bring much comfort to the reader, be informative for family & friends and can be used by practitioners...'

From the Author
Information from the author. This book is no longer in print. Please see: Healing The Hurt Within: Understand Self-Injury and Self-Harm, and Heal the Emotional Wounds (2Rev Ed). Published October 28, 2005.

Customer Reviews

Excellent, insightful, readable- and British
It took me a while to find this excellent book on self-injury, becuase Amazon online have not given it a subject link as they have the other books on self-mutilation. Very similar to Tracy Alderman's excellent self help book for people who hurt themselves, the exercises in Jan Sutton's book are less threatening and easier to complete, and she relates self-injury to other self destructive behaviours. Many people struggle with more than one self destructive coping mechanism, alternating between ED behaviour and cutting, for instance, which makes Sutton's veiws especially interesting. Great to have a British list of contacts and resources, and wonderful to have a book that informs and doesn't condescend.

Not very helpful
This book focuses too much on self-injury caused by serious trauma, like sexual abuse. Little or no material on cases where the cause is hard to find.

New insight
This book provides a sensitive review of the experiences of someone who engages in self-harm. Perhaps however it is slightly too focussed on sexual abuse as the (frequent) cause of self harm, and cutting as the (frequent) consequence. Never the less, the author provides excellent information for people working with self-injurers including graphical formulations that cannot help but guide the clinician, and the self-harmer, in understanding the, (their), strange action of self-injury from a much clearer perspective. I certainly recommend it.