Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Tender Cut: Inside the Hidden World of Self‐Injury

2012; Wiley; Volume: 34; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01483.x

1467-9566

Emily Klineberg,

Autopsy Techniques and Outcomes

Adler, P.A. and Adler, P. The Tender Cut: Inside the Hidden World of Self-Injury . New York : New York University Press , 2011 , 264 pp $75.00 (hbk) ISBN : 9780814705063 , $22.00 (pbk) ISBN : 9780814705070 The Tender Cut presents a comprehensive discussion of self-injury through a sociological lens. It presents voices of people who self injure, within their social and personal contexts, discussing the complex mosaic of reasons why people self injure and the changing social perceptions of self-injury as a deviant behaviour progressively normalised over time. The authors outline the background literature, and the evolution of this study of self-injury throughout a period of developing technology including the emergence of the cyber world. The commentary is set within a time of changing internet use, paralleled with the emergence of forums for discussion and disclosure of self-injury. The data described stem from 135 interviews with adolescents and adults, along with posts to chat rooms and online bulletin boards. The internet is attributed a central role in the social transformation of self-injury, facilitating the ‘spread’ of the behaviour beyond individual experiences and commentaries from mental health professionals, through discussion of self-injury in the media and within music-based subcultures. The authors highlight the mid-1990s as a turning point, where online representation of self-injury made it ‘mainstream’ by the turn of the century. The book devotes chapters to becoming a self-injurer and the phenomenology of self-injury. The authors emphasise a move away from the psycho-medical approach, which they note dominated earlier commentaries, and discuss the transformation of self-injury into a ‘social phenomenon’. The social spread of self-injury is presented as a mechanism for apparent increases in prevalence, with participants reporting hearing about it from peers; learning about it, learning to start, to manage, to sustain and for some, to control it. There is passing reference to experiences involving suicidal ideation or attempts; however, this book primarily focuses on the variants of non-suicidal self-injury. There is discussion of self-injury ‘careers’, outlining different experiences of short or long term repetition of self-injury. The authors comment on a ‘bimodal population’ of people who self injure, and the longevity of their injurious behaviours. They comment on those who ‘spin out’, engaging in short-lived patterns of self-injury, contrasted with others who have long and ongoing experience of harm and talk of ‘struggling with self-injury’ over the years. This commentary adds some explanation to patterns of prevalence reported in epidemiological studies. The changeability of self-injury is inherent in accounts throughout this book, touching upon people’s equivocal relationships with their self-injury; at times seeing it as indulgence, at times requiring management, or struggling with it, wanting it, not wanting it, relying upon it or also seeking distance from their experiences. The authors note a struggle between the symbolic self and physiological body, and how the relationships with both the self and the body may be open to social influences, on and offline. The comparison is drawn between features of the real social world and the ‘semi-public’ cyber world, in which different aspects of one’s postmodern self can be enacted online. Real world social groups may normalise or introduce self-injury. Alternatively, such groups may feature in feelings of ostracism, or trigger initiating self-injury, reinforcing it as an isolated behaviour. In contrast, the cyber world facilitates sharing of different and disconnected aspects of the self within cyber relationships, letting individuals disclose as much or as little about their self-injury as they choose. The cyber world provides a community for those who may previously have remained isolated, not knowing of others who felt and sought the same sensations. This work adds to the growing qualitative literature exploring self-injury, particularly by situating self-injury within changing social environments. The longitudinal nature of the study, quantity of interviews and inclusive use of online resources as a form of internet ethnography contribute to the exploration of self-injury through different media. It has a broad-reaching sample, accessing a widespread internet-based range of people in diverse locations; however, the authors acknowledge that there may be hidden populations of people who self injure, beyond the reach of the internet chat rooms and groups. I would argue that the commentary is perhaps too dismissive of the psycho-medical model at times, given the medically serious and suicidal nature of some self-injury, which may be symptomatic of psychological illness. The examples presented, detailing misery and pain, do not always clearly support the argument that the psycho-medical model is out-dated, having been superseded by the variety of socially influenced forms of harm. However, the aim of this book was to discuss the variation in the social roles and experiences of self-injury, presenting the breadth of the phenomenon, which it does through a wide-ranging discussion of influences on self-harm. The authors present a normalisation of a deviant subculture, or set of behaviours, through the cyber world. This may be more representative of some situations and social contexts than others. Self-injury may be more prevalent and more known than it was in previous decades; however, acceptance of self-injury as a mainstream behaviour, more than a maladaptive coping strategy, is arguably not quite as pervasive and widespread as it is portrayed in this book. By commentating on social trajectories of self-injury, the book sets up questions about future social roles of self-injury; whether it will be a fad, an enduring stigmatised, yet prevalent phenomenon, or alternatively, whether it will become completely normalised and integrated within society, losing its deviant status. The Tender Cut presents the diverse nature of self-injury within changing communities. The book’s cover image of a lacerated forearm presages the content being peppered with raw, personal and sometimes graphic descriptions of self-injury, which do make some sections difficult to read. Nonetheless, such accounts and commentary about social acceptability present some insight into the complex phenomenon of self-injury in its multitude of potential social worlds. The book will be of potential academic interest to sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, GPs and those with an interest in either self-injury or the role of online social networks. It may also be relevant to other people providing support and advice to people who self-harm.