TY - BOOK AU - Adler,Patricia A. AU - Adler,Peter TI - The tender cut: inside the hidden world of self-injury SN - 9780814705063 (cl : alk. paper) AV - RC 569.5 .S48 A35 2011 PY - 2011/// CY - New York PB - New York University Press KW - Self-injurious behavior KW - Adaptability (Psychology) KW - Social isolation KW - Stress (Psychology) KW - psychology KW - Adaptation, Psychological KW - Social Environment KW - Stress, Psychological N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Literature and population -- Studying self-injury -- Becoming a self-injurer -- The phenomenology of the cut -- Loners in the social world -- Colleagues in the cyber world -- Self-injury communities -- Self-injury relationships -- The social transformation of self-injury -- Careers in self-injury -- Understanding self-injury N2 - "Cutting, burning, branding, and bone-breaking are all types of self-injury, or the deliberate, non-suicidal destruction of one's own body tissue, a practice that emerged from obscurity in the 1990s and spread dramatically as a typical behavior among adolescents. Long considered a suicidal gesture, [this book] argues instead that self-injury is often a coping mechanism, a form of teenage angst, an expression of group membership, and a type of rebellion, converting unbearable emotional pain into manageable physical pain. Based on the largest, qualitative, non-clinical population of self-injurers ever gathered, noted ethnographers Patricia and Peter Adler draw on 150 interviews with self-injurers from all over the world, along with 30,000-40,000 internet posts in chat rooms and communiqu�es. Their 10-year longitudinal research follows the practice of self-injury from its early days when people engaged in it alone and did not know others, to the present, where a subculture has formed via cyberspace that shares similar norms, values, lore, vocabulary, and interests. An important portrait of a troubling behavior, [the book] illuminates the meaning of self-injury in the 21st century, its effects on current and former users, and its future as a practice for self-discovery or a cry for help."--Publisher's description ER -