Cutting Books

Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation by Steven Levenkron.  Norton: 1998.

• This book explains cutting as a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and compares it to anorexia.  Those who cut are not suicidal, but are looking for a release or a way to gain control over their lives.  This book is meant to help the reader can a better understanding of this phenomenon.  This book discusses characteristics of those that cut, why they do it, and the feelings that it brings out.  It does not, however, go into much detail explaining ways of treating those who cut or ending the behavior.  A good starter book for the topic.

A Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain by Marliee Strong

• This book is very well written as it combines journalistic passion with academic integrity.  This information explaining why cutters engage in this act was gathered from dozen of interviews with real people.  The author explains these powerful feelings though first-person accounts, adding a real and sympathetic tone to the book.  Overall, interesting mix of professional detachment and painful personal accounts that will trigger strong feels in those that cut or those that are close to someone who does.