 In recent years there has been a surge in the number of books published about self-injury/self-harm. All of these are suitable for different types of people, but most will have a certain appeal to people who self-injure.
Some might be too graphic for individuals depending on their frame of mind at the time of reading. Other books have a particularly religious tone, so will appeal only to certain people. Many are geared towards either Healthcare professionals or Academics. Depending on what you are after in a book about self-injury, there is bound to be something that will suit you. Hopefully these reviews will give you a better idea before you commit to buying - some of the books are quite expensive!
The books are divided into two main types - those which are mainly information based or with self-help advice, and those which are autobiographical accounts (or fiction books based around real-life experiences) of individual's experiences with self-injury.
Some books combine a combination of both, and most information-based books use case-studies to illustrate, so the majority of books will be in this first category.
Information and Self Help
Particularly suitable for therapists, and family members of those who self-injure.
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Particularly suitable for people who self-injure who enjoy writing exercises, especially younger people.
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Who's Hurting Who?
by Helen Spandler
Contact Fortysecond Street directly to purchase for £13.45
theteam@fortysecondstreet.org.uk
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STAR READ - this book is suitable for anyone wanting to know more about self-injury. An excellent book for someone with little / no prior knowledge of the subject and well as those who already have a good understanding, including healthcare professionals, those who self-injure, and their family / friends.
 Jan Sutton is a Counsellor and runs SIARI and is also an Associate of LifeSIGNS.
As early as page two, Jan defines self-injury as a coping and survival strategy, and it is this key point that allows me to celebrate Jan’s work online and in Healing the hurt within. While it is important to address the concepts of addiction and emotional self-abuse as this handbook does, understanding the act of self-injury as a method of dealing with intense emotional distress is the key to therapeutic change.
We can no longer allow the hidden affliction of self-injury to remain a stigmatised medical oddity, related only to suicide and personality disorders.
Counselling professionals need to read chapter six; the very idea of ‘no-harm contracts’ for clients is against the principals of the therapeutic trust-bond between counsellor and client, and yet many professionals feel such a contract is their ‘safety net’. This book should be carefully digested by any practitioner who may work with people who self-injure, which could be anyone, as the syndrome of self-injury can be part of anyone’s lives in the UK, regardless of age or sex. Self-injury can come to be relied upon by people from all walks of life, and for all kinds of personal reasons.
This book is not aimed only at professionals, it not only addresses the syndrome of self-injury using real experiences from people who self-injure, but it is lead by those voices in pain. Chapter seven specifically turns to self-help, something that LifeSIGNS is committed to; we believe that everyone has the ability to grow and heal, and this chapter in particular approaches the subject of dealing with our own emotions.
Jan’s resource-laden website has become the global repository for self-injury information, and Healing the hurt within has an excellent Resource section and everyone should update their web bookmarks from Jan’s suggestions.
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STAR READ - this book is an essential ready for those with an academic interest in self-injury, and will also be of use to healthcare professionals.
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This book provides a thorough review of the evidence on adolescent
self-harm and is designed mostly for professionals. It may also be
useful for parents of children who self-harm if they want to understand
more about this area. Although aimed at professionals, it is clearly
written and relatively easy to read with summaries at the end of each
chapter and with some explanations of the terms used. The authors view
self-harm and suicide as growing problems and start the book by examining
evidence on the rates of these in young people.
There is a very brief description of a couple of the theories about
self-harm which is followed by an examination of some of the factors
that seem to make it more likely that young people will self-harm.
Some screening instruments are described along with the limitations
of these assessments. Most of the second part of the book looks at
how to prevent and manage self-harm in adolescents in clinical settings
as well as discussing how to organise services for these young people.
(Thanks to Rachel for this review)
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Especially suitable for someone who wants a quick guide to self-injury.
£1, or read it online first at Mind.
This is a useful short guide to self-injury. It is ideal for someone who wants a brief overview without being given too much information, particularly as a resource for someone who self-injures to give to their family/friends to help them to understand a bit more about self-injury.
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to you.
STAR READ - This book is essential reading for ALL healthcare professionals coming into contact with people who self-injure.
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to you.
Especially suitable for those who are suicidal.
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to you.
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to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost
to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost to you.
Buy from Amazon now, which raises funds for LifeSIGNS at no extra cost to you.
Autobiography and Fiction
Sopie's website (Flash with music)
Accessible Version (no music)
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 Vanessa was thoughtful enough to send LifeSIGNS a few emails about her Blog and then sent us her book to review.
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 I was struck by the accurate portrayal of school life; Emily's friends are the most important thing in her life, and when they drift away from her, it's obvious to the reader that things are going downhill. Emily's parents don't see how important 'one night out' with her friends can be, but by missing out group plans, Emily gets pushed further and further away. The author has captured the pressures of school life very well, Emily's school could be any of our schools, Emily's town could be our town; it's very easy to recognise yourself in Emily's life.
The way in which Emily deals with her own self-injury, and the reaction of her parents, is a sincere attempt to understand self-injury by the author, without going overboard for sympathy. I'm uncertain if Emily's diagnosis of depression is processed correctly, but this book does show how help can be sought from the local hospital and from counsellors. At the end of the day, and in the last chapters of the book, it is Emily who decides how she will handle her self-injurious impulses, and it is Emily who controls herself - just as in real life, we can make changes with the right support and self-belief.
I have to say that a secondary character called Patrice confused me, I was uncertain what her role in the story was; it seems that she has an entire story of her own but separate and distinct to Emily's and so I'm not sure why Patrice is needed in Emily's story. I wonder if Patrice is thrown into the mix to show an alternative side of self-injury, one of physical abuse and copy-cat cutting. I just don't know.
This is a story of the pressures of friendships, the pressures of exams and the complex relationships within a family, all from the personal perspective of fifteen year old Emily. Emily has a unique point of view of how her family life runs, and while the reader may know from experience that Emily is a little paranoid and overly analytical, we also remember that's exactly how we were, not too long ago. Emily slips into relying on pinching and cutting to get her through the day, she finds that hurting herself can stop the emotional turmoil she's in, and gives her the peace she needs to study, and to deal with how upset she is at her friends. Emily knows it can't be good if she's cutting herself, but she doesn't know what else to do, she feels like she's handling herself as best she can, considering the pressures she's under.
The Prologue is triggering. Naturally,
there are emotional and physical triggers throughout the story.
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I think one of the many reason I enjoyed this novel and probably chose to read it, is that it not only deals with SI but shows how so very often things can appear very different to others who are looking in on a situation from the outside.
The novel tells the tale of Katie, a talented figure skater and A Grade student who is both popular and pretty – what people around her fail to take into account is an overbearing mother and a father who isn’t around. That, together with an unforgiving daily schedule, begins to take its toll on a lonely Katie whose self doubt turns into self hatred which she deals with by SI (described as “Self Mutilation” on the back cover, a term which I am not at all comfortable with personally).
The novel also details another problem sometimes associated with SI – dissociation; showing the fear, worry and distress experienced by Katie and those around her when the episodes occur.
The powerful relationship between Katie and her mother, Katherine, and the mother’s denial of her daughter’s illness, left me feeling great frustration for Katie but also a deep sadness at what it takes for Katherine to recognise that her daughters distress and even then I am not left feeling convinced that Katherine’s denial has shifted at all.
However I was greatly encouraged by the school in the novel and their efforts to help Katie as best they could but also in finding more appropriate specialised support that they knew they could not provide.
Review by JennyB
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Crosses
Shelley Stoehr
The title of this novel combined with a rather triggering image on the front cover, leaves little doubt as do what this novel may be about. However, as well as looking at the issue of SI, this story also follows the relationship of two friends and the destructive path it takes in more ways than one.
Crosses claims to be “The first novel for young adults to deal with an increasingly widespread disorder! – Not that is states what that “disorder” might be!
The blurb on the back doesn’t really give any detail of a story line – yet the reason as to why these girls cut themselves as given by the author, fills me with some confidence that the novel’s exploration of SI will be accurate to some degree and not just another portrayal of he common stereotype and misgivings of SI.
Yes, the main characters are two teenage girls, and issues appropriate to their age are covered, such as relationships with peers, boy and parents, drugs and school, but this is just the surface of a very deep and detailed set of feelings. The novel shows very clearly the disastrous consequences of when these feelings are ignored.
Review by JennyB
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Cut
Patricia McCormick
A reasonably short and not too complicated read, to me this novel is aimed at teenagers and young people, rather than adults.
It is the story, set in America, of a young girl, Callie, who finds herself placed in a “treatment unit” because she cuts herself.
Whilst there she silently watches the goings on around her of her fellow “guests” as they are known as the unit, not speaking a word to anyone.
This book encounters dissociated SI, to the extent that Callie know what is happening but as the incidents happen she begins to feel like she is a spectator of her actions, watching from above.
Eventually Callie finds her voice when having her individual therapy sessions and begins to let others into her secret world, whilst still remaining silent outside these sessions.
As well as Callie’s own life history which we learn about through the therapy sessions, the novel also details Callie’s peers at the unit and Callie’s struggle when another, very confident and upfront girl arrives who makes no secret of her self harm.
With the help of her therapist Callie discovers she’s not seen as crazy because she cuts herself, but that in order to stop feeling like she needs to self-harm, she has to trust in people around her and let them into her thoughts and share her worries.
Review by JennyB
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Despite mainly focusing on child abuse and the journey Linda has to take, guided blindly by her psychiatrist Robin Royston, this powerful book gave me a better insight into dissociated Self Injury.
Whilst having personally experienced mild dissociation, it was nowhere near as dramatic and severe as that of Linda and it also was never connected with my self injury unlike her incidents.
Maybe this was one of the reasons I found it such compelling reading. I could also imagine though that someone who had or does struggle with flashbacks and abuse, it may be a very distressing read. However if persevered with I would like to imagine that it would give the reader a great deal of hope by the end following Linda’s progress on her journey through those years of self discovery.
The book is written in a journal style following the story of Linda’s discovery or her past, written by both Linda and her psychiatrist robin Royston. This gave the insight into what Linda herself remembers in the way of dreams, nightmares and flashbacks but then also from the view of robin Royston, we learn of the things Linda does not remember o r realise she is doing, such as feeling so trapped that she would break through windows to escape from her nightmares and troubles. This tale of fear from all parties’ keeps you gripped to find out whether the full details of Linda’s mind are revealed and unravelled before, as the synopsis on the back cover reads, “it is too late…”
Review by JennyB
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Skin Game
Caroline Kettlewell
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 Written by a LifeSIGNS member, this is an autobiographical account of a specific type of self-injury (sexual self-injury), which is an area that has been missed in most of the literature about self-injury. Sexual self-injury has additional stigma attached to it, and the author’s honest and moving account is thought provoking.
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All Book Reviews appearing are for guidance only. Only you can decide
what you like to read!
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