Bleeding to Ease the Pain: Cutting, Self-Injury, and the Adolescent Search for Self (Abnormal Psychology)

201 Pages·2007·1.08 MB·English

by  Lori G. Plante

Bleeding to Ease the Pain
Recent Titles in Abnormal Psychology
Mental Disorders of the New Millennium, Volumes –
Thomas G. Plante, editor
BLEEDING TO
EASE THE PAIN
Cutting, Self-Injury,
and the Adolescent
Search for Self
Lori G. Plante

Foreword by Chris Hayward, M.D.
Abnormal Psychology
Thomas G. Plante, Series Editor
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plante, Lori G.
Bleeding to ease the pain: cutting, self-injury, and the adolescent
search for self / Lori G. Plante; foreword by Chris Hayward.
p. cm. — (Abnormal psychology, ISSN –)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-: –––– (alk. paper)
ISBN-: ––– (alk. paper)
. Self-mutilation in adolescence. I. Title.
RJ.SP 
.'—dc 
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright ©  by Lori G. Plante
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 
ISBN-: ––––
ISBN-: –––
ISSN: –
First published in 
Praeger Publishers,  Post Road West, Westport, CT 
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
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Th e paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z.–).
         
For my beloved Tom and Zach

Contents
Foreword ix
Chris Hayward, MD
Preface xiii
1 Self-Injury on the Rampage 
2 Special Populations, Special Concerns:
Teenagers Most at Risk 
3 Developmental Challenges in Adolescence: Th e Agony,
the Ecstasy, the Cell Phone, and the Internet 
4 Why Teens Self-Injure: Doing All the Wrong Th ings
for the Right Reasons 
5 Laying the Foundation for Intervention: Composure,
Compassion, and Comprehension 
6 Professional Treatment of Self-Injury: Understanding the
Th erapeutic Process 
7 Specialized Approaches and Adjuncts in
Treating Self-Injury 
8 Th e Brain as an Attitude Pharmacy: Neurochemical
Roles and Remedies in Self-Injury 
viii Contents
9 Intervention in Action: How It Works 
10 Stepping Up to the Plate: How Parents Can Help 
11 Health and Happiness Are Verbs: Th e Responsibilities
of the Adolescent in Treatment 
12 Depathologizing Adolescent Self-Injury:
Cutting on a Continuum 
Conclusions: Reconceptualizing Cutting 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 
About the Series Editor and Advisers 
Foreword
Cutting and other forms of self-mutilation have reached epidemic proportions
among our youth. As psychiatrists, those of us in the mental health profession
have witnessed this epidemic in emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals
where we provide care for increasing numbers of so-called cutters, many of
whom are scarred from years of self-infl icted wounds. Why is this happening?
In B leeding to Ease the Pain: Cutting, Self-Injury, and the Adolescent Search for
Self, Dr. Lori Plante skillfully weaves a way of understanding and intervening
with adolescent cutting. Explanations for why a given teenager might engage in
this “crazy” behavior are placed within the context of normal adolescent devel-
opment along with dramatic new changes in youth culture. For example, in
off ering an account of why youth mutilate their skin, she writes: “Our soci-
ety’s ever-increasing focus on appearance makes the skin an ideal billboard for
advertising identity. ”
F or years we had associated cutting with borderline personality disorder. In
fact, thirty years ago the phenomenon of cutting one’s wrist to relieve emotional
suff ering was almost exclusively confi ned to patients with this diagnosis. Self-
mutilation is occasionally seen in patients with psychosis or mental retardation,
but until recently cutting to “feel alive” has been the sine qua non of borderline
personality disorder. It is now the counterintuitive “creating pain to relieve pain”
that has become pandemic in teenagers. Why has this bizarre behavior increased
in our youth? Dr. Plante provides a compelling account of the cultural pressures
that have broadened the cutting epidemic beyond these discrete diagnoses: Sen-
sationalized media exposure to aberrant behavior, extreme pressure to succeed,
and an exaggerated emphasis on physical appearance are all suspected factors