The Tender Cut by Peter Adler

The Tender Cut by Peter Adler

Choice's Outstanding Academic Title list for 2013 2013 Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Book Award presented by the Midwest Sociological Society Honorable Mention for the Charles H. Cooley Award for Outstanding Book from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction Illuminates the misunderstood meaning of self-injury in the 21st century 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, The Tender Cut 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 communiqués. 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 Tender Cut 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.

"successfully gives a face to self-injury and how it fits into the larger realm of social understating" * J Youth Adolescence *
"Timely, importantIn their thorough treatment of the subject, the authors include a history and literature review of this difficult topic, discussions of case histories, and examinations of relational dynamics and social contexts that may lead to cuttingThis is a must read for those connected in any way to this topic" * Library Journal *
"The Tender Cut is an exhaustive, compelling..sociological study." * Metapsychology *
"The Tender Cut presents a comprehensive discussion of self-injury through a sociological lens...[it] will be...relevant to other people providing support and advice to people who self-harm." -- Emily Klineberg * Sociology of Health & Illness *
"Adler and Adler's expansive work draws in and integrates multiple perspectives and addresses timely and important issues in the field of self-injury." -- Stephen P. Lewis + Michele L. Davis * Contemporary Psychology *
"Insightful and sympatheticThe extraordinary depth of knowledge of the dimensions of self-injuring will increase the understanding of those who see self-injurers in their work and private lives." -- Ruth Horowitz,author of Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community
"Adler viewsself-harm as a kind of 'self-help', rather than a near-suicidal expression." -- Emine Saner * The Guardian *
"But more than a compendium of personal accounts, The Tender Cut charts self-injury's shift from a behavior regarded as pathological and practiced by demonstrably mentally ill to a more widely accepted coping mechanism and a vehicle for the assertion of will or identity...thought-provoking books sheds a many-rayed light on a topic often shrouded in darkness." -- Haili Jones Graff * Bitch Magazine *
"Social, psychological and cultural insights abound in this recommendation for college-level health holdings." * The Midwest Book Review *

Peter Adler, Professor Emeritus, received his PhD in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego, in 1980. He is the author, along with his wife, Patti, of over 100 scholarly articles and chapters, as well as several books, including Momentum, Membership Roles in Field Research, BackboardsBlackboards, Peer Power, and Paradise Laborers and The Deviance Society (in Italian). His most recent book, The Tender Cut, was released in 2011 by NYU Press, which was awarded Honorable Mention for the Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI) for outstanding book of the year (2012), as well as from the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS; 2013). He is also the co-editor of Constructions of Deviance (7th edition, 2011), Sociological Odyssey (4th edition, 2013), Drugs and the American Dream (1st edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), Encyclopedia of Criminology and Deviant Behavior (V. 1), and The Social Dynamics of Financial Markets. For eight years, he served as editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and he was the founding editor of the research annual, Sociological Studies of Child Development. In 1997-98, he was selected as the Distinguished University Lecturer at the University of Denver, one of the highest honors that the University bestows on its faculty, and in 2005, the University named him the United Methodist Church Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Also in 2005, he was given the Excellence in Mentoring Award by the SSSI. In 2006-2007, Professor Adler was Co-President of the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS). In 2010, the SSSI honored him, along with Patti, with the George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement. His students have won such prestigious awards as the Blumer Award from SSSI, and the outstanding undergraduate papers from the Midwest Sociological Society, Pacific Sociological Society, and Alpha Kappa Delta. In 2011-12, he was included in Who's Who in America. His areas of specialization include qualitative methods, social psychology, sociology of work, sport, and leisure, deviant behavior, and sociology of children. He has taught courses in race and ethnicity, sociology of sport, deviant behavior, sociology of drugs, ethnographic methods, symbolic interactionism, as well as introduction to sociology.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780814705070
ISBN 10	0814705073
Title	The Tender Cut
Author	Peter Adler
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Nyu Press
Year published	2011-08-22
Number of pages	264
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable