The Tender Cut

"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 * "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 * "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 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 * "Adler viewsself-harm as a kind of 'self-help', rather than a near-suicidal expression." -- Emine Saner * The Guardian * "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 * "successfully gives a face to self-injury and how it fits into the larger realm of social understating" * J Youth Adolescence *

Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. They are the co-authors and co-editors of numerous books, including Peer Power, Paradise Laborers, and Constructions of Deviance. Both Adlers collaboratively received the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. They are the co-authors and co-editors of numerous books, including Peer Power, Paradise Laborers, and Constructions of Deviance. Both Adlers collaboratively received the 2010 George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.