Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry

by Armando R. Favazza

Although instances of deliberate skin-cutting are recorded as far back as the old and New Testaments of the Bible the behavior has generally been regarded as a symptom of various mental disorders. With the publication of Bodies Under Siege , a book described in the New York Times Magazine (July 17, 1997) as "the first to comprehensively explore self-mutilation," Dr. Armando Favazza has pioneered the study of the behavior as significant and meaningful unto itself. Drawing from the latest case studies from clinical psychiatry he broadens our understanding of self-mutilation and body modification and explores their surprising connections to the elemental experiences of healing, religions, salvation, and social balance. Favazza makes sense out of seemingly senseless self-mutilative behaviors by providing both a useful classification and examination of the ways in which the behaviors provide effective but temporary relief from troublesome symptoms such as overwhelming anxiety, racing thoughts, and depersonalization. He offers important new information on the psychology and biology of self-mutilation, the link between self-mutilation and eating disorders, and advances in treatment. An epilogue by Fakir Musafar, the father of the Modern Primitive movement, describes his role in influencing a new generation to "experiment with the previously forbidden 'body side' of life" through piercing, blood rituals, scarification, and body sculpting in order to attain a state of grace. The second edition of Bodies Under Siege is the major source of information about self-mutilation, a much misunderstood behavior that is now coming into public awareness.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Psychiatry, History, Health

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1987

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought this book I thought I was going to be learning more about self-injury. But I learned about mutilative beliefs, attitudes,practices, and images, religion and everything in between. The book is dense with so much information and I learned so much more beyond self-mutilation.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably the bible of self-harm studies, and I have found it extremely helpful overall. But I do find something lacking, and I think that would be a touch of human, a personal story to make the clinical more accessible.

[Amanda Mathis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The historical and cultural instances of self harm described were interesting (disturbing to read) but that's about it. It felt like almost all reasons given for why people self harm relate to sex. Everything is "self castration." It was ridiculous to me. As someone that had self harmed in their early teens, this book had me scrunching up my face in confusion the entire time. I had never before heard some of the ridiculous theories in this book. Cutting the skin is equivalent to making a vaginal opening? No. Wouldn't recommend this book.

[Lady X · Rating 2 out of 5]

Self Harm is a special interest.

This book is missing so much context, like evidence from psychiatric survivors or the history of pathologizing self harm and has a special place on my shelf for books that inspired many essays.

Made me want to rage quit on many occasions. But I stuck with it, for science. Not a fan.

[Rachael]

Interesting cultural information, parts of this were outdated, the psychoanalytical stuff was really out of control-kind of amusing

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, I don't remember the text of this book, but I don't really need to remember to rate it. To me, this book was nothing short of amazing when I discovered it on the basement shelves of City Lights around 1994/5. I remember exactly where it was (on the endcap near the corner of the store, about middle of the shelf but slightly down and to the right). I picked it up because of the title and the familiar look of the red streaks across the title, and inside was an explanation I'd been hoping to find for year or two. This book gave me relief, insight, and a sense that I could be understood. This was one of the first books written about self-injurious behavior/self harm/self-mutilation, and the mid-'90s was a time when even many psychiatrists didn't really understand that these types of behaviors weren't suicide attempts or similar. It's kind of astounding that even the 2013 edition of the DSM 5 calls non-suicidal self injury a "new disorder," even when by then so much more had been written and so much more attention to it had been paid. It's been recognized long enough now that it seems that more mental health care professionals and researchers should be able to classify it better than simply suggesting it is "in need of further study." To Favazza and others like him who have spent time and effort researching and explaining NSSI and related issues, I'd like to say a huge thank you. This was a book that changed my life and made me feel included in the world again. It definitely wasn't what I expected to find on a touristy visit to City Lights as a naive, artsy-poetic bent teenager! But even though I made sure to buy a huge stack of books to shuffle it out in without my friends noticing any one book in particular, this is the only one I still recall all these years later.

[Jason C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the single most comprehensive analysis on self-injury that exists. This is not a book dedicated to treatment of self-injury/mutilation, for that the best probable resource (and on my list to read) is Treating Self-Injury by Barent Walsh. This book is world-wide in scope, discussing cultural practices in what is probably every known variation of self-injury or body modification, and the huge variety of meanings this can have. Much of the book is dedicated to various cases in the US and sociocultural examples from around the world, past and present. It's a fascinating read, but not for the fain of heart. I've had a conversation with other therapists and it scared them away, but Dr. Favazza is probably the world's leading expert in this field, and this book is a great read for professionals and lay persons that are serious about understanding it.

[J37 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Interesting book. I originally picked this up looking for more about body modification (piercing, tattooing etc.)This book gets into a whole lot about the psychiatric areas of self harm. The initial chapters were fascinating with their descriptions of various cultural and religious aspects of self injury. There are some long middle chapters that basically document case histories of self mutilation of various body parts. The closing chapter by Fakir Musafar describes the history of body modification in North America from the "dark ages" of the 1940s to the present day explosion into the mainstream. Overall a really interesting book. The litany of case histories in the middle gets to be slightly lulling after a while but no doubt this is one for both a casual reader or a serious student of psychiatry.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sketchy copy that I was sent from a distant library had chunks of pages missing, so that was strange and made reading difficult, but I got about 90% of the book anyways. Besides the really lengthy historical context at the beginning, which I skimmed, I found a lot of the information presented very interesting and easy to understand despite its complex nature in psychology.

[Jennifer Worrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...if you ever need inspiration, this will provide a whole history of violent, gory events, going back to the 14th century and even the bible. Also full of modern case studies for those looking to research.

[Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting in how self mutilation has been around since the begining of time and it helped me be more ok and more open about being cutter. Very Very good.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that I *enjoyed* reading this book- it was intense and graphic and at times painful to read- but it was worth the time I spent reading it.

[Emily Trochelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit slow and wordy. But a very nice book.

[Bill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read on the topic.

[Tricia Phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius. Truly. Required reading for any therapist.