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Self-Injury, Medicine and Society

Authentic Bodies

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Amy Chandler

    1. University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom

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  • Questions traditional discourse on the topic of self-injury to examine how and why someone might self-harm
  • Places a strong focus on the role of the body and the physicality of self-injury in relation to emotional distress
  • Discusses real-life experiences to help the reader conceptualise a de-mystified reality of self-injury

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Introduction: Constructing and Situating an Embodied, Sociological Account of Self-Injury

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 1-26

  3. The Injury and the Wound: Facing the Corporeality of Self-Injury

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 27-67

  4. A Critical View on Emotions and Self-Injury

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 69-108

  5. Visibility, Help-Seeking and Attention-Seeking

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 109-147

  6. Self-Injury, Biomedicine and Boundaries

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 149-185

  7. Authentic Bodies, Authentic Selves

    • Amy Chandler
    Pages 187-206

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 207-217
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Keywords

About this book

This book provides an appreciative, sociological engagement with accounts of the embodied practice of self-injury. It shows that in order to understand self-injury, it is necessary to engage with widely circulating narratives about the nature of bodies, including that they are separate from, yet containers of 'emotion'. Using a sociological approach, the book examines what self-injury is, how it functions, and why someone might engage in it. It pays close attention to the corporeal aspects of self-injury, attending to the complex ways in which 'lived experience' is narrated. 

By interrogating the way in which healthcare and psychiatric systems shape our understanding of self-injury, Self-Injury, Medicine and Society aims to re-invigorate traditional discourse on the subject. Combining analytical theory with real-life accounts, this book provides an engaging study which is both thought-provoking and informative. It will appeal to an interdisciplinary readership and scholars in the fields of medical sociology and health studies in particular.

Reviews

“An excellent book which offers a detailed investigation of one of the more troubling ways in which embodied social actors in the contemporary world relate to their bodies. Revealing in relation to both self-harm and embodiment more generally, and written in a clear and engaging manner.” (Nick Crossley, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK)

“As a growing health concern, especially among young people, self-injury is perhaps one of the most complex of 'late modern' phenomena to understand, and to provide adequate care and support. Amy Chandler has provided a skillful critique located centrally in the medicalisation/ demedicalisation debates; not only is this a rigorous academic overview which transcends simplistic  lay/professional and body/mind divides, her research is also grounded in empirical 'lived experience' (including her own), which gives added authenticity. This book combines scholarship and 'real world' experience to successfully span the academic/ practitioner/ user readership.” (Gillian Bendelow, Professor of Sociology of Health and Medicine, University of Brighton, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom

    Amy Chandler

About the author

Amy Chandler is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Lincoln, UK, and Associate Researcher at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research interests include suicide, self-harm, drug and alcohol use.

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