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

Armando Favazza’s pioneering work identified a wide range of forces, many of them cultural and societal, that compel or impel people to mutilate themselves. This new edition examines the explosive growth in the incidence of self-injurious behaviors and body modification practices. Favazza critically assesses new and significant biological, ethnological, social, and psychological findings regarding self-injury; presents current understandings of self-injurious acts from cultural and clinical perspectives; and places self-mutilation in historical and contemporary context.