Psyche on the Skin: A History of Self-harm

It’s a troubling phenomenon that many of us think of as a modern psychological epidemic, a symptom of extreme emotional turmoil in young people, especially young women: cutting and self—harm. But few of us know that it was 150 years ago—with the introduction of institutional asylum psychiatry—that self—mutilation was first described as a category of behavior, which psychiatrists, and later psychologists and social workers, attempted to understand. With care and focus, Psyche on the Skin tel...