So I went to this insanely huge book store a couple days ago (it takes up an entire city block and is something like 4 stories high!!) and, being the psychology nerd that I am decided that the section I really wanted to spend my time in was... you guessed it, the psychology section. I spent money I shouldn't have on two books, Out of the Shadows, by E. Fuller Torrey, and Cutting, the book in this blog title. As you can probably tell from the title of this blog I decided to read Mr. Levenkrons book first.
My first idea as far as writing about this book goes was to just tell you all what I think about it. Which I will do. But I've run in to a bit of a problem there because reading this book is a bit harder for me than I thought. Truth be told (and here is yet another example of my extreme idiocy) I really didn't think it would have much of an effect on me at all, at least, not negatively so. I think that I foolishly thought I could read it simply from the point of view of one who is interested in and knows something (hey, that BA has got to count for something ;)) about psychology and seperate from it the fact that I myself am a cutter. Unfortunately I have learned that, at least as far as I am concerned, this cannot be done. All that to say I am not sure how much of the book I am absorbing this first time around. I think I will try it again (probably after I read the other book) and see if I can get more out of it because I really would love to 'weigh in' on it. But right now I haven't got much to say about it. But here goes.
I took issue with several small parts, probably some generalizations he made, before I managed to remind myself that generalizations always have to be made because, lets face it, while not everyone fits perfectly in to such 'categories' there are enough similarities between individuals who engage in similar behaviors that it's really only natural (I would like to take this opportunity to apologize as it seems my grasp of and ability to use the English language has gone down hill as of late... if it is of any consolation it probably bothers me a lot more than it does you ;)). And seeing as how I already know I don't fit 'perfectly' in to the 'cutter mold' (I started rather 'late', for one thing... actually that is the biggest one *shrug*), I decided to give him a break (kind person that I am ;)... sarcasm and humor, sarcasm and humor *shakes head* If you would like that last little bit to be explained you need only ask, lol, though I feel like I said something about it some time ago... who knows. I do not care for his use of 'self mutilation' though. I suppose it paints the problem in the correct light and shows how bad it really is but for what my opinion is worth (and I realize that is not very much) I much prefer self injury (self harm in a pinch but that can encompass so many different things that are not self injury and really are separate disorders or problems in and of themselves... not to say that there is not room for co-morbidity but...). Other than that I think it is a good book. I am very glad he wrote it. Actually what I am most glad about is that I now know that there is at least one person out there who knows something about this 'problem' so many of us share, this 'shame' we live with. And not only does he know something about it (heck, I'm not even half way through but I'm gonna go ahead and say that he knows a lot about it ;))... he cares. And I get the feeling that he doesn't, somewhere deep inside even, think we are all 'freaks'. It's nice to know that somewhere out there there is someone who is not afraid of us and what we do to ourselves. It's very nice.
*shakes head* Poorly written but it says what I wanted it to I guess. *shrug* Que pouvez-vous faire? (What can you do? or, more literally, What can you make?... guess the saying doesn't translate exactly, lol)
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