When the Body Is the Target: Self-Harm, Pain, and Traumatic Attachments [Paperback]

Sharon Klayman Farber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0765703718 | ISBN-13: 978-0765703712 | Publication Date: November 5, 2002 | Edition: 1

In this comprehensive and insightful work, Dr. Sharon K. Farber provides an invaluable resource for the mental health professional who is struggling to understand self-harm and its origins. Using attachment theory to explain how addictive connections to pain and suffering develop, she discusses various kinds and functions of self-harm behavior.

From eating disorders to body modifications such as tattooing, Dr. Farber explores the language of self-harm, and the translation of that language and its psychic functions in the therapeutic setting. She tells us, "When the body weeps tears of blood, we need to wonder what terrible sorrows cannot be spoken." Brilliantly illustrated with rich clinical material, this book offers a practical approach to the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the increasing number of patients whose emotions are expressed through bodily harm. The challenges of working with patients who tend to view the world of relationships in terms of predator and prey are clearly explicated and the stormy countertransference responses that threaten to destroy the treatment are given a full hearing. Finally, she shows how the attachment relationship formed in treatment can repair the traumatic attachment in mind, body, psyche, and soul, and can serve as the cornerstone of therapeutic change.
A Jason Aronson Book

Editorial Reviews

Review

When the Body Is the Target is impressively comprehensive and jargon-free. Apart from its contents, its up-to-date bibliography alone makes it a must-read for graduate students. But the book is a worthy addition to even a seasoned clinician's library. By unraveling some of the paradoxes of self-harm, by demonstrating a successful method for dealing with individuals who engage in this behavior, she has enlarged the scope of psychoanalytic treatment and provided hope for an underserved group. She earns our gratitude for doing so. (Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter )

Whether the book is utilized for a course of study on how to understand and treat those who harm themselves, or as a resource for those who wish to advance their knowledge and perfect their skills, or as a general reference book, When the Body is the Target will amply reward the reader for the time and effort devoted to it.

Using clear and incisive language, Dr. Farber elegantly and empathically cuts to the core of the extreme suffering that our patients who repeatedly harm themselves endure. She provides an exhaustive, scholarly review of the underpinnings of self-mutilation and related behaviors in this beautifully written book. She then goes on to present one of the most sophisticated theoretical and clinical explanations to date showing why these behaviors have become so pervasive, how we can understand them, and what we can do to alleviate the suffering that is at the root of such disorders. (Edward J. Khantzian )

The present volume will be most helpful to graduate students through faculty and to professionals. (Choice Magazine )

Few patients evoke in their therapists the kind of dread than those who continue to mutilate themselves during treatment do. Dr. Sharon Klayman Farber earns our gratitude for venturing deeply into this difficult domain. Every therapist treating these patients will learn a great deal from this book, but beyond the immediate, all those who are puzzled by the nature of human aggression will appreciate the many insights the author has assembled. (Bergmann, Martin S. )

When the Body Is the Target is an impressive exploration of a disturbing part of the human experience; the book has the potential to help many clinicians, and by extension their patients. (Paula Wolk Psychoanalytic Quarterly )

In an insightful exploration of self-harm, pain, and traumatic attachments, Farber considers anything from eating disorders to body modifications in an attempt to better understand the roots and motivations behind self-harm, and how its psychic functions in the therapeutic setting. . . . Richly supported by relevant, innovative research, the book offers a more practical approach to the diagnosis, following assessment, and adjusted treatment of the patients whose inner emotions are expressed through bodily harm. (United States Association For Body Pyschotherapy Newsletter )

In a brilliant and unique work, Dr. Farber helps us to see the genius and hope of the symptoms of those who articulate self-harm in the lexicon of their bodies, to understand the creative attempt to reveal and conceal that which is inchoate and unformulated, and to listen to how the body speaks. With rich case material using the prototypes of eating disorders and self-mutilating behaviors, this is a definitive and comprehensive theoretical, developmental, and clinical reference work, eminently readable. (David W. Krueger )

From the Publisher

In this comprehensive and insightful work, Dr. Sharon K. Farber provides an invaluable resource for the mental health professional who is struggling to understand self-harm and its origins. Using attachment theory to explain how addictive connections to pain and suffering develop, she discusses various kinds and functions of self-harm behavior. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 616 pages
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.; 1 edition (November 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765703718
• ISBN-13: 978-0765703712
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,001,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A high school teacher., June 3, 2001

By 

Dorothy Magette (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When the Body Is the Target: Self-Harm, Pain, and Traumatic Attachments (Hardcover)

This is an impressive and fascinating book. As a high school teacher for well over 20 years, I picked it up because one hears so much nowadays about these disorders among adolescents.Since I have no specialized knowledge in this field (nor any personal issues here), I was apprehensive about my ability to read what I assumed would be highly technical material. To my delight, I found the writing style itself extremely clear, and the material deeply engrossing. I feel I've gained enormous understanding of an area that was not at all clear to me before, and, even better, new ways of thinking about people and myself in general. What a treat!

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucid and insightful, October 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: When the Body Is the Target: Self-Harm, Pain, and Traumatic Attachments (Hardcover)

This book is an academic exploration of some pretty heady topics, and although I have no experience in psychoanalysis, I found it to be a real page-turner. The writing is perfectly descriptive but Farber uses fascinating examples in order to avoid alienating the layperson. She is interested in what is so ordinary about certain impulses, and the cases in her book are not monsters. If you are interested in the mind and what makes us human, read this book.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A lot of jargon from a professional careerist, November 22, 2010

By 

canary5 - See all my reviews

This review is from: When the Body Is the Target: Self-Harm, Pain, and Traumatic Attachments (Paperback)

Beware of the doctor/writer who discusses mental illness in terms of semiology and dialectic. She is looking to further her career with this book, establishing herself as a so-called expert and believe me, Michel Foucault she is not. If you are looking for something pratical, useful or the least bit helpful, look elsewhere. Buyer/petient/parent beware! I gave it one star because zero wasn't an option but if it were...negative numbers anyone?