- Hardcover: 178 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press (31 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312200110
- ISBN-13: 978-0312200114
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 14.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,246,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
""Skin Game "is a book of monumental value and importance. Caroline Kettlewell's graphically honest descriptions of her own self-inflicted violence are a testimony to her tremendous courage and strength. Readers are sure to be moved, enlightened, and empowered." --Tracy Alderman, Ph.D., author of "Inflicted Violence "and "Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide for Living with Dissociative Identity Disorder"
"In this remarkable, exquisitely written, and important book, Kettlewell reveals the sublime seductiveness of self-wounding and makes sense of the seemingly senseless...This is a book about the human condition and about how flesh and spirit both battle and sustain each other. Kettlewell successfully manages to put on paper what many cutters are unable to describe coherently. I am thankful that her pen was mightier than her razor." --Armando Favazza, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Columbia and author of "Bodies Under Siege"
"In this remarkable, exquisitely written, and important book, Kettlewell reveals the sublime seductiveness of self-wounding and makes sense of the seemingly senseless...This is a book about the human condition and about how flesh and spirit both battle and sustain each other. Kettlewell successfully manages to put on paper what many cutters are unable to describe coherently. I am thankful that her pen was mightier than her razor." --Armando Favazza, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Columbia and author of "Bodies Under Siege"
Product Description
"There was very fine, an elegant pain, hardly a pain at all, like the swift and fleeting burn of a drop of hot candle wax...Then the blood welled up and began to distort the pure, stark edges of my delicately wrought wound.
"The chaos in my head spun itself into a silk of silence. I had distilled myself to the immediacy of hand, blade, blood, flesh."
There are an estimated two to three million "cutters" in America, but experts warn that, as with anorexia, this could be just the tip of the iceberg of those affected by this little-known disorder. Cutting has only just begun to enter public consciousness as a dangerous affliction that tends to take hold of adolescent girls and can last, hidden and untreated, well into adulthood.
Caroline Kettlewell is an intelligent woman with a promising career and a family. She is also a former cutter, and the first person to tell her own story about living with and overcoming the disorder. She grew up on the campus of a boys' boarding school where her father taught. As she entered adolescence, the combination of a family where frank discussion was avoided and life in what seemed like a fishbowl, where she and her sister were practically the only girls the students ever saw, became unbearable for Caroline. She discovered that the only way to find relief from overpowering feelings of self-consciousness, discomfort, and alienation was to physically hurt herself. She began cutting her arms and legs in the seventh grade, and continued into her twenties.
Why would a rational person resort to such extreme measures? How did she recognize and overcome her problem? In a memoir startling for its honesty, humor, and poignancy, Caroline Kettlewell offers a clear-eyed account of her own struggle to survive this debilitating affliction.
"The chaos in my head spun itself into a silk of silence. I had distilled myself to the immediacy of hand, blade, blood, flesh."
There are an estimated two to three million "cutters" in America, but experts warn that, as with anorexia, this could be just the tip of the iceberg of those affected by this little-known disorder. Cutting has only just begun to enter public consciousness as a dangerous affliction that tends to take hold of adolescent girls and can last, hidden and untreated, well into adulthood.
Caroline Kettlewell is an intelligent woman with a promising career and a family. She is also a former cutter, and the first person to tell her own story about living with and overcoming the disorder. She grew up on the campus of a boys' boarding school where her father taught. As she entered adolescence, the combination of a family where frank discussion was avoided and life in what seemed like a fishbowl, where she and her sister were practically the only girls the students ever saw, became unbearable for Caroline. She discovered that the only way to find relief from overpowering feelings of self-consciousness, discomfort, and alienation was to physically hurt herself. She began cutting her arms and legs in the seventh grade, and continued into her twenties.
Why would a rational person resort to such extreme measures? How did she recognize and overcome her problem? In a memoir startling for its honesty, humor, and poignancy, Caroline Kettlewell offers a clear-eyed account of her own struggle to survive this debilitating affliction.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This subject has very little written about it, and it's great to see a personal account of how this behaviour can occur. Although not 100% focused on cutting, this is helpful, as it shows how it is only one area of Kettlewell's life, and to the unconscious eye, nothing is wrong.
From a non-clinal point of view, it explores reactions of those around self-harmers, and also refuses to pretend that there's a simple solution to this problem. Definatly worth reading.
From a non-clinal point of view, it explores reactions of those around self-harmers, and also refuses to pretend that there's a simple solution to this problem. Definatly worth reading.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found the book disturbing in its compelling, detailed descriptions of the author's desire to self-injure. It's difficult to read something to which one so intimately relates. Hopefully someone will read this and realize they are not alone. There are many of us with this unhealthy way of coping with emotions and life. I no longer engage in self-injury. It has been six months since the last time. There is hope available. Amazon, your list of books for people to read that read this book is sorely missing the book, Bodily Harm by Karen Conterio and Wendy Lader. Not only is it a compassionate, encouraging book, but is based on Conterio and Lader's program in the suburbs of Chicago established to exclusively treat Self-Injury and the book offers concrete, tried suggestions for help. Skin Game is being added to my library of well-written books on the subject, of which I have found few. It is not for the faint-of-heart, however.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From the moment you being Skin game, Caroline's writing comsumes you and envites you to read on. The way she describes her life through her angst and sadness is so compelling, that I felt at once that she was putting onto the page things I had kept to myself. I also used to self-harm, and the way Caroline describes the addiction to cutting out her pain made sense to me. This book is not only an excellent book for others who self harm, but also anyone who is close to a self-harmer and wants a deeper understanding of what is like. Written beautifully i would recommend it anyone who loves reading.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Most depressing book ever and not in a good way
This book starts off promising and you find her anecdotes amusing, interesting and disturbing. However, as the story gets to about Part Three, she really does start to grate on... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by J. V. M.
Insightful
Beautifully written, couldn't put it down.
If you are, or ever have been a cutter, or know someone who does, buy this and understand, empathise and help.
If you are, or ever have been a cutter, or know someone who does, buy this and understand, empathise and help.
Published on 24 Feb 2008 by oddkid6
Could be a trigger
Brilliantly written book, I saw a lot of myself in Caroline so totally understood what she was going through, and would help others be realising they are not alone in what they... Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2007 by Ms. Alison Taylor
A mixed bag...
I SO wanted this book to be good. And, I must confess, it isn't bad. But if you are a self-harmer, it is probable you would wish to buy this book to gain an insight into your... Read more
Published on 2 April 2005
BIG WORDS
Too many big words for me.....!
Published on 16 July 2004 by "rainbobutafly"
Really good
This book is about self-harm, on which there are very few books available. This is the only personal account published, and if definitly worth a read. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2004 by Mandy
Skin Game
WOW. This was a phenominal book. It was beautifully written, on a topic which isn't usually written about. I highly recommend this book to everyone who is, was, or knows a cutter. Read more
Published on 15 July 2002
Not what i thought it would be
I too may think i set my sights too high when i went to read this book. It isn't as good as i imagined it would be. Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2001
not that great
I dont know if my hopes were set too high for this book or it really wasnt very good. The author goes to great lengths to describe every moment in her life except the relevant... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2001
Disappointing.......
Reading the reviews about this book, I prepared myself for quite an engrossing read, but I was left feeling disappointed, finding myself skimming over paragraphs and hurrying to... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2000
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