Thursday, October 1, 2009

ORB

“1st Quarter Outside Reading Review”

Cutting; Dr. Steven Levenkron
Genre; Self help.
Norton company, 1999.

Cutting is written by Dr. Steven Levenkron a psychotherapist. It’s not really a story as such, Levenkron writes about his encounters with self mutilation and the psychological side of it. He goes through multiple stories of patients who all have become self mutilators through different circumstances and attempts to understand the tabooed subject.
“Levenkron understands the need for sharing basic information about this taboo subject as well as strategies for treatments. As a therapist who has worked with this problem for more than twenty years, he has much to offer. Levenkron is also a gifted writer, who, with this book, adds to the growing genre of creative nonfiction in which personal narratives… and engrossing stories provide information about a complex subject in a medical or scientific field.” – New England Journal of Medicine. The cover reads “Cutting casts an eye on the emotional pains behind a dark adolescent practice. – Salon.
From a personal point of view I can see that Levenkron does truly understand the concept of self mutilation and how it’s not about suicide in most cases it’s about trying to transfer the pain from emotional to physical pain which is a lot easier to deal with for most adolescents who most likely don’t even understand how they’re feeling. Levenkron uses a narrative form for this book and tells the story from an unbiased perspective. Cutting is similar to some of Levenkrons other books like, The Luckiest Girl in the World, a novel about a self-mutilator; and Anatomy of Anorexia. They all contain the same theme of mental anguish and recovering from it.
“What does it feel like to cut yourself, deliberately, until you feel pain and start to bleed? Why would you do this? What does the experience of pain do to you, or for you? These are the questions that all self-mutilators ask themselves amid their desperation and shame. The answers come from many directions and have many meanings.” (31) Levenkron uses a lot of questions in his writing, I think this is a good method as it makes the reader feel that the author as well as the reader in figuring the self-mutilator out as we read.
Some questions that arise from the book for me are; how does the author himself cope with dealing with such a morose field? How does he manage to understand what’s going on inside the self-mutilators head? I think Levenkron does a great job of bringing self mutilation a usually tabooed subject in our society to light. I think he wrote the piece to show that people shouldn’t be afraid of speaking out about self-mutilation and those who do it shouldn’t be condemned as selfish. This book I really connected with as I found there was truth in every word that Levenkron wrote and it helped me comprehend what people close to me have gone through.

9 comments:

  1. Phoebe seemed to enjoy the book. Like it actually had a purpose, it was interesting and meaningful.
    The writer seemed to have written with knowledge. The writer knew the subject and taught others about it basically.
    The passage Phoebe picked was a phenomenal one. It is very descriptive and detailed. It really gave you a sense of what the whole book was like.
    I would consider reading the book. It seems very interesting and worth reading.

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  2. 1.Pheobe really enjoyed the book. She seemed to have had a good time reading it and she would recommend it to other people as well.
    2.The writer seemed to have written with knowledge. The writer knew the subject and taught others about it basically.
    3.The passage Phoebe picked was great. It was super detailed and very descriptive.
    4.I would not consider reading this book. The review was great but it just isn't my reading style.

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  3. 1.Pheobe really enjoyed the book. She seemed to have had a good time reading it and she would recommend it to other people as well.
    2.The writer seemed to have written with knowledge. The writer knew the subject and taught others about it basically.
    3.The passage Phoebe picked was great. It was super detailed and very descriptive.
    4.I would not consider reading this book. The review was great but it just isn't my reading style.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. 1)Phoebe is very informative, and this paragraph is very well done.
    2)This paragraph sounds good and is a well written paragraph, and I love to read, but Idon't know if I would give this book a chance

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  6. Where were you all????????????
    Teachers, parents, friends???????????
    THIS WAS A RED FLAG!!!!!!
    IT WAS THINLY DISGUISED CRY FOR HELP!!!!!
    RIP, little angel, you won't be forgotten!

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  7. I want to say that I'm going to read this book, and maybe I'll understand things better. RIP Phoebe, we will continue to fight for you.

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  8. The thing about cutting is that so many kids in high school and even younger are doing it these days. I don't think that you can read this book review and come away with any information that Phoebe was a cutter. If I were to attempt to read between the lines of this essay, I would assume that Phoebe knows cutters and wants to understand their problems better. I wouldn't automatically assume that she is the cutter.

    On the college level, my students have written essays about abortion, domestic violence, child molestation, and a bevy of other topics of which I would never assume that their chosen topic is grounded in their personal experience with themselves. They care about the topics--many times because they care about the world around them and are trying to make sense of it.

    Rest in peace, sweet Phoebe. None of us can know what you would have been, had the people in power done their jobs and protected you from the nasty animals that tormented you.

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  9. Perhaps I'm not all that eager to poke my nose into other people's business, but your personal experience can be depicted well by the experts of custom writing services online!

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