Understanding Repeated Self-Injury: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Digby Tantam and Nick Huband, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, pp. xii + 235, ISBN 978-1-4039-3696-7 (pbk), 19.99

Abstract

According to the rear cover, Understanding Repeated Self-Injury: A Multidisciplinary Approach aims to be an ‘essential introduction and indispensible resource’ for professionals and trainees who are working or intend to work in settings in which they may be ‘confronted with the complexities of self-injury’. Whilst Tantam and Huband's ‘unifying model for theory and practice’ (p. 26) undoubtedly takes centre stage, it is the way in which the book interweaves theory, research and practice and makes links with our personal and professional responses to repeated self-injury that will, I hope, find particular relevance within professional practice. The book appears well structured (perhaps too well structured on occasion, as there are around 200 headings and subheadings in this work) and organised into nine chapters, including a ‘concise overview’ (p. 191). An appendix of self-help resources and a lengthy reference section complement the introductory focus. Whilst the authors write from a psychotherapeutic counselling perspective (p. viii), they draw upon several disciplines and present a broad range of material that relates directly to repeated self-injury. For example, contributions from neuroscience highlight the hypothesised relationship between low levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) and ‘impulsive actions’ (p. 46). Equally, empirical work with primates (comparative psychology) is explored to consider ‘grooming’ (p. 45). As an example of comfort behaviour (or ‘things that a person does to get rid of feeling bad’ (p. 45)), ‘grooming’ is considered by the authors to hold some functional similarity with self-injury. The extent to which the perspectives presented in this text will find direct relevance to professional social work practice will largely depend upon the degree of eclecticism adopted by the individual professional and the practice context. However, despite such diversity, there is an accessibility and humanity in the authors' writing that would neither patronise the experienced professional nor intimidate the first-year student.