Women Who Hurt Themselves: A Book of Hope and Understanding

For years, the harm that some women do to themselves was ignored and silenced, both in psychological literature and in homes and hospitals. Dusty Miller’s eye-opening book revealed the truth about a syndrome that has plagued millions—and continues to do so today, endangering ever-younger lives. Filled with moving stories, this powerful book was the first to focus on women who engage in different forms of self-mutilation.Miller is widely recognized as the first expert to identify the roots of “cutting” and other self-injurious behavior in women. These women suffer from what she calls “Trauma Reenactment Syndrome” (TRS), a pattern of behavior in which they reenact severe psychological or physical harm done to them as children. In the decade since her work was first published, new research has supported Miller’s perspective. In her introduction to this tenth anniversary edition, Miller discusses what self-harming women and abuse survivors have known all along: that self-injury activates endorphins that actually calm the psychic pain of old wounds. She describes the latest treatments geared to this view—and offers, once again, hope and understanding to the women themselves and to those who care for them.