Parents, school officials, friends and even many doctors are often horrified at first, then mystified, when teenagers or young adults choose to cut themselves, inflicting on themselves pain, possible infection and permanent scarring. Today, self-cutting is increasingly prevalent among young people, especially teenage girls and young women. It is estimated that about 1 in every 100 adolescents self-cuts, some also self-burn. Occasionally, cutting can be suicidal, but in most cases it is an attempt to fulfil often unconscious needs, to ease and numb the pain and confusion of adolescence. Cutting may be for these teens a means to vent despair and emotional pain, and to draw the attention and care that teenagers so deeply need. This book features the stories of self-cutters that the author has treated, explaining the rationale from a cutter's point of view, and citing the many reasons that can be behind it. The author also explains to us in detail how a cutter and the adults who love him or her can heal the pain and stop self-injury. A parent herself as well as a psychology professor, the author argues that adults wanting to help youths stop self-cutting need first to understand the frightening developmental tasks that teens and young adults face - independence, intimacy, and identity establishment among them. In an effort to reach developmental goals, some choose hurtful means to attain them.