In this comprehensive and insightful work, Dr. Sharon K. Farber provides an invaluable resource for the mental health professional who is struggling to understand self-harm and its origins. Using attachment theory to explain how addictive connections to pain and suffering develop, she discusses various kinds and functions of self-harm behavior. From eating disorders to body modifications such as tattooing, Dr. Farber explores the language of self-harm, and the translation of that language and its psychic functions in the therapeutic setting. She tells us, 'When the body weeps tears of blood, we need to wonder what terrible sorrows cannot be spoken.' Brilliantly illustrated with rich clinical material, this book offers a practical approach to the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the increasing number of patients whose emotions are expressed through bodily harm. The challenges of working with patients who tend to view the world of relationships in terms of predator and prey are clearly explicated and the stormy countertransference responses that threaten to destroy the treatment are given a full hearing. Finally, she shows how the attachment relationship formed in treatment can repair the traumatic attachment in mind, body, psyche, and soul, and can serve as the cornerstone of therapeutic change. A Jason Aronson Book

"When the Body Is the Target is impressively comprehensive and jargon-free. Apart from its contents, its up-to-date bibliography alone makes it a must-read for graduate students. But the book is a worthy addition to even a seasoned clinician's library. By unraveling some of the paradoxes of self-harm, by demonstrating a successful method for dealing with individuals who engage in this behavior, she has enlarged the scope of psychoanalytic treatment and provided hope for an underserved group. She earns our gratitude for doing so." - Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter

"The present volume will be most helpful to graduate students through faculty and to professionals." - CHOICE

"When the Body Is the Target is an impressive exploration of a disturbing part of the human experience; the book has the potential to help many clinicians, and by extension their patients." - The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

"In an insightful exploration of self-harm, pain, and traumatic attachments, Farber considers anything from eating disorders to body modifications in an attempt to better understand the roots and motivations behind self-harm, and how its psychic functions in the therapeutic setting. . . . Richly supported by relevant, innovative research, the book offers a more practical approach to the diagnosis, following assessment, and adjusted treatment of the patients whose inner emotions are expressed through bodily harm." - United States Association For Body Pyschotherapy Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2009