Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008, Page 54
accident-prone. After I had begun therapy, I had a minor car accident before a long-awaited
summer vacation. When I entered my therapy session, I offhandedly told my therapist
about the accident, but proudly dismissed it, declaring, ―I‘m not going to let this ruin my
vacation.‖ My therapist was not so ready to brush this off. He encouraged me to explore all
the feelings that I had felt before and after the accident. This continuing process of looking
at the underlying thoughts and emotions that are expressed in the self-harming action of
accident-proneness has allowed me to begin to live a more accident-free and emotionally
free life.
Dr. Sharon Farber captures this concept and so much more in her beautifully written book,
When the Body Is the Target. From a conceptual point of view, in revealing the ―mystery‖ of
self-harm, she points out how self-harm is used to maintain the outward sign that
something is wrong on the inside. Farber notes that some of us might self-harm in relatively
minor ways, in behaviors (such as nail biting) that are low-key versions of the impulses that
are more strongly expressed by severe eating disorders or self-mutilating behaviors. We are
informed that self-harm is about individuals who cannot live peacefully in their own skin.
When the Body is the Target focuses on those who experience their emotions not in their
minds, but in and through the immediacy of their bodies. In the authoritarian world of the
cult, self-reflection and ―negative‖ feelings are discouraged and demeaned through the
leader‘s manipulations and doctrine, and interfered with through numerous thought-
stopping techniques. The result of these limitations might be that the body becomes a
central expressive source for the discharge and regulation of feeling, particularly pain and
anger the cult member experiences. According to Farber, for those individuals who severely
harm themselves, the predominant mode of self-experience is sadomasochistic pain and
suffering. That is, physical violence is the language of those who lack the ability to use
metaphor or symbols to express emotions or unspeakable pain they use their bodies to
speak for them. These ideas, all clearly presented, are fundamental to Farber‘s
understanding of self-harm and are useful for those of us who work with individuals who
have learned that they must submit to the needs of others rather than allow the direct
expression of their own needs.
The concepts in this book, while complex and psychoanalytically based, are written with
clarity and without psychoanalytic jargon. For example, Farber emphasizes that self-
harming behavior can be seen as a psychological symptom that is caused by more than one
factor, serving multiple and paradoxical functions in the psyche in the individual‘s attempt
to feel better or gain relief. She shows the reader how this behavior, which is quite risky
and potentially dangerous, allows those who are deadened by depression or dissociation to
―come alive,‖ or, by contrast, how such behavior offers relief to those who experience the
anxiety of constant hypervigilance. In this way, Farber views self-harm as playing an
adaptive role and self-regulatory function in the life of the trauma survivor, by terminating a
painful state of dissociation or hyperarousal.
In exploring self-harm‘s connection to trauma as a causative factor, Farber explains how
childhood shock traumas of physical and sexual abuse, medically related traumas, or the
strain trauma of neglect are experienced as direct assaults to the body. If no one was
present to protect and soothe the child at a time of overwhelming pain, the child might
begin to repeat this hurtful experience through self-injurious body behavior in an attempt to
regulate mood or states of hyperarousal. This scenario contrasts with the background of the
protected child who develops the expectation of comfort from others and eventually repeats
this positive experience by soothing herself and taking care of her body.[1] Although Farber
touches on many psychoanalytic theories, she emphasizes attachment research and its
[1] Because it is commonly understood that men generally tend to be the perpetrators of violence on
others, while women tend to be the perpetrators of self-inflicted violence and the targets of others‘
violence, I will refer to these individuals as females.
accident-prone. After I had begun therapy, I had a minor car accident before a long-awaited
summer vacation. When I entered my therapy session, I offhandedly told my therapist
about the accident, but proudly dismissed it, declaring, ―I‘m not going to let this ruin my
vacation.‖ My therapist was not so ready to brush this off. He encouraged me to explore all
the feelings that I had felt before and after the accident. This continuing process of looking
at the underlying thoughts and emotions that are expressed in the self-harming action of
accident-proneness has allowed me to begin to live a more accident-free and emotionally
free life.
Dr. Sharon Farber captures this concept and so much more in her beautifully written book,
When the Body Is the Target. From a conceptual point of view, in revealing the ―mystery‖ of
self-harm, she points out how self-harm is used to maintain the outward sign that
something is wrong on the inside. Farber notes that some of us might self-harm in relatively
minor ways, in behaviors (such as nail biting) that are low-key versions of the impulses that
are more strongly expressed by severe eating disorders or self-mutilating behaviors. We are
informed that self-harm is about individuals who cannot live peacefully in their own skin.
When the Body is the Target focuses on those who experience their emotions not in their
minds, but in and through the immediacy of their bodies. In the authoritarian world of the
cult, self-reflection and ―negative‖ feelings are discouraged and demeaned through the
leader‘s manipulations and doctrine, and interfered with through numerous thought-
stopping techniques. The result of these limitations might be that the body becomes a
central expressive source for the discharge and regulation of feeling, particularly pain and
anger the cult member experiences. According to Farber, for those individuals who severely
harm themselves, the predominant mode of self-experience is sadomasochistic pain and
suffering. That is, physical violence is the language of those who lack the ability to use
metaphor or symbols to express emotions or unspeakable pain they use their bodies to
speak for them. These ideas, all clearly presented, are fundamental to Farber‘s
understanding of self-harm and are useful for those of us who work with individuals who
have learned that they must submit to the needs of others rather than allow the direct
expression of their own needs.
The concepts in this book, while complex and psychoanalytically based, are written with
clarity and without psychoanalytic jargon. For example, Farber emphasizes that self-
harming behavior can be seen as a psychological symptom that is caused by more than one
factor, serving multiple and paradoxical functions in the psyche in the individual‘s attempt
to feel better or gain relief. She shows the reader how this behavior, which is quite risky
and potentially dangerous, allows those who are deadened by depression or dissociation to
―come alive,‖ or, by contrast, how such behavior offers relief to those who experience the
anxiety of constant hypervigilance. In this way, Farber views self-harm as playing an
adaptive role and self-regulatory function in the life of the trauma survivor, by terminating a
painful state of dissociation or hyperarousal.
In exploring self-harm‘s connection to trauma as a causative factor, Farber explains how
childhood shock traumas of physical and sexual abuse, medically related traumas, or the
strain trauma of neglect are experienced as direct assaults to the body. If no one was
present to protect and soothe the child at a time of overwhelming pain, the child might
begin to repeat this hurtful experience through self-injurious body behavior in an attempt to
regulate mood or states of hyperarousal. This scenario contrasts with the background of the
protected child who develops the expectation of comfort from others and eventually repeats
this positive experience by soothing herself and taking care of her body.[1] Although Farber
touches on many psychoanalytic theories, she emphasizes attachment research and its
[1] Because it is commonly understood that men generally tend to be the perpetrators of violence on
others, while women tend to be the perpetrators of self-inflicted violence and the targets of others‘
violence, I will refer to these individuals as females.
