Steven Levenkron The author of the seminal and groundbreaking Treating and Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa now explains the phenomena of self-mutilation, a disorder that affects as many as two million Americans. Cutting takes the reader through the psychological experience of the person who seeks relief from mental pain and anguish in self-inflicted physical pain. Steven Levenkron traces the components that predispose a personality to becoming a self-mutilator: genetics, family experience, childhood trauma, and parental behavior. Written for the self-mutilator, parents, friends, and therapists, Levenkron explains why the disorder manifests in self-harming behaviors and, most of all, describes how the self-mutilator can be helped.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has developed The Truth about Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College as an outgrowth of its commitment to support colleges and universities in implementing suicide prevention as an integral part of their ongoing campus activities and services. The aim of this 27-minute film is to present a recognizable picture of depression and other problems associated with suicide, as they are commonly experienced by college students and other young adults.
Development and production of the film was made possible by generous gifts to AFSP by several families who have experienced the tragic loss of a son or daughter to suicide while they were in college. We wish to especially acknowledge the support provided to the College Film Project from the Jonathan Marc Goodstein Memorial Fund, the Larry Weinberg Memorial Fund, the Kristin Rita Strouse Memorial Fund and the Jed Foundation.
Members of some of these families were invaluable participants on our film development workgroup, which also included clinicians, students, educators and experts on student health. Under the guidance of the workgroup, the film was produced by Ant Hill Marketing, based in Portland, Ore. Filming took place on a number of different campuses and other locations, focusing on people who have been personally touched by student depression and suicide.

Marilee Strong "A bright red scream" is how one of the subjects Marilee Strong interviews in this chilling yet compassionate study of self-mutilation describes the sensation of intentionally inflicting pain upon oneself. It is a compulsion that, while shocking and bewildering to most people, affects 2 million or more Americans and countless others around the globe—one of whom, the late Princess Diana, also suffered from the eating disorders that characterize between 35 to 80 percent of all cutters. Rejecting the classic psychiatric wisdom that views self-mutilation as a species of suicidal behavior, Strong links the phenomenon instead to the will to live—often in the face of such overwhelming childhood abuse that the resulting dissociative behaviors are something akin to posttraumatic stress disorder. Strong touches on other issues as well: Why are most cutters women? And is the current fascination with tattooing and piercing, from its most extreme forms in the "alternative" culture to its growing mainstream acceptance, a sublimation of the cutters' instinct? Through interviews with more than 50 self-injurers, Strong tells the moving story not only of their rage and self-punishment, but also of the courageous journey towards reintegration. (The book also contains an introduction by psychiatrist Armando R. Favazza, author of Bodies Under Seige, one of the leading clinical experts on self-mutilation.) —Patrizia DiLucchio

John Zaritsky Do we have the right to end our lives if life itself becomes unbearable, or when we enter the late-stages of painful, terminal illness? The questions, debated for centuries, have only grown more pressing in recent years as medical technology has allowed us to live longer lives, and several U.S. states have legalized physician-assisted suicide. With unique access to Dignitas, the Swiss non-profit that has helped over one thousand people die since 1998, Academy award- winning filmmaker John Zaritsky offers a revealing look at two different couples facing the most difficult decision of their lives-and lets us see for ourselves as one Chicago native makes the trip to Switzerland for what will become the last day of his life.