Sharp Object s on HBO In the years since I first began researching self-injury or cutting back in the early 1990s, public interest in the subject has grown dramatically from very low—when I wrote the first magazine cover story on the subject—to new highs in recent years. Actually, what I think is that there was--even twenty years ago, an amazing amount of interest and urgent need to know--but that was limited mainly to young girls and sometimes their families and that interest was kept submerged from public view. The subject was considered “taboo” in the traditional media, especially before the first edition of A Bright Red Scream was published in 1999. What followed seemed like a torrent of media coverage that has never stopped and cutting then found its way into popular culture. Recently, I’ve been watching the much talked about HBO series called Sharp Objects based on the novel by Gillian Flynn which features a central character who is a cutter played by actress Amy Adams. Ent
I recently spoke to a reporter from Time magazine online's health section about concerns being raised by some healthcare researchers over YouTube videos depicting cutting in a context that could be seen as advocating the behavior or giving vulnerable young people a "how-to" guide to self-harm. While graphic images depicted in some of these videos may be triggering for people who already cut, I don't believe large numbers of the general population will begin taking up the behavior because they see something about it on the Internet. It is distressing that some people seek to glorify as fun or cool what is a deeply complex means of coping with psychological pain. There are similar websites and videos that promote eating disorders, and even suicide. But as someone who has studied self-injury and interviewed thousands of cutters since the early 1990s, I feel confident in stating that people do not cut themselves, nor starve themselves, nor kill themselves because there