What is it about?
This is short review of the published literature on nail biting. It reflects the changing understanding from nail biting as a component of neurosis in the 1930s to a more nuanced understanding of the functions of nail biting.
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Why is it important?
Reviews of body focused repetitive behaviours like nail biting are unusual. This chapter represents an attempt to provide a synthesis of research on nail biting up to 2009.
Perspectives
The chapter has an unusually historical perspective on nail biting. Although nail biting was thought of as being a mental disorder or at least related to neuroses in the early part of the twentieth century, it has more recently dropped off the research scene in spite of its frequency and the potentially damaging effects of frequent nail biting.
Dr Timothy Ivor Williams
University of Reading
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Onychophagia (Nail Biting): Clinical Aspects, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511711930.014.
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