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In recent years, many us who spend our days involved with the lives of
children and youth have become increasingly alarmed by the number of young
people resorting to repetitive forms of physical self-injury and mutilation.
I’m not talking about the current culturally condoned practices of tattooing
and body-piercing, although we might ask ourselves why these expressive
forms have become so prevalent recently and why so many popular songs and
movies contain references to self- injurious behavior – but that’s another
matter. Nor am I referring to those forms of self-inflicted bodily injury
that are ritualized in various cultures around the globe, although the same
questions might be asked about why these practices were initiated in the
first place. My concern here is with youngsters in our society who isolate
themselves and engage in repeated acts of physical mutilation, even when
those around them recoil in disbelief and revulsion. By definition, I’m
referring to “any deliberate, non life-threatening self-effective bodily
harm or disfigurement of a socially unacceptable nature (Walsh
& Rosen, 1998, p.10). While we cannot calculate the actual numbers of children and youth that engage in this type behavior, there can be no question that it is on the increase and approaching epidemic proportions (Cosens, 2003). It might be possible to create sociological explanations for this, but in child and youth care, our concern is to understand why a particular individual would choose this particular form of self-harm. As you might expect, there is no theoretical or professional consensus on the matter and, as Favazza (1992) has pointed out, the helping systems of North America are still struggling to develop a general and effective response. Some psychiatrists and therapists choose to view physical self-harm as a form of manipulation and deal with the behavior accordingly. (Smith, Cox & Saradjian, 1999). Others consider the same behaviors to be an indicator of deep emotional turmoil (Levenkorn, 1998) and advocate various strategies of psychotherapy that are rarely available. In child and youth care, many of us have come to believe that young people express their troubles through their behavior and that these are best addressed through relationships. From this perspective, the child and youth care relationship is a vehicle through which young people who choose to self-injure can be supported and encouraged to discover alternative ways of coping with the pressures they experience from the outside and the turmoil they feel on the inside. |
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Cosens, P. (2003). Self mutilation: an examination of a growing phenomenon. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice. (16)2 p.5
Favazza, A. (1992). Bodies under siege : Self-mutilation in culture and psychiatry. London : Johns Hopkins University Press.
Levenkron, S. (1998). Cutting: Understanding and overcoming self-mutilation. New York: W.W. Norton.
Smith, G., Cox, D. & Saradjian, J. (1999). Women and self-harm: Understanding, coping, and healing from self-mutilation. New York : Routledge.
Walsh, B.W. & Rosen, P.M. (1988). Self - Mutilation: theory, research, and treatment. New York: Gilford Press.
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