Citation

Le Breton D. Body Soc. 2018; 24(1-2): 33-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1357034X18760175

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Adolescents are said to be, figuratively speaking, thin-skinned. But their thin-skinnedness is also real: both ambivalent and ambiguous, the border between self and other is, for many young people, a source of constant turmoil. The recourse to bodily self-harm is a means of dealing with this turmoil and the feelings of powerlessness it generates. Drawing on extensive semi-structured interviews conducted over the course of the last twenty years, this article explores the experiences of adolescents who engage in self-cutting. A deliberate and controlled use of pain, this 'symbolic homeopathy' - that is, harming oneself to feel less pain - acts as a defence against externally imposed suffering. Far from being destructive, self-harm practices can paradoxically be understood as survival techniques. Part of a long-term, ongoing project investigating adolescent risk-taking, this article seeks to better understand the experiences of teens who injure themselves through skin-cutting.

Language: en