Citation

Hirsch M. Forum der Psychoanalyse 1998; 14(2): 123-138.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998)

DOI

10.1007/s004510050010

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Self mutilation and suicide mean both an aggressive assault on the self, but each directed against a different self: In the case of suicidality it is merged with the malignant or bad object (object representation). The aggression is aimed at an insufficient object which is located in the self. The dynamics of self-mutilation is based on a dissociation of the self rather than on mechanisms of introjection and symbiotic merging. In this dissociation parts of the self, especially the body-self, are separated and experienced and manipulated as an external object. Because the aggression is directed against a dissociated part of the self, the self as a whole can be preserved. While self mutilating patients are retreating themselves autistically together with their body-self, suicidal patients are much more attached to the object, identified with the introject respectively fixated upon his projective substitute, the external object.

Language: de

Keywords

aggression; assault; automutilation; defense mechanism; human; object relation; psychoanalysis; psychodynamics; review; self concept; suicidal behavior