Citation

Vesper JH. Am. J. Forensic Psychol. 1996; 14(4): 25-36.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, American College of Forensic Psychology)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Self inflicted violence is a form of coping with the pain left over from years of trauma and abuse. To the survivor, self mutilation is a technique developed to avoid suicide or homicide. To the clinician, it is a symptom of a major mental illness. Hence treaters attempt to control the mechanism. In reality, self mutilation is a symptom of a deeper psychological problem that is related to the family or history of abuse. Therefore as historical information is uncovered, self inflicted violence escalates. The treating therapist is faced with both an ethical and legal dilemma of whether to proceed with treatment and risk further self mutilation, suicide and homicide attempts or stop the exploratory work to keep the client alive and/or protect potential harm to third parties.

Language: en

Keywords

human; homicide; suicide; risk assessment; ethics; review; automutilation; patient care; doctor patient relation; competence; risk management