Self-harmIt is a common clinical phenomenon in many adolescent patients. The increased incidence of self-injurious behaviour is currently observed to be related to the characteristics of our contemporary world and reveals serious discomfort in young people.
Adolescents often see their peers hurting themselves socially**, which leads to an increase in self-injurious behavior during adolescence. This phenomenon allows them to identify with each other and replicate these acts of violence in a masochistic choreography. Adolescents may be particularly vulnerableSocial contagionThis is because they strongly seek a sense of identity and belonging.
In addition, there are some potential associated with self-harmInner factorsFamilyPowerwithSocial dynamics。Self-harm has been linked to personality disorders, depression, psychosis, eating disorders, and substance abuse. The presence of self-injurious behavior is the best indicator of suicidal behavior, especially in vulnerable populations. People with representative deficits, impulsive patterns of mental functioning, and difficulty regulating self-esteem are more likely to self-injure.
Self-harm incidents are more common in female adolescents than in men and may be a symptom of female sexual assault that emerges. Self-harm withDissociativeSymptoms are also related. People who self-harm sometimes can't remember how their self-harm happened or how they felt during an attack. When patients are able to recall these experiences, they often use phrases like: "I don't know what happened to me, I can't take it anymore, I cut myself, and when I made these reactions, I saw blood."
At the household level, families in many parts of the world are exposedPrecarity and violenceamong them. This can lead to family aggression, which in turn increases aggressive behavior in children and adolescents, who often attack themselves directly. Family abuse is associated with traumatic childhood experiences, and infants may be more aggressive than libido. In addition, the inability of families and society to establish effective barriers to protect children's psychological development, coupled with the constant disruption of interpersonal relationships, disrupts the monitoring of violations. All of these factors contribute to an increase in self-aggressive behavior within the wider family and culture.
Self-harm is a form of self-harm that is carried out through action, mental anguish, and self-vulnerabilityCommunicatingway. Self-harm provides a temporary means of relief through mental and physical release. In self-injurious behavior, the ego**（split）Out of the part that the subject doesn't know. Although these behaviors have the characteristics of masochistic behavior, they may be an opportunity to admit that there is a deeper aspect of one's personality.
Self-harm withAffective aggressionRelatedly, emotional aggression is triggered by emotions such as anger, sadness, and emptiness. The ancient masochistic effect is associated with this situation, which is oneIdentification with an aggressorforms of defense. Some self-harming people use masochism to deal with different types of conflict, but without success. In clinical practice, we see these manifestations. When these patients are faced with an emergent, unprocessed distressing scenario, they tend to use a few related to:The attack turns on itselfThese defense mechanisms are immature and archaic in relation to behavioral patterns. Thus, masochism is intertwined with aggression, impulsiveness and violence.
Self-harm is also associated withAddictivephenomenon. Addictive behaviors include compulsive repetition and the unconscious pursuit of rewards. This addictive dimension appears in those who repeatedly injure their wrists and forearms, as well as through repeated ingestion of drugs or threats of suicide. While every action is risky, the sense of reward for being cared for is strong, so these expressions tend to be repeated. They may also be related to death drives. By inflicting pain and punishment on their own bodies, self-harmers can succumb to non-existent motivation.
Ethical conflictis the source of the unbearable tension between the ego and the superego. In some cases, failure to achieve the desired state brings frustration, which in turn is manifested as an impulsive attack on the ego or the body, which is a symptom of masochism and narcissism. All of these manifestations are associated with expressions like "I can't take it anymore", expressing the extreme pain of the spirit and the need to release a lot of pain.
In contemporary society, violence is not only physical, but also passiveSocial discriminationto express. In today's culture, where social discrimination comes in various forms, cyberbullying is a powerful amplifier. Real violent social discrimination can be a catalyst for individuals to engage in self-injurious behavior.
Incidents of bullying among peers further exacerbate the problem of social discrimination. Adolescents and young adults may engage in self-injurious behaviour in an attempt to express their dissatisfaction with problematic social values. The experience of being marginalized is a social phenomenon, but it also affects narcissism in adolescents. It can lead to a damaged sense of self. That is, the stigma generated by these social problems is intertwined with this narcissistic aggression, which leads these adolescents to a situation of self-harm and masochism.
Understanding these complex situations requires a theoretical framework that views self-harm as a primitive and archaic expression. It is at the same time a manifestation of social discontent, demonstrating the intensified form of adolescent psychopathology.