Erschienen:
Det Kgl. Bibliotek/Royal Danish Library, 2017
Erschienen in:
Psyke & Logos, 37 (2017) 2, Seite 220-239
Sprache:
Nicht zu entscheiden
DOI:
10.7146/pl.v37i2.25750
ISSN:
2246-2449;
0107-1211
Entstehung:
Anmerkungen:
Beschreibung:
This article looks at the problem of deliberate self-harm in subjects with personality disorder from the perspective of Winnicott’s theories regarding the development of a true self, in combination with perspectives from social psychology and attachment theory.The mirror interview, in which subjects are interviewed whilst looking at themselves in a full-length mirror, was used to assess the degree of body esteem and alienation expressed by subjects with and without acts of deliberate self-harm. Qualitative analysis was used to analyze six interviews in depth with the aim of getting a clearer insight intopotential mechanisms that could lead to acts of deliberate self-harm. It was found that subjects with personality disorder and deliberate self-harm had a tendency to be ashamed of and even despise their bodies. They also displayed a painful sense of alienation towards their mirror image and had problems in reconciling a first person perspective onthe self with a third person perspective. A project is underway to test these hypotheses quantitatively and if found to be statistically significant, this type of self-disturbance could help the clinical understanding and treatment of deliberate self-harm.