Descriptions and interpretations on self-harming

Abstract

The present study analyzed how subjects who self-harm described this practice, position themselves and others in relation to various discourses regarding this matter, and how they produce subjectivity through their bodies. The study was conducted using the Internet users' posts in public virtual communities through the search engine of Orkut. The inclusion criteria were as follows: those who described self-harm practices, Internet users' interpretations on this practice, and indication of an identity. The exclusion criteria were as follows: communities ruled by a moderator who could censor posts and restrict access; topics or posts involving advertising unrelated to the subject of the present study. Document analysis was used in a Foucauldian perspective. Results indicated the mainstream discourse of life preservation to be circulating as described by Foucault as biopolitics dispositif, although subversions could be found among people who define self-harm as art, a privileged way to express emotions, or as source of pleasure taking self-harm beyond the discourses and knowledge fields of medicine, psychology, psychoanalysis, or religion; thus, as forms of subjectivation.

Manifestations of Depression: Self-Perception, Culture, and Body

“…Throughout this review, we noted the importance of contradictions. Self-harm was an overt cry for help but also a subvert action of individual meaning (Arcoverde et al, 2016). Depression was both a marker of weakness and a sign of strength and perseverance (Hermans, 2003).…”

“…La Roche and Christopher (2008) highlight the weaknesses of a non-culturally sensitive therapy, and Hoffman (2019) highlights how these interventions function differently across cultures. The infinite ways under which self-harm itself is presented in the online space (Arcoverde et al, 2016) suggests that our own methods of care must also be diverse and culturally competent if we wish to make any attempts at theoretical generalization. This does not require us to engage in cross-cultural work, but instead, constantly seek the contradictions and failures of current theories by considering different contexts—cultural (as in the case of Haiti), scientific (as in online forum reviews or experimental designs), and individual (as through self-presenting and self-viewing).…”

“…Though its pervasiveness is evident, many disparate and competing theories on the reasons for self-harm have emerged, with no singular idea to unite them. Yet, true to a cultural psychological framework, Arcoverde et al (2016) sidestep the contrasting nature of these theories by taking a wider, more all-encompassing look at the perceptions that self-harmers have about both themselves and their actions in analyzing an online forum. In general, the act of self-harm is characterized by a strong, almost uncontrollable urge preceding the act, followed by a sense of relief after the harm has taken place.…”

“…Patients and therapists may work together to find and create meaning behind the act of self-harm, potentially allowing underlying issues to rise to the surface of conversation. Regardless of the meaning an individual assigns to their actions, there is still the fact that in most, or perhaps even all the possible reasons presented, at the center lies a root of individual suffering, and “the need for care should arise first and foremost from the suffering individual” (Arcoverde et al, 2016, p. 123).…”

Introducing Syntheses

“…Here, in the chaos of a virus, the reconsiderations of the meaning of the workplace were forced into a new liminal space – not quite work, but not quite home. While Mulderig points to the presentation of self-harm in the online space through Arcoverde et al (2016), can we conceptualize the same meanings being negotiated in the presentation of work in the online space -one of intense power dynamics? Their Foucauldian analysis of self-harm calls us to reconsider the (in)visibility of remote work and its interactions with the (in)visibility of a virus that has ravaged the globe.…”