Self-Mutilation in Female Psychopaths

Abstract

Rampton is a Special Hospital catering mainly for subnormal and psychopathic patients with histories of dangerous and violent behaviour. Earlier work (McKerracher, Street, Segal, 1966) had shown that female patients were significantly more prone than males to mutilate their own bodies and smash hospital property. Such acts are usually regarded in this hospital as hysterical outbursts in which there is often an insensitivity to pain. Gross lacerations are often inflicted without the patient appearing to experience any suffering. Some kind of hysterical anaesthesia may be involved. It is known that this kind of behaviour is found in long-term patients suffering from (a) schizophrenia and (b) severe character disorder (Offer and Barglow, 1960).

Functional consistency across two behavioural modalities: fire‐setting and self‐harm in female special hospital patients

“…In the context of self-harm, writers draw attention to the notion that anger and aggression meant for others can be turned against the self (McKerracher et al, 1968;Liebowitz, 1987). Research has found that 10-32% of self-harmers report anger towards others leading up to acts of self-harm (Gardner and Gardner, 1975;Roy, 1978;Bennum, 1983).…”

The Phenomenology of Self-Mutilation in a General Hospital Setting*

“…McKerracher et al (9) reported that only 28 percent of their cases admitted feeling pain, whereas only two of Novotny's (11) twenty-one cases did. Just two of the twenty-four cutters in the present series felt pain when cutting, and four male cutters described no pain in association with self-mutilation, in contrast to Asch's (1) finding that the boys in his series did experience pain.…”

Characteristics and management of prisoners at risk of suicide behaviour

“…Notwithstanding such difficulties, a number of studies have been conducted on self-mutilation in penal settings in England (Cookson, 1977; Cullen, 1985;McKerracher et al, 1968), the United States of America (Claghom & Beto, 1967; Jones, 1986) and in Canada (Ross et al, 1978). Unlike penal suicide research, where the majority of studies comprise all male samples, the majority of self-mutilation studies entail all female samples and in particular female adolescents.…”