Self-Mutilation by Peruvian Prisoners

See the large-scale study of 291 prisoners in North Carolina by Elmer H. Johnson Self-mutilations in Prison, C.S.C.D.C., So. Illinois Univ. Carbondale 1967, and the Texas study by

C.L. Clagham and D.R. Beto "Self-mutilation in a Prison Mental Hospital", Correct. Psychiat. J. Soc. Ther., 1967. See also:

Rupert C. Koeninger "What about Self-mutilation?", Prison World, Mar./Apr., 1957. Since writing this article, I have interviewed a patient in the prison ward of Bellevue Hospital, N.Y. City, who was a typical self-mutilator of the second type described.

This is borne out by United States experience. ( Elmer H. Johnson , op. cit , p. 536.)

The English Daily Telegraph carried a report on February 1970 of mass self-mutilation in a Kansas correctional facility, in which 300 prisoners injured themselves in protest against the prison administration taking sterner disciplinary measures.

This is a rather important conclusion, borne out by Clagham and Beto (see i.) who have observed in the Texas study, that a large number of Latin American men mutilated themselves.

Self-mutilation, as a reaction to confinement, is also observed by Clagham and Beto (op. cit.).

See also the Dutch study by G.A. Ladee , Veodrachtenr. Ned. Ver. P.sychial., 1967.

Compare: M. Kosewski , "Samouskodzenia w swietle psychologieznyeh teorii agresji" (Self-mutilation in the light of Psychological Theories on Aggression, Przegl. Penitenc. (Warsaw), 1969 , 7/2 (35-46),

Centre de Récherche sur la Criminologie, Varsovie. (Summarised in Abstr Crimin Pen., 10:4, 1970, No. 1526), who distinguishes between "instrumental motivation" (self-mutilation used to obtain a goal) and "emotional motivation" (from anger, anxiety, etc.). I am not going along altogether with his distinction, since Kosewski's first type, though aiming at and often attaining a practical result—the cessation of ill-treatment—is also motivated by fear and other emotions.

In a Czech study, by J. Drtil "Sexualni zivot muzu pri dlouhodobe vykonavanem trestu odneti svobody Praha" (Sexual life of Men during Long-term Imprisonment), summarised in Abstr. Crimin. Pen., 10:4, 1970, No. 1528 the author regards therapy as essential for these cases, though they have a poor prognosis.