Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

It is rare that a symptom becomes a disease entity. ‘Self-harm’ is now a full-fledged diagnostic category for DSM-5. The existing literature of the topic posits that it is a trans-historical psychiatric category and that examples of self-harm can be found from the earliest written records, which is part of the underlying argument for its inclusion in DSM-5. But how old is self-harm and indeed what defines ‘self-harm’ historically and culturally?

Keywords

Body modification cutting non-suicidal self-injury self-harm self-mutilation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adam

(1892) Self-mutilation. In: Tuke

(ed.) A Dictionary of Psychological Medicine. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1147–1152.

Anonymous (1851) Religious monomania; self-mutilation. The Lancet 58(15 Nov.): 456.

Anonymous (1857) Extraordinary self mutilation. The Lancet 70(20 July): 88–89.

Anonymous (2011a) Center provides resources, help for self-mutilation. India Pharma News (22 July).

Anonymous (2011b) Teens’ self harm alarm. Geelong Advertiser (Australia) (18 Nov.): 9.

Anonymous (2011c) The spirit of Stokes: bringing them out of bondage: exodus ministries prepares for open house on Saturday. The Stokes News, Walnut Cove, NC (23 June): 12.

APA (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edn. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Bergmann

(1846) Ein Fall von religiöser Monomanie. Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie 3: 365–380.

Berrios

(1996) The History of Mental Symptoms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

Bleuler

(1978) The Schizophrenic Disorders, trans. Clemens

. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

11.

Bruch

(1997) Unlocking the Golden Cage: An Intimate Biography of Hilde Bruch. New York: Gurze.

12.

Brumberg

(1988) Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

13.

Casey

Long

(2003) Meanings of madness: a literature review. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 10(1): 89–99.

14.

Chaney

(2011a) ‘A hideous torture on himself’: madness and self-mutilation in Victorian literature. Journal of Medical Humanities 32(4): 279–289.

15.

Chaney

(2011b) Self-control, selfishness and mutilation: how ‘medical’ is self-injury anyway? Medical History 55(3): 375–382.

16.

Chia

(2011) Teen cutters now more discreet; troubled youth cut themselves in less-visible areas, making it harder to get help to them. The Straits Times Singapore (6 Nov.): 3.

17.

Cohen

(1972) Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London: Macgibbon and Kee.

18.

Cottam

(2004) Obesity and culture. The Lancet 364(2 Oct.): 1203.

19.

Darwin

(1871) The Descent of Man. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

20.

Darwin

(1872) The Expression of Emotions in Men and Animals. London: John Murray.

21.

Deleuze

(1967) Présentation de Sacher-Masoch. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.

22.

Deutsch

(1942) Some forms of emotional disturbance and their relationship to schizophrenia. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 11: 301–321.

23.

Emerson

(1913) The case of Miss A: a preliminary report of a psychoanalytic study and treatment. Psychoanalytic Review 1: 41–54.

24.

Endelman

(1999) The Jews of Georgian England, 1714–1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

25.

Esquirol

JED

(1845) Mental Maladies [1838], trans. Hunt

. Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea.

26.

Favazza

(1987) Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

27.

Favazza

(1998) The coming of age of self-mutilation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 186(5): 259–268.

28.

Freud

(1955–74) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. and trans. Strachey

Freud

Strachey

Tyson

24 vols. London: Hogarth; cited as SE.

29.

Gilman

(1999) Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of Aesthetic Surgery. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

30.

Gilman

(2010) Seeing bodies in pain: From Hippocrates to Freud. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 92(3): 661–674.

31.

Gould

Pyle

(1897) Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. London and Philadelphia: Rebman Publishing Co.

32.

Grosz

(1994) Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

33.

Herodotus (1897) Ed. Grant

, trans. Rawlinson

. New York: C. Scribner’s.

34.

Hoban

(2009) Willow. New York: Listening Library.

35.

Inckle

(2007) Writing on the Body? Thinking Through Gendered Embodiment and Marked Flesh. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.

36.

Johnston

Elliott

(2002) Healthy limb amputation: ethical and legal aspects. Clinical Medicine, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians: 2(5): 431–435.

37.

Kaan

(1844) Psychopathia Sexualis. Leipzig: Leopold Voss; translation by Kahan

, in press.

38.

Kahan

Pattison

(1984) Proposal for a distinctive diagnosis: the deliberate self-harm syndrome (DSH). Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 14(1): 17–35.

39.

Kernberg

(1967) Borderline personality organization. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 15: 641–685.

40.

Kernberg

(1975) Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New York: Aronson.

41.

Kernberg

(1988) Clinical dimensions of masochism. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 36: 1005–1029.

42.

Kilby

(2001) Carved in skin: bearing witness to self harm. In Ahmed

Stacey

(eds) Thinking Through the Skin. London and New York: Routledge, 124–142.

43.

Klonsky

(2011) Non-suicidal self-injury in United States adults: prevalence, socio-demographics, topography, and functions. Psychological Medicine 41: 1981–1986.

44.

Klonsky

Moyer

(2008) Childhood sexual abuse and non-suicidal self-injury: meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry 192: 166–170.

45.

Klonsky

Olino

(2008) Identifying clinically distinct subgroups of self-injurers among young adults: a latent class analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 76(1): 22–27.

46.

Knight

(1953) Borderline states. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 17: 1–12.

47.

Krafft-Ebing

(1892) Psychopathia Sexualis: With Especial Reference to Contrary Sexual Instinct [1886], trans. Chaddock

. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.

48.

Lewin-Fetter

(2010) Self-harm on either side of the pond. The Lancet 376(9 Oct.): 1224.

49.

Leys

(2000) Trauma: A Genealogy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

50.

Lloyd

GER

(2003) In the Grip of Disease: Studies in the Greek Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

51.

Lloyd-Richardson

Perrine

Dierker

Kelley

(2007) Characteristics and functions of non-suicidal self-injury in a community sample of adolescents. Psychological Medicine 37(8): 1183–1192.

52.

Lombroso

Ferrero

(1895) The Female Offender. London: Fisher Unwin.

53.

Löwy

(2010) Preventative Strikes: Women, Precancer, and Prophylactic Surgery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

54.

Lunbeck

(2006) Borderline histories: psychoanalysis inside and out. Science in Context 19(1): 151–173.

55.

Menninger

(1934) Localized self-destruction: self-mutilations. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 3: 495–498.

56.

Nock

Favazza

(2009) Nonsuicidal self-injury: definition and classification. In Nock

(ed.) Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Origins, Assessment and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 9–18.

57.

Pattison

Kahan

(1983) The deliberate self-harm syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry 140(7): 867–872.

58.

Rainfield

(2010) Scars. Lodi, NJ: WestSide Books.

59.

Rodham

Hawton

(2009) Epidemiology and Phenomenology of non-suicidal self-injury. In Nock

(ed.) Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Origins, Assessment and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 37–68.

60.

Sass

(1994) Paradoxes of Delusion: Wittgenstein, Schreber, and the Schizophrenic Mind. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

61.

Schmalhausen

(1925) Psychoanalytic studies. Psychoanalytic Review 12: 295–315.

62.

Sechehaye

(1950) Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl: The True Story of ‘Renee’, trans. Rubin-Rabson

. New York City: Grune & Stratton.

63.

Stern

(1938) Psychoanalytic investigation of and therapy in the border line group of neuroses. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 7: 467–489.

64.

Strenger

(2005) The Designed Self: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Identities. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

65.

Szasz

(1957) The psychology of bodily feelings in schizophrenia. Psychosomatic Medicine 19: 11–16.

66.

Tylor

(1872) Primitive society (Part I). Contemporary Review 21: 701–718.

67.

von Hentig

(1948) The Criminal and his Victim. Studies in the Sociobiology of Crime. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

68.

Weierich

Nock

(2008) Posttraumatic stress symptoms mediate the relation between childhood sexual abuse and non-suicidal self-injury. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 76(1): 39–44.

69.

White

(2010) How I Made it to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

70.

Whitlock

Eckenrode

Silverman

(2006) Self-injurious behavior in a college population. Pediatrics 117(6): 1940–1948.

From psychiatric symptom to diagnostic category: self-harm from the Victorians to DSM-5

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References