Adolescence and self-injuries

a manifestation of subjective distress in contemporary society

Abstract

This research reflects upon our times and their link to an increasingly present clinical manifestation, the phenomenon of self-harm. A focused study was carried out, for convenience, through a semi-structured clinical interview of 20 youngsters with self-inflicted cuts on the skin. This interview included analysis variables related to family, identity, symptom function, and context. The results revealed that the self-harm behavior was connected to the changes in Western societies during the last 50 years, both concerning family and the new way of establishing relationships through social media, in which virtual, massive, and anonymous communication predominates over personal, real communication. This fact could come into play in the youngsters’ difficulty to consolidate an identity, which translates into a weak and unstable image of self, a greater dependence on the environment, and serious difficulties to manage and contain high-intensity affections, leading youngsters to self-harm as a way of coping with these emotions. Lastly, some philosophical and sociological proposals on the particularities of our time were incorporated to enrich the analysis, specifically the contributions by Chul-Han, Luis Zoja, Zygmunt Bauman, and James Côtè.