2.9 Explanations of Self-harming Behaviour

The models presented here provide a theoretical overview of the possible reasons that individuals engage in self-harming behaviours (Suyemoto, 1998). The following table is adapted from Suyemoto and MacDonald’s (1995) Model Summaries and Suyemoto’s (1998) Functional Models of Self-Mutilation.

Current Models Used To Explain Self-Harming Behaviour
Environmental Model Grounded in behavioural & systemic theory, particularly Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory, this model concentrates on the interaction between an individual who self-harms & their environment.
Environmental	Self-harming behaviour is learnt through modelling or vicarious reinforcement. Adolescents typically learn that injury & care are associated via their parents’ models, & attempt to use self-harm as a mechanism for self-caring. Self-harming is subsequently maintained by external reinforcement (i.e. attention, social status) or self-reinforced (i.e. relief from emotional tension, ending dissociation).
Drive Models Based on psychoanalytic theory, these two models conceptualise self-harm as repression or an expression of life, death & sexual drives.
Antisuicide	Self-harm is seen as conceptually distinct from suicide in intent, lethality & desired outcome. Destructive impulses are directed into self-harming behaviours to avoid the total destruction of the self. As such, self-harm is conceptualised as an active coping mechanism, not a suicide attempt.
Sexual	Self-harm is a form of punishment for or an attempt to avoid sexual feelings or acts; an attempt to control sexuality or sexual maturation; or a means of attaining sexual gratification. Support for this model is derived from the high correlation between sexual abuse & self-harm, the absence of self-harm before puberty, & the greater incidence of sexual dysfunction exhibited by self-harmers.
Affect Regulation Models Predominantly situated within ego and self-psychology, although also associated with object relations theory, the following two models view self-harm as a means of regulating affect.
Affect Regulation	Self-harm is a means of communicating to the self or others, the intolerable emotional pain experienced by the individual. It is also a mechanism for maintaining control over these intense emotions & feelings.
Dissociation	Self-harm is utilised to terminate or induce dissociation to create or maintain a sense of self when presented with intolerable emotional pain.
Interpersonal Model Fundamentally grounded in object relations but also conceptualised in self-psychology, this model focuses on the need to emphasise the boundaries of the self.
Boundaries	Self-harm is used an attempt to overcome the intense feelings & emotions that threaten to engulf the individual. The skin - the most obvious physical boundary between the self & others – is attacked to reiterate a sense of self & the blood reassures the self-harmer that they are alive.

* Taken from the 2004 Project Report
Adolescent Self-Harm: An Exploration of the Nature and Prevalence in Banyule/Nillumbik
[the report is a word document but can be veiwed in html .... abz