ON AGGRESSION TURNED AGAINST THE SELF

Abstract

Deliberate self‐harm is a common presenting problem suffered by young people. Several patients referred to the NHS outpatient clinic where I work have been able to stop harming themselves during intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In this paper, I shall discuss a variety of motives for persistent cutting by one adolescent girl. I am most interested to show how the healthier part of her personality overcame her motives for harming herself, and eventually allowed her to make use of my understanding of a sadomasochistic internal object that worked against us.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due to Robin Balbernie, Surinder Jahore and Hilary Smith of the Avon Child Psychotherapy Group, with whom I originally discussed this material.