The Symbolism of Self Violence

The Symbolism of Self Violence

I enrolled in this class in semiotics in order to see if the semiotic approach would give me a greater understanding or give meaning to what I do for a living. It seems natural that I would try to employ the method with the problems that vex me the most. I hope that any reader of this text will appreciate the attempt at interpretation of meaning and not focus on the sensationalism or strangeness of the behaviors that I will describe. I must give credit for the idea of looking at the symbolism of self-violence to James Gilligan in his book, "Violence" in which he examines the symbolism of violence towards others (Gilligan , 1996) . This paper is an attempt to bring meaning or understanding to the behaviors of the residents where I am employed, specifically self-inflicted harm or self-injurious behaviors. I will first describe the behaviors, then define them in the theories that I have used for many years, and finally attempt to make meaning from the behaviors through semiotics.

Jane, not her real name, became upset one night while I was at work. I was called to help stop her, as she had ran into the bathroom where she was making cuts on her face with a piece of mirror she broke from a compact. She made four parallel superficial lines of about two centimeters downwards from her left eye.

David was in the seclusionary time-out room for physical aggression as well as verbal aggression towards a female staff. He had taken his tee shirt off and had torn it into long narrow strips, which he used to tie around his neck and to tie his hands and fingers together and still attached to his neck. His arms were flexed upwards towards his neck in order to make the strips reach both.

Another boy of ...

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...unction well during the other parts of the day.

My purpose for writing this essay has been to examine the standard approaches to understanding self-injury and then apply a semiotic approach to the self-injury. The teenagers that I give as examples are individuals whose behavior has defied explanation and treatment through the conventional means. I find some freedom and hope in viewing their behaviors as being more symbolic.

References

Aaltonen, J, & Rakkolainen, V. (1994). The shared image guiding the treatment process: A precondition for integration of the treatment of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164(suppl 23), 97-102.

Danesi, M. (1998). Sign, thought, & culture: A basic course in semiotics. Canadian Scholarsí Press: Toronto, Ontario.

Gilligan, J. (1996). Violence: Our deadly epidemic and its causes. Putnam: New York, New York.