Self Destruction

The people today are becoming increasingly known of the importance of the counseling needs of individuals whose behavior is self-injurious. The term 'self-injurious' has a deep meaning and "includes any self-destructive or self-defeating behavior used to express or communicate something that is otherwise perceived as unacceptable" (Stone & Sias 2003).

 Module Overview: Part 1 Why people do harm to others? •

Everyday an individual encounters an act of cruelty, whether it is physically, emotionally, or verbally. On the other hand, there are those who inflict harm intentionally or unintentionally on others as a result of being dissatisfied emotionally or psychologically. Such individuals become labeled either to be good or bad by society. However, a person as a whole cannot be good or bad; it is their actions that are vile. Similarly, in “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth reveals her cruelty through writing letters while, in “The Snake” by Ervin D Krause, the uncle shows his cruelty through his behaviour towards the boy. Thus, all individuals expose their cruelty through their immoral actions.

Self-harm: This is the type of abuse where someone causes deliberate pain to themselves with intentions that they definitely will harmed whatever they decide to do. It can be self-harming (cutting themselves), jumping from a height or playing with fire. It could be having an intake of substances that will cause harm to internal organs or having an intake of a recreational drug to cause harm to themselves. It could also be that they are neglecting themselves too. For example, not taking showers, not eating, not drinking, not dressing for the appropriate weather.

In this essay I plan to describe and evaluate two approaches to the treatment of self defeating behaviour. I will do this by describing self defeating behaviour, including its origins, causes and maintenance and then I will proceed to describe two treatments that might be offered by a therapist working with this and how it would impact on the behaviour presenting itself.

1. Blum, D., & Jaworski, C. G. (2016). From suicide and strain to mass murder. Society, 53(4), 408-413. Retrieved from ProQuest database.

"To annihilate the world by annihilation of one's self is the deluded height of desperate egoism. The simple way out of all the little brick dead ends we scratch our nails against.... I want to kill myself, to escape from responsibility, to crawl back abjectly into the womb." (Plath 60)

Durkheim’s theories and work on suicide classified the phenomenon into four types; Egoistic, Altruistic, Anomic and Fatalistic (Ritzer Pg 200-202). Durkheim’s concept of social integration ties into egoistic suicide as it

Any behaviour you engage in that is self-sabotaging, that takes you away from what you want, or that distracts you from your goals is behaviour that is self-defeating. These behaviours zap your vitality, leaving you exhausted and without access to the powerful energy you need to create your best life.

In supporting this men have a stronger chance to actually end their life. Men choose much more lethal methods to end their lives compared to women, “In turnout of suicide attempt methods, the largest number of correlations with specific indirect self-destructiveness categories occurred, in the group of males, for asphyxia. It does not come as a surprise considering the fact that males use that method more commonly than females;”(Gruszczynski 206). In this study the methods men chose to end their lives was closely related to why they chose to end their life. While the methods the individual's chose was due in part to why they felt their was no solution to whatever their problem in life was causing them to commit suicide. The study conducted various self aggression

In today’s world, a decent amount of teenagers and some adults have a tendency to be take part in nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviors (NSSI). In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne we observe a similar ordeal with Reverend Dimmesdale. In the novel, Dimmesdale decides to punish and self-harm himself for his sins. Dimmesdale committed adultery with Hester Prynne, so Dimmesdale now feels the need to harm himself for his problems and sins. We can observe similar features from Dimmesdale in modern self-harmers as they punish themselves as well. Modern day self-harmers and Dimmesdale seem to show many similarities in the following criteria: methods used when harming themselves, characteristics of the person,

Self inflicted harm: Also referred to as self injurious behavior, a large percentage of individuals with disabilities engage in self

Muehlenkamp and Gutierrez (2004 p.12) define self-harming behavior as” the deliberate destruction or alteration of body tissue without suicidal intent.” The distinct made from suicide and self-harming behavior is by definition whereas self-harming behavior is a life preserving action and suicide is an end to life action. The contributing factor may be the individual’s values and beliefs on life and death.

Deliberate self-harm is a term that covers a wide range of behaviours some of which are directly related to suicide and some are not. This is a relatively common behaviour that is little understood. This essay provides an overview of the nature and extent of those most at risk of self-harm, including causes and risk factors. Examining some of the stereotyping that surrounds self -harm, and looking at ways in which self-harm can be prevented.

Self-harm also known as self-injury, self-abuse, self-mutilation occurs when someone internationally and repeatedly harms herself/himself in a way that is impulsive and not intended to be lethal. “Self harm, often referred to as cutting”. Cutting is an self-injurious behavior where a student uses a sharp object such as: a razor blade and a knife to inflict physical pain. Although cutting is one of the most common and well documented forms, there are many things people do to hurt themselves (Bells 1). Self-harming behavior can include variety of methods of self injury (pearlman 1). Studies have documented over 16 forms of self-injury and there may well be more than that (Bells 1). Most common methods are scratching, burning, carving, hitting, punching or pulling out hair. Self-injury can be and is performed on any part of the body, but most often occurs on the hands, wrists, stomach and thighs. The severity of the act can vary from superficial wounds to those resulting in lasting disfigurement (Bells