Descriptions and interpretations on self-harming

Abstract

The present study analyzed how subjects who self-harm described this practice, position themselves and others in relation to various discourses regarding this matter, and how they produce subjectivity through their bodies. The study was conducted using the Internet users' posts in public virtual communities through the search engine of Orkut. The inclusion criteria were as follows: those who described self-harm practices, Internet users' interpretations on this practice, and indication of an identity. The exclusion criteria were as follows: communities ruled by a moderator who could censor posts and restrict access; topics or posts involving advertising unrelated to the subject of the present study. Document analysis was used in a Foucauldian perspective. Results indicated the mainstream discourse of life preservation to be circulating as described by Foucault as biopolitics dispositif, although subversions could be found among people who define self-harm as art, a privileged way to express emotions, or as source of pleasure taking self-harm beyond the discourses and knowledge fields of medicine, psychology, psychoanalysis, or religion; thus, as forms of subjectivation.