Abstract
Violence is standardly defined as behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage or kill. There is no stipulation that the victim and perpetrator cannot be identical. Indeed, The World Report on Violence and Health is explicit that violence can be self-directed as well as other-directed (Krug et al. 2002). Based on this inclusion, it is estimated that 50% of all deaths due to violence are self-inflicted, with 35% due to homicide and the remainder due to war or some other form of conflict (ibid.). Yet, to pick two illustrative examples, not one of the 41 chapters in The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behaviour and Aggression addresses self-directed violence (Flannery et al. 2007), while the International Handbook of Violence Research devotes only one out of 62 chapters to suicide (Heitmeyer and Hagan 2003). Such collections aim to be far reaching and comprehensive compilations of state-of-the-art research into violence. Why does self-directed violence garner so little attention?
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Beauvoir de, S. 1949 [1989]. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf.
Benson, P. 1994. ‘Free agency and self-worth’, Journal of Philosophy, 91, 650–668.
Blair, J., Mitchell, D. and Blair, K. 2005. The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Canetto, S.S. and Sakinofsky, I. 1998. ‘The gender paradox in suicide’, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour, 28, 1–23.
Dworkin, R. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Dworkin, R. 1985. A Matter of Principle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Favazza, A. 1987. Bodies under Siege. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Fincham, B., Langer, S., Scourfield, J., and Shiner, M. 2011. Understanding Suicide: A Sociological Autopsy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Flannery, D.J., Vazsonyi, A.T., and Waldman, I.D. 2007. The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behaviour and Aggression. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Freud, A. 1936 [1992]. The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence. London: Karnac Books.
Govier, T. 1993. ‘Self-trust, autonomy, and self-esteem’, Hypatia, 8, 99–120.
Grocutt, E. 2009. ‘Self-harm Cessation in Secure Settings’ in A. Motz (ed.) Managing Self-harm: Psychological Perspectives. Hove: Routledge, 180–203.
Hawton, K., Linsell, L., Adeniji, T., Sariaslan, A., and Fazel, S. 2014. ‘Self-harm in prisons in England and Wales: an epidemiological study of prevalence, risk factors, clustering and subsequent suicide’, The Lancet, 383, 1147–1154.
Hawton, K., Saunders, K.E.A., and O’Connor, R.C. 2012. ‘Self-harm and suicide in adolescents’, The Lancet, 379, 2373–2382.
Heitmeyer, W., and Hagan, J. 2003. The International Handbook of Violence Research. The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Holton, R. 2006. ‘The act of choice’, Philosophers’ Imprint, 6, 1–15.
Holton, R. and Shute, S. 2007. ‘Self-control in the modern provocation defence’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 27, 49–74.
Horder, J. 2005. ‘Reshaping the subjective element in the provocation defence’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 25, 123–140.
Howells, K. 2009. ‘Angry Affect, Aggression, and Personality Disorder’ in M. McMurran and R.C. Howard (eds.) Personality, Personality Disorder, and Violence. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 191–212.
Kerkhof, A.J.F.M, Schmidtke, A., and Bille-Brahe, U. 1994. Attempted Suicide in Europe: Findings from the Multicentre Study on Parasuicide by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Leiden: DSWO Press.
Kerr, P.L., Muehlenkamp, J.J., and Turner, J.M. 2010. ‘Nonsuicidal self-injury: A review of current research for family medicine and primary care physicians’, American Board of Family Medicine, 23, 240–259.
Klonsky, E.D. 2007. ‘The functions of deliberate self-injury: a review of the evidence’, Clinical Psychological Review, 27, 226–239.
Krug, E.G., Dahlberg, L.L., Mercy, J.A., Zwi, A.B, and Lozano, R. 2002. World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Lacey, N., and Pickard, H. 2013. ‘From the consulting room to the court room? Taking the clinical model of responsibility without blame into the legal realm’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 33, 1–29.
Lawday, R. 2009. ‘Self-Harm in Women’s Secure Services: Reflections and Strategies for Treatment Design’ in A. Motz (ed.) Managing Self-harm: Psychological Perspectives. Hove: Routledge, 157–179.
Mental Health Foundation (MHF). 2007. The Fundamental Facts. London, UK: MHF.
Motz, A. 2008. The Psychology of Female Violence: Crimes against the Body. Hove: Routledge.
Motz, A. (ed.) 2009a. Managing Self-harm: Psychological Perspectives. Hove: Routledge.
Motz, A. 2009b. ‘Self-harm as a Sign of Hope’, in A. Motz (ed.) Managing Self-harm: Psychological Perspectives. Hove: Routledge, 15–41.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence. 2004. Self-Harm: The Short-Term Physical and Psychological Management and Secondary Prevention of Self-Harm in Primary and Secondary Care (CG 16). London: NICE.
National Institute for Clinical Excellence. 2011. Self-Harm: Longer-Term Management (CG 133). London: NICE.
Pickard, H. 2011. ‘Responsibility without blame: empathy and the effective treatment of personality disorder’, Philosophy, Psychiatry, Psychology, 18, 209–233.
Pickard, H. 2012. ‘The purpose in chronic addiction’, American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, 3, 40–49.
Pickard, H. 2013a. ‘Psychopathology and the ability to do otherwise’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. First published online 8 April 2013. DOI: 10.1111/phpr.12025
Pickard, H. 2013b. ‘Responsibility without Blame: Philosophical Reflections on Clinical Practice’ in K.W.M. Fulford, M. Davies, R.T. Gipps, G. Graham, J. Sadler, G. Strangellini, and T. Thornton (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1134–1152.
Pickard, H. 2014. ‘Stories of Recovery: The Role of Narrative and Hope in Overcoming PTSD and PD’ in J.Z Sadler, K.W.M. Fulford, C.W. van Staden (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Psychiatric Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online Publication Date: October 2014. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732365.013.30.
Pickard, H. 2015. ‘Choice, deliberation, violence: mental capacity and criminal responsibility in personality disorder’, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 40, 15–24.
Pritchard, H.A. 1912 [1949]. ‘Does moral philosophy rest on a mistake?’ In Moral Obligation: Essays and Lectures. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1–17.
Raine, A. 2013. The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime. London: Penguin.
Rosenberg, M. 2005. The Surprising Purpose of Anger-Beyond Anger Management: Finding the Gift. Encinitas CA: PuddleDancer Press.
Rossner, M. 2013. Just Emotions: Rituals of Restorative Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schrijvers, D. 2012. ‘The gender paradox in suicidal behavior and its impact on the suicidal process’, Journal of Affective Disorders, 138, 19–26.
Slote, M. 1984. ‘Morality and self-other asymmetry’, Journal of Philosophy, 81, 179–192.
Stoljar, N. 2014. Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition). E.N. Zalta (ed.) Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/feminism-autonomy/.
Tantum, D., and Whittaker, J. 1993. ‘Self-Wounding and Personality Disorder’ in P. Tyrer and G. Stein (eds.) Personality Disorder Reviewed. London: Gaskell, 191–224.
Waxman, R., Fenton, M.C., Skodol, A.E., Grant, B.F., and Hasin, D. 2014. ‘Childhood maltreatment and personality disorders in the USA: Specificity of effects and the impact of gender’, Personality and Mental Health, 8, 30–41.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
This chapter is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.
Copyright information
© 2015 Hanna Pickard
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pickard, H. (2015). Self-Harm as Violence: When Victim and Perpetrator Are One. In: Marway, H., Widdows, H. (eds) Women and Violence. Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137015129_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137015129_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-58082-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-01512-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)