Abstract
Self-harm is a serious and increasing public health concern. Self-harm is significantly associated with alexithymia, a trait characterised by a difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Alexithymia has been found to be a barrier to psychological treatment. This article explores the experiences of self-harm among eight young adults who reported difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, with the optional use of photographs as visual stimuli for discussion. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two themes are presented here: The Obscure Self describes participants’ struggle to grasp a coherent sense of self, and how self-harm provided a means of physically reconnecting with their bodies. Words Fail Me describes participants’ difficulties communicating their subjective experience, which increased feelings of isolation and recourse to self-harm. There were also tentative indications that participants were able to recognise their emotional experience when expressed by others. The lack of interpersonal connection, arising from difficulties understanding feelings and communicating them to others, may create or exacerbate the context for self-harm. The findings have relevance for the treatment of self-harm, given the high, but often unacknowledged, prevalence of alexithymia in clinical populations.
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Due to the sensitive nature of this research, participants of this study were not asked for consent for their data to be made available to others for further research, so supporting data is not available.
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The study formed part of the lead author, Hilary Norman’s, doctoral thesis, supervised by the other three, named authors. Hilary Norman conceived of and designed the study, with the support of the other authors. Material preparation, data collection, transcription and analysis were performed by Hilary Norman. Lisa Marzano independently reviewed one transcript. Themes were derived by Hilary Norman and discussed with Lisa Marzano. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Hilary Norman and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was approved by Middlesex University Ethics Committee on 6 June 2018, reference 4083.
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Norman, H., Marzano, L., Oskis, A. et al. “I can’t describe it and they can’t see the rain.” an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of self-harm in young adults who report difficulties identifying and describing their feelings. Curr Psychol 42, 10151–10162 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02273-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02273-7