CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: SELF MUTILATION

Randolph Edward D. Villanueva

Concept: SELF MUTILATION, often referred to as self harm, is the direct and deliberate
destruction or alteration of the body. Examples include cutting, burning, needle sticking, and
severe scratching of oneself. Usually, people correlate self mutilation to suicide, but this kind of
behavior is totally different from the ones suicidal people do. This is according to Dr. Kristalyn
Pedneault, an assistant professor at the Eastern Connecticut State University.

Nature of Man: It has been observed through a number of researches that people who do self
mutilation are those people who usually seek for attention. Such as children or adolescents who
lack attention from parents, peers and their environment. It is known that in the present, quite a
number of adolescents cut themselves, some saying that they do these things in order to express.
But it is this underlying fact that these people indeed do these things because of their being
ignored at the society. But according to Pedneault, this is totally a myth. The aforementioned
notion is being debunked by the psychologist, for she says that people who suffer from the urge
to self harm or to self mutilate doesnt really seek for attention; rather, they are said to be
ashamed of it, and hide it from the world. They usually self mutilate on parts of the body that
cant be easily seen by the eyethose of location that can be covered in their everyday living. It
is said that these people who self mutilate are those who suffer from depressionmainly because
of their emotions, to remind themselves of their memorieswhich could also mean their sad
experiences in the past, and last but not the least for physical sensation. Though weird as it may
sound, some people do enjoy the pain brought about by cutting themselves, saying that the pain
caused by cutting or hurting themselves make them happy and pleasured. But at the very tip of
all these is the one main pointtheir willingness to express their emotions in the most
expressive way externally. Sadly, the percentage of self mutilation between adolescents is quite
high, that of the college students the dominant oneboth of the male and female sex. Researches
show that 40 percent of college students engaged themselves on self mutilation at least once,
while 10 percent said theyve done it more than ten times. One major reason why people self
mutilate is said to be because of their experiences from the past, such as children who were
maltreated by their nannies, caregivers or even parents have greater risk of self mutilating
themselves, and also, those people who feel left-out or unaccepted by the society. In a bigger
picture, persons or individuals who self mutilate are often passivethose people who hold
grudges to themselves without telling others how they feel, which causes to load-up overtime;
but there are also ones who are active at the front, but in the inside hold quite a big grudge to the
world.

Nature of Society: Persons who usually self mutilate can be said to belong to a constructed
society. It is known that within a society, people name and describe thingsthey construct their
own reality (this is based from Kellys Personal Construct Theory). Thus, it can be said that
people who experience self mutilation construct themselvesthey are aware of what theyre
doing, and they construct what they dothey cut themselves, they hurt themselveswith their
consciousness. Self mutilation according to studies may be stopped, by reading books which
focus on the development and restoration of the person (some books also have writing exercises
which enhance the esteem of the person), medical treatmentwith the use of psychotherapy and
medication. The constructed society in which persons who suffer self-mutilation often do not
accept the fact that these persons need help, thus it should also be pointed out that the norm
regarding people who suffer from self mutilation should be looked into a new light and a new
perspective: that these people also are hurt, and face judgments by people; they shouldnt be
judged. Instead, they should be helped to recover from their loneliness and feeling of hurting
themselves; in other words, the society point of view must be changed and reformedthey
should look at people suffering from self mutilation as a thing done by some people in the
societywhich should be controlled and minimized in order for it to stop and for the welfare of
the humankind to be balanced and unbiased.

Methods of Investigation: Victims of the behavior of self mutilation are often looked after and
investigated by means of analysis of clinical records, and could be by conducting surveys on the
victims of the said behavior. One could also easily investigate if one behaves as a self mutilated
one by the presence of scars on the skinwhich is obviously caused by cutting themselves, by
asking them questions regarding how they feelif theyd like to share something they always
wanted to share to others but they cannot because of fear of rejection, and the like. People could
also investigate people who are suffering from self-mutilation by psychological doctors who
know how to treat this behavior. And last but not the least, by observation of the victims. It is
said that the best way to understand and know why people self mutilate is by observing their
actions. Simply put, these observations on how they act, react and respond to people could easily
then point out to the main reason why and how they are acting as such to their environment and
to people around them.

Political Implications: Pedneaults concept of self mutilation by people is majorly based from
the fact that people who suffer this have their own perspective on why they do this and so, such
as cutting themselves which is caused by their emotions, their boredom and for their pleasure.
Thus, it can clearly be said that the humans who commit this behavior is based on the concept of
constructing their own reality, which could be said as comparable to the Kellys Personal
Construct Theory, which states that people construct their own way of how they see the world. In
the point of view of people who do self mutilation, it is their freedom either to choose the side
who goes to do self mutilation and the ones who dont do it. Thus, it can be said that people have
the democracy to choice either of the two parties. It can also be said that the government at first
look wouldnt really mind the people facing self mutilation, but if the time comes, it would be
necessary for the government to look after its victims, for it would put the welfare of the people
in an uneasy manner. Overall, the concept of self mutilation is merely support for democratic
regime, for people, as Ive said, have the choice to self mutilate themselves or not.

References:
Nock, Matthew K. (2010). Self Injury (PDF File). Annual Reviews: Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachussets.
Salters-Pedneault, Kristalyn (2008). Self Mutilation (Self Harm). About.com: United
States of America.
Helpguide.Org (2013). Retreived from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/self_injury.htm
on July 20, 2013.