ABSTRACT
This chapter moves away from the personal psyche and the confines of the consulting room, and out into a wider perspective. Although the understanding of the specific meaning of self-harm for any individual has to be seen as the central concern, there is a case for positioning the behaviour in its social, cultural and historical context, as an added dimension and further contribution to understanding its meaning. The purpose of this chapter is partly to show that cutting and mutilating the body can be seen as a well-established part of our cultural heritage, alongside its more pathological and subjectively painful contemporary manifestation. The second purpose is to introduce speculation and discussion on another level of meaning which might illuminate selfharming behaviour. After all, it is striking that culturally sanctioned self-harming behaviours are viewed, and understood, as ways in which people have sought meaning, a sense of belonging, or as part of a purification and healing process, over many centuries. People have chosen to suffer in the belief that their behaviour might be beneficial to themselves and might also serve the society in which they live. Intriguingly such experiences are not defined as pathological, but rather accepted as part of the culture and of the social or historical framework.
