Deliberate self-harm Introduction

In this chapter I discuss two central models for understanding deliberate self-harm, the psychodynamic and the psychiatric, and consider treatment approaches from the perspectives of psychodynamic psychotherapy, feminist theory and dialectical behavioural therapy. I provide a critique of the psychiatric model of self-harm that stresses its link with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In my extended case illustration I explore the various functions that deliberate self-harm can serve.