Surviving Self Harm

The last decade has witnessed a marked increase inthe incidence of self harm. Along with thisproliferation has come increased public and clinicalinterest in understanding and treating theseseemingly counterintuitive behaviors. This bookfocuses on the personal experiences of survivors inorder to gain insight into the experience oftransition towards, living with, and recovery fromself harm. The author utilized the Grounded Theorymethod to develop a theoretical model describing aprocess whereby: (a) exclusive and/or intrusiveexperiences play a central role in precipitatingpathogenesis of deliberate self-harm, (b) a sense ofloss of control results from theseexclusive/intrusive experiences, (c) self-harmingbehaviours occur in an attempt to manage this senseof loss of control, and (d) continuedexclusionary/intrusive experiences act to maintainself-harming behaviours. Recovery occurs in thecontext of an environmental shift, leading to theexperience of social inclusion, which facilitates asense of control.