''Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry'' is a book written by psychiatrist Dr.
Armando Favazza
Armando Favazza (born 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American author and psychiatrist best known for his studies of cultural psychiatry, deliberate self-harm, and religion. Favazza's '' Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and ...
, and published in 1987.
''Bodies Under Siege'' is a psychiatric book on self-harm. The second edition (1996) was subtitled ''Self-Mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry''.
Favazza's classification divides self-harm behaviors into two major categories, namely Culturally Sanctioned and Deviant. The subtypes of the former are practices and rituals. Practices often are faddish and include tattoos and body piercing. Ritual
body modification
Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance. In its broadest definition it includes skin tattooing, socially acceptable decoration (''e.g.'', common earring, ear piercing in ...
behaviors are traditional and reflect the history, spiritualism, and beliefs of a society. They are culturally and psychologically embedded in profound, elemental experiences especially connected to healing, spirituality, and social orderliness. Understanding body modification rituals sheds light on Deviant behaviors which, in Favazza's classification, include Major, Stereotypic, Compulsive, and Impulsive. Each subtype is usually associated with specific mental disorders. The Major type, for example, exemplified by self-castration or eye-enucleation, is usually associated with psychosis, transsexualism, and/or substance intoxication. The most common type is the Impulsive, as exemplified by skin-cutting and burning, and is associated with a broad variety of disorders including generalized anxiety,
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...
, and antisocial, histrionic, and
borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive, long-term pattern of significant interpersonal relationship instability, an acute fear of Abandonment (emotional), abandonment, and intense emotiona ...
.
One aspect of body modification discussed by Favazza is the concept of the "skin/self border". Favazza describes the skin as one of the most simple physiological organs of the human body; yet this relatively simple organ has a very complex impact on human psychology.
In the "skin/self border" school of thought, Favazza theorizes that the skin is the ultimate border between a person and the outside world and in modifying this border, a person exercises a level of control of or communication with the relationship his/her body has with the outside world.
See also
*''
A Bright Red Scream'' (1998), the first
general interest book on self-harm
References
1987 non-fiction books
Psychology books
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