To punish themselves. Although many people may use self-harm as a way of coping with emotions, it is unclear why some people use self-harm rather than some other coping strategy. One explanation might be that people who self-harm may feel particularly negatively towards themselves (Klonsky, 2008). Linehan (1993) thought that people who self-harm may have been exposed to invalidation (often involving dismissive responses, or minimization of distress) of their emotional experiences and may learn to dismiss their own emotions or feel shame or anger toward themselves. In a study of women with BPD, nearly two-thirds of the participants endorsed self-punishment as a reason for harming themselves (Brown et al., 2002). In another study, nearly three-fourths of adolescents who self-harmed selected self-punishment-like reasons, including “I did not like myself,” or “I was angry at myself” (Laye-Gindhu & Schonert-Reichl, 2005). Overall, however, self-punishment is more likely to be a secondary reason for engaging in self-harm.
Tags: self-harm, self-punishment
