SUICIDAL TENDENCIES AND SELF-MUTILATION - OVERLAPS AND DIFFERENCES

Self mutilation and suicide mean both an aggressive assault on the sel f, but each directed against a different self: In the case of suicidal ity it is merged with the malignant or bad object (object representati on). The aggression is aimed at an insufficient object which is locate d in the self. The dynamics of self-mutilation is based on a dissociat ion of the self rather than on mechanisms of introjection and symbioti c merging. In this dissociation parts of the self, especially the body -self, are separated and experienced and manipulated as an external ob ject. Because the aggression is directed against a dissociated part of the self, the self as a whole can be preserved. While self mutilating patients are retreating themselves autistically together with their b ody-self, suicidal patients are much more attached to the object, iden tified with the introject respectively fixated upon his projective sub stitute, the external object.