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Why Do We Hurt Ourselves?

Understanding Self-Harm in Social Life
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Why does an estimated 5% of the general population intentionally and repeatedly hurt themselves? What are the reasons certain people resort to self-injury as a way to manage their daily lives? In Why Do We Hurt Ourselves, sociologist Baptiste Brossard draws on a five-year survey of self-injurers and suggests that the answers can be traced to social, more than personal, causes. Self-injury is not a matter of disturbed individuals resorting to hurting themselves in the face of individual weaknesses and difficulties. Rather, self-injury is the reaction of individuals to the tensions that compose, day after day, the tumultuousness of their social life and position. Self-harm is a practice that people use to self-control and maintain order-to calm down, or to avoid "going haywire" or "breaking everything." More broadly, through this research Brossard works to develop a perspective on the contemporary social world at large, exploring quests for self-control in modern Western societies.
Baptiste Brossard, a French sociologist, is Lecturer at the Australian National University.
Introduction Part One: A Practice of Self-Control Introduction 1. The First Time 2. Towards a Feeling of Dependence 3. Talking about Self-Injury? 4. Quitting 5. Self-Injury on a Regular Basis 6. On the Manners to Self-Injure Conclusion: Maintaining the Order Part Two: A Social Positioning Practice Introduction 7. The Staging of Discretion 8. At the Origin of "Relational Problems" 9. The Existential Crisis 10. What Gender Represents 11. What Some Events Imply Conclusion: A Relational Map of Self-Injury Conclusion: A Self-Controlled Youth Endnotes Index
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