69

Because of the frequency and their contagiousness, self-inflicted wounds in adolescence have moved to the forefront, in both psychopathologic and social thinking. For some, the very frequency of this phenomenon makes it commonplace, and its function would seem essentially adaptive. For others, self-inflicted wounds are a kind of suicidal practice that doesn’t speak its name. Between these two extremes lie a multitude of possible significations and therapeutic responses. A survey of scientific literature on the psychopathological understanding of self-inflicted wounds in adolescence, this article raises some questions and shatters some certainties.