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Self-mutilations are acts that seek to attack one's own skin, and they usually generate very ambivalent feelings in the people around the patient, including the care team. Based on a clinical listening, the aim of this work is to highlight the paradoxical dimension present in the symptom of self-mutilation: while presenting an extremely destructive dimension, evoking reactions of horror and incomprehension, self-mutilations can also be understood as acts in the service of life. In this article, we intend to propose a reflection on self-mutilations as a type of radical survival mechanism, which operates as an attempt of singularization, of appropriation of oneself.