No: 25 / THE TESTING OF THE SKIN-EGO IN TEENAGER SELF-HARM: CLARIFICATION OF THE PROJECTIVE ELEMENTS IMPLIED

  • THE TESTING OF THE SKIN-EGO IN TEENAGER SELF-HARM: CLARIFICATION OF THE PROJECTIVE ELEMENTS IMPLIED

    Catherine Matha
    Translated by: Gülce Fıkırkoca
    Summary :

    We all know that an increasing number of adolescents self-harm, as in scarring. Withstanding the fact that adolescence is known for the strength of its co-called "testing the limits/frontier-testing" behaviours, the issue raised here is of the specific nature of the relationship maintained between such behaviour and the adolescence process. Sey-harm is explicitly favoured there. Through the image of a lacerated body, resorting to scarring raises the following issues: of the differentiation between internal/external space (frontier); of the modalities of exchange that take place through the medium of the body and related to the barrier-excitment process; of the bearing made possible thanks to the limit and to the possible printing-representing option found on the body surface. Modalities described by D. Anzieu as set onto the skin-ego. Based on clinical projective results of adolescents who self-harm, we shall try to draw out the characteristics of this investment of the body surface, both in the weaknesses and in the elaborative resources it reveals.

    Keywords : Adolescence, Skin-Ego, Rorschach