Talk:Self-injury

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	Self-injury has been listed as one of the Natural sciences good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
Article milestones Date Process Result February 13, 2006 Peer review Reviewed June 3, 2006 Good article nominee Listed May 16, 2008 Good article reassessment Listed Current Status: Good article

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Until August 2007 September 2007 to May 2008

Contents 1 References removed 2 GA re-assessment 3 Citation 3 4 I would like to change/ add some information to the Definition of Self Injury

[edit] References removed

Removed some of the further reading as requested during the GA review process. Some of these were works of fiction or un-published university theses. However, I list below those published academic references since they may be useful in improving this article:

• Farber, S. (1997), “Self-medication, traumatic reenactment, and somatic expression in bulimic and self-mutilating behavior”, Journal of Clinical Social Work 25 (1): 87-106 
• Farber, S. (2003), “Ecstatic stigmatics and holy anorexics, medieval and contemporary”, Journal of Psychohistory 31 (2): 183-204 
• Favaro, A. & Santonastaso, P. (2000), “Self-injurious behavior in anorexia nervosa.”, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 188 (8): 537-542 
• Favazza, A.R. & Rosenthal, R. J. (1993), “Diagnostic issues in self-mutilation”, Hospital and Community Psychiatry 44: 134-140 
• Stanley, B. et al. (2001), “Are suicide attempters who self-mutilate a unique population?”, American Journal of Psychiatry 158 (3): 427-432 
• Suyemoto, K. L. & MacDonald, M. L. (1995), “Self-cutting in female adolescents”, Psychotherapy 32 (1): 162-171 
• Zila, L. M. & Kiselica, M. S. (2001), “Understanding and counseling self-mutilation in female adolescents and young adults.”, Journal of Counseling & Development 79: 46-52 

Jdrewitt (talk) 10:16, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA re-assessment

The article has be reassessed for GA status and I'm pleased to say it remains listed. The reassessment page can be found here: Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Self-injury/1. However, the article still needs improvement to ensure it doesn't get nominated for reassessment again. I have subsequently archived the talk page so we can start with a clean slate. Cheers, Jdrewitt (talk) 09:42, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Citation 3

The Citation attempts to claim self-injury as common in young people worldwide, yet the topic clearly pertains to children in Europe?. Anyone else find this odd? --Koryr (talk) 05:08, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

It depends what the article actually says, I cannot access the full text and so can't comment on its accuracy. However, it would be useful to cite more worldwide research. This article is perceived to have bias towards research conducted in Europe. The reason for this, however, is that much of the academic research into self-injury is by a small number of researchers in Britain, Ireland and maybe Australia. There is a clear lack of worldwide research, however, if you can find some and incorporate the work here, that would be great :) Jdrewitt (talk) 08:26, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] I would like to change/ add some information to the Definition of Self Injury

I would like to take out body piercing and tattooing from the definition of self-injury because those are forms of expression.

I also would like to add that many self-injurers don't take shame in their scars. They may show their cuts to people as a cry for help or for attention because they may not get the attention and love from their home (will change wording to be less offensive).. Also that some self-injurers take pride in their scars because it reminds them of the past and how far they have come or that they tell a story.

This is just a rough description of what I would like to add, please tell me what you think and if you would want me to add anymore.

--Alexshelley (talk) 03:05, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree about body mods, I've removed "as well as tattooing or body piercing that goes beyond the limits of culturally accepted body modification". I agree that not all self-harmers are ashamed of their scars - we must be careful with the wording, as it's in the context of attention seeking, and we don't want to imply that those who aren't ashamed are attention seeking (it's possible to not be attention seeking, without also having to be ashamed of them). Also it's not synonymous with concealing behaviour (it's possible that a self-harmer might conceal their behaviour from others, but this doesn't mean they are ashamed of their scars). Perhaps we should just drop the bit about being self-conscious (it doesn't have a source, so we don't know how many self-harmers do feel this), and leave it with the bit about concealing behaviour?

If you want to add that self-harmers show their cuts to get attention, I think that needs a source. Mdwh (talk) 09:21, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, by all means if you can improve the article then feel free and be bold, however, I concur that any information that you add should be cited. I do feel that some people do feel ashamed / self-concious of their inhuries and scars. The point that Mdwh makes is valid, that self-harmers may conceal their behaviour for other reasons but if the self-harmer conceals their behaviour from others so as not to draw attention to themself, then is not the same thing as being self-concious about their behaviour? Jdrewitt (talk) 10:29, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I have also added a source about being self-concious. The actual source states that many people feel guilty about their behaviour and so conceal their injuries, this is I feel, the same as being self-concious. Jdrewitt (talk) 10:48, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I mean that someone might conceal their scars because they don't want negative comments or people forming prejudice opinions about them (especially in a particular situation, e.g., at work), but this is not out of any shame they feel about what they do, or the scars. (Perhaps an analogy might be gay people who sometimes conceal their status - whether that's not coming out, or not doing public displays of affection with their partner - because of the prejudice they face, and not out of being ashamed of their sexuality.) Mdwh (talk) 21:15, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I see, and its a good point you make. I think it's a bit of both and could be made clearer in the text. Thanks, Jdrewitt (talk) 06:02, 12 June 2008 (UTC)