Mmm.
(At the risk of being oh-so-Barbelith), it might be helpful to clarify exactly what's meant by 'self-destructive' here: contributors seem to be using the term as something of a catch-all - encompassing everything from overdosing to heavy drinking. I'm also a little confused as to whether we're divorcing intent from outcome: does a 'self-destructive' act have to be wilfully, intentionally meant as such, or is it considered such because others perceive it to be so?
Scratching, to take a semi-flippant example. Scratching an itch is pleasurable, yes? Birds do it, bees do it (fleas, educated or otherwise, cause it). People scratch themselves for reasons of satisfaction, sexual arousal, anxiety reduction or self-hatred. When does scratching become 'self-destructive'? When carried out for the latter motivation? When it breaks the skin? When an implement is involved? What about cutting one's skin for the same reasons?
Point being, definitions of what is and isn't self-destructive are at least partly subjective; any SMer will admit that masochism's a damned convoluted (and self-destructive?) business. Particularly so when we're extending definitions to cover apparently self-destructive lifestyles...
Touching on Moominstoat's specific point about self-harming (by which I'm assuming he meant discrete behavioural episodes such as cutting, burning, etc.), it is more often than not an evolved mechanism for coping with stress ie. depending on the possible consequences of not self-harming, could be construed as adaptive. Also, while it's an overstatement to say self-harming is 'invariably' associated with childhood abuse, there's a strong correlation (talking more about self-harm as a longstanding behavioural trait rather than as an isolated episode). Need to look it up, but around 80-90%, I think.
The supposed link with creativity has become a cliche - all those suffering artists starving in garrets, dissolving neurons in absinthe or lopping ears off - but there is a postulated link. Bipolar affective disorder (manic-depressive psychosis) has a historical association with spontaneous creativity as well as bizarre, out-of-control behaviour which could well be characterised as 'self-destructive'. In contrast to many other psychiatric diagnoses ('schizophrenia', for example) it's actually become a moderately modish label in which to invest one's identity - so the term 'manic-depressive' has been eroded and slightly devalued over time. |
