Cutting the silence: initial, impulsive self-cutting in adolescence

The paper explores initial, impulsive self-cutting in adolescence and conceives of early cutting as having the most potential for a communicative function, as the adolescents themselves and those around them may be most shocked at their self-harm. The author also conceives of the symptom of early, initial cutting as an effort to ‘cut through’ an emotional and familial circumstance that has been silent, suggesting that cutting generally implies a failure in containment and symbolisation. Using Green’s (1975) discussion of the original word symbol as ‘an object cut in two, constituting a sign of recognition when those who carry it can assemble the two pieces’ (Dictionnaires Le Robert), the author demonstrates that cutting has the potential to elicit intense feelings in the analyst who can have (in Green’s terms) a homologous experience to that of the patient. This elaboration within the analyst’s feelings returns a part to the patient. The meeting of the two communications (the patient’s cutting and the elaboration in the analyst’s mind) can create a potential space between them. The paper uses clinical vignettes and extended clinical material from a 16-year-old girl to elucidate the relationship between cutting – an emotionally inarticulate state – and the development of communication, containment and symbolisation through homologous experiences in the analyst.