Self-mutilation: culture, contexts and nursing responses

Abstract

Few papers address the issue of deliberate self-mutilation other than from clinical perspectives.• This paper advocates a user-perspective and discusses some of the issues which might attend such a change.• The occurrence of self-mutilation is placed within a cultural framework so as to enlarge the debate beyond the confines of medical/nursing responses.• It is suggested that nurses abrogate their attachment to such responses and embrace more collaborative approaches to care.• In particular, nurses are asked to review their (moral) responses to self-mutilation, an activity which, too often, has been responded to with scorn and derision.