Abstract

AMARAL, Rebeca Espinosa Cruz  and  COUTINHO, Luciana Gageiro. Self-injury in Adolescence: From Helplessness to the Construction of a Demand. Rev. Subj. [online]. 2022, vol.22, n.2, e11820.  Epub Dec 05, 2025. ISSN 2359-0769.  https://doi.org/10.5020/23590777.rs.v22i2.e11820.

This work was built from the study of a case during the Specialization in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis with children and adolescents at the Institute of Psychiatry of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It is a case of a 13-year-old girl who self-injured herself through cuts on her body. This practice, which consists of self-inflicting wounds or other types of scarification to the body, has been growing nowadays, especially among adolescents. We aim here, from the studied case, to bring theoretical contributions regarding these issues through a bibliographic review of authors who work with self-harm in adolescence, thought of as a resource in the face of the anguish and helplessness of the adolescent. In this case, the patient's cuts are related to unsatisfied demands directed to her mother mainly, which throughout the consultations, unfolded as an appeal to the Other for looking and listening. We hypothesized that the analytical process enabled the patient to move from an alienating demand to the Other through cuts to a demand in her name elaborated by her through the word, where a mark of desire subjectively implies it is imposed.

Keywords : self-injury; adolescence; demand; desire; helplessness.

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