Through a fragment of a clinical case, we discuss self-injury (cutting) using psychoanalytic literature, which points towards a decrease of internal tension, since this behavior embodies and authenticates an inner pain, previously not symbolized. Based on Roussillon, Winnicott, Ferenczi, and Berlinck, we examine the role of psychoanalysts, stressing that these acts only become a form of communication if the environment receives and recognizes them as such, offering them substance in its response.
Self-injury; anguish; symbolization; role of the analyst