"Jag vill att du tittar jag vill att du ser att jag aldrig mer ler" : En uppsats om självskadebeteende

The purpose of this thesis has been to investigaste the phenomenon of self-harm. To investigate this phenomenon, I interviewed three experts in Malmö and then compared the result with previous research on self-harm behaviour. The questions I wanted to answer were the following: How common is self-harm behaviour and how does it, according to experts, manifest itself among young men in Malmö? What can we learn from previous research about the causes of self-harm? Are there any correlations between the statements made by experts and previous research? My conclusion is that self-harm behaviour first and foremost is a mean of expression, a way of dealing with feelings that the self- harmer cannot deal with in any other way. People who suffer from self-harm behaviour often seem to have difficulties both in expressing and understanding their own feelings. Furthermore, they have often experienced abuse, abandonment, or other childhood traumas. The causes and purposes are reaccuring themes both in earlier research and in my own empirical material. According to both earlier area research and my own findings, self-harm behaviour seems to be more common among women then among men. However, there are a great number of unrecorded cases, and thus more difficult to present any exact numbers. Also, there is a lot of incoherent information; the numbers differ from survery to survey, and among researchers, opinions vary