"Why don't you do it properly?" Young women who self-injure

Analysis of interviews with four self-injuring young women suggests that the meaning of self-injury is not the same as the meaning of attempted suicide, and that the two acts are related in the sense that self-injury is an adaptive alternative to suicide. The function of self-injury as a communicative act and the extent to which self-injurers can control their actions are also discussed. It is suggested that, within the context of self-injury as survival, issues of communication and control do not have the significance that they are frequently supposed to have. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.