In self-cutting there is an incision that bleeds and leaves a more or less visible and permanent scar, which is invested with a combination of shame, aesthetic experience and intense power. The author will show how scars are invested in the context of what we call boundary issues and boundary work. This may be trophic, sustaining a transformative process in adolescents, especially through the scar; or it may be detrimental, when there is a sterile repetition of the act of self-cutting.

Adolescence, 2020, 38, 1, 11-23.