Wounds in the virtual: from the presentation to the representation of Non suicidal Self Injury

Abstract

The non-suicidal self-injury behaviours now appear even more visible thanks to the explosion reached into the web. A growing number of studies is questioning the possible factors of risk and protection related to the exposure and to the participation in these virtual communities. The work proposes a reading of blogs written in the first person by authors who claim to be self-injurers through an interpretation of the cultural dimensions that unfold in the virtual environment. 34 Italian blog dedicated to non suicidal self-injury were analysed by the T-Lab software (Lancia, 2004; 2008). Four thematic clusters emerged, which organized three vectors of meaning on the factorial map (the pain as an element of aggregation, the other’s empty, the dynamic of unveiling/masking the limit). Even if the bodies are deconstructed, the identities disembodied and the relationships transformed, the self-injury websites strongly maintain the gender issue anchored to the female pain, told by feminine body and language. It will discuss how some functions of self-destructive conduct are reproduced, with variations, in blogs.