The Aesthetics of Self-Harm : The Visual Rhetoric of Online Self-Harm Communities

The Aesthetics of Self-Harm presents a new approach to understanding parasuicidal behaviour, based upon an examination of online communities that promote performances of self-harm in the pursuit of an idealised beauty. The book considers how online communities provide a significant level of support for self-harmers and focuses on relevant case studies to establish a new model for the comprehension of the online supportive community. To do so, Alderton explores discussions of self-harm and disordered eating on social networks. She examines aesthetic trends that contextualise harmful behavior and help people to perform feelings of sadness and vulnerability online. Alderton argues that the traditional understanding of self-violence through medical discourse is important, but that it misses vital elements of human group activity and the motivating forces of visual imagery. Covering psychiatry and psychology, rhetoric and sociology, this book provides essential reading for psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists exploring group dynamics and ritual, and rhetoricians who are concerned with the communicative powers of images. It should also be of great interest to medical professionals dealing with self-harming patients. "There has been a great deal of research concerning self-harm behaviour, especially in youths, but there have been no substantial sociological investigations of the manner in which community formation and identity may encourage this behaviour. The Aesthetics of Self Harm is a new approach to understanding parasuicidal behaviour, based upon an examination of online communities that promote performances of self-harm in the pursuit of an idealised beauty. The Aesthetics of Self Harm clams that online communities provide a significant level of support for self-harmers and focuses on relevant case studies to establish a new model for the comprehension of the online supportive community. Touching upon some of the legacies of the rise of the individual in the modern West that have moved toward seeing self-harm as a pathological activity, rather than a part of communal and liminal ritual processes, The Aesthetics of Self-Harm will feed into a wider reading of self-violence that has long been a part of a ritualised and non-modern world. Traditionally, self-harm has been understood through a medical discourse, with treatment and management skills discussed from a psychological stance. Alderton-Flett argues that this approach is important, but that it misses vital elements of human group activity and the motivating forces of visual imagery. The Aesthetics of Self Harm covers psychiatry and psychology, rhetoric, and sociology and is essential reading for psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists exploring group dynamics and ritual, and rhetoricians who are concerned with the communicative powers of images. It should also be of great interest to medical professionals dealing with self-harming patients."--Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of plates 9 Preface 10 Acknowledgements 20 Introduction 21 1 Self-harm on social networks: understanding online eating disorder and self-harm communities 26 2 The aesthetics of self-harm: visual rhetoric as a key to understanding online activities 86 3 Sad Girls: the internet and the performance of mood 130 4 Suggestions for clinical practitioners: developing tools for managing visually oriented self-harmers 151 5 Healing through aesthetics: how images can guide behaviour and health 198 Index 220