Nonsuicidal Self-injury and Rite of Passage

Abstract

The present article proposes a reflection on the relationships between the practice of nonsuicidal self-injury and rites of passage, analyzing how cuts on the skin manifest as unconscious attempts at self-initiation. Starting from the transitional period into adulthood — a liminal phase in which the ego seeks, in a heroic manner, to separate itself from the childhood world and from the forces of the unconscious — it is observed that, in the absence of social rites, these gestures emerge as failed attempts: they seek to reproduce the structure of rites of passage (separation, liminality, and incorporation), but degenerate into sterile compulsion. The scars become marks of an unfinished process, in which psychic transformation is not completed. By desacralizing life and artificially prolonging childhood, contemporary society intensifies this suffering. The article concludes by highlighting the need for clinical approaches that recognize in NSSI not only pathology, but also a frustrated attempt at ritualization, pointing to the urgency of new collective symbolic frameworks.