著者

天野 武

出版者

社会学研究会

雑誌

ソシオロジ (ISSN:05841380)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.50, no.2, pp.87-192, 2005-10-31 (Released:2016-03-23)

参考文献数

29

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This article aims at examining the meaning of wrist-cutting as a ritualistic practice in contemporary society in which norms for the respect of the dignity of the person (un culte pour la dignite de la personne) are becoming more strict. Wrist-cutting, an example of self-injurious behavior, is the deliberate cutting of one's wrist without the intent to commit suicide. It is important that wrist-cutting is not a means to commit suicide but a means to live, in other words a means not to be through with others but to maintain a relationship with others. In spite of the sociality of wrist-cutting, it has not been sufficiently addressed in Sociology. When Sociologists have considered wrist-cutting, they have been concerned with it as a mechanism of "self-identification" and/or "self-presentation," which are problems of self-identity. In contrast, this article offers two alternative mechanisms, based upon the "personalization of the wrist." In these mechanisms, wrist-cutters regard their wrist as themselves or others and cut their own wrist with the aim of punishing themselves or others. In such punishment-oriented wrist-cutting, the relationship of "hurt/being hurt" between the self and the other is of the greatest importance. In this article, making use of data collected in interviews, "the mechanisms of the personalization of the wrist" are classified into the "self-punishment type" (when the wrist is regarded as the self) and the "other-punishment type" (when the wrist is regarded as the other), and these two types are examined from the perspective of interaction ritual. From this perspective, the meaning of "self-punishment" is interpreted as a means of punishing the cutter who has hurt others and is answering for his/her failure, while the meaning of "other-punishment" is interpreted as a means of sublimating anger for others who have hurt the cutters and as a means of controlling one's emotions.