Dissociative Women’s Experiences of Self-Cutting

Abstract

The author provides a rare look into the realm of dissociative experience through the use of the phenomenological method of research to answer clinical questions and provide insight into the forces operating within self-cutting behaviors in 11 females between 29 and 44 yrs. Designed to reveal the essence of nonsuicidal self-cutting behavior among persons with dissociative (multiple personality) disorder, her results indicate the complexity of the experience, including the unexpected dimension of ritual abuse. These findings not only deepen our personal understanding of this experience, but also serve to increase the sensitivity of professional psychotherapists who work with dissociative disorder clients. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)