My name is Mark Wigley, a first aid, ligature and self-harm trainer and Director of Meducate Training Ltd and owner of markwigley.online and I thought I would share with you a brief history of self-harm.
A lot of people think that self-harm is a product of the modern age however you might be surprised to learn that this phenomenon has a much longer and darker history then you might think.
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Self-Harm can be dated at least as far back the medieval times to the flagellant movement that gained notoriety at the time of Black Death. A form of religious expression flagellants would march through towns and cities in Europe, stopping at to whip and beat themselves in attempt to stave off plague afflicting the continent at the time.
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It was in the 19th Century when Asylums started popping up across England that self-harm was considered a medical/psychological problem. There are some horrific stories of patients plucking one of their own eyes out (a process known as enucleation). At the time this type of self-injurious behaviour was linked with some form of insanity or hysteria.
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Fast forward to the later part of the 20th century and self-harm started being associated with younger people (especially young women) and attention seeking behaviour, self-cutting and bloodletting which previously had not received much mention by professionals now became more prevalent. With the de-criminalisation of suicide, the matter of self-harm became a matter for psychiatric professionals rather than police so a person was more likely to get treatment rather than being ‘patched up’ and sent home.
With the proliferation of social media in the 21st Century the subject of self-harm has become super-sized with hundreds of sites, social media profiles and images on the internet promoting or speaking out against self-harm. Many argue that increased pressures on young people at school and work have also acted to accelerate cases of self-harm.
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Kind Regards
Mark Wigley
www.meducatetraining.co.uk
www.markwigley.online
www.mwonlinetraining.uk
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