Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T03:15:36.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Voice on the Skin: Self-Mutilation and Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Janice McLane
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Self-mutilation is generally seen only as a negative response to trauma. But when trauma cannot be expressed, other forms of communication become necessary. As gestural communication, self-mutilation can reorganize and stabilize the trauma victim's world, providing a “voice on the skin” when the actual voice is forbidden. This is a plausible extension of Merleau-Ponty's gestural theory of language, and an interesting comment on his notion of “reversibility” as essential to linguistic communication.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 11 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Women and Violence , Fall 1996 , pp. 107 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carol, A. 1993. Babydolls don't bleed. The Cutting Edge: A Newsletter for Women Living with Self-inflicted Violence 4 (1Women and Violence): 3–4.Google Scholar
Carmen, Elaine H., Reiker, Patricia P., and Mills, Trudy. 1984. Victims of violence and psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry 141 (3): 378–85.Google ScholarPubMed
Courtois, Christine. 1996. Healing the incest wound: Adult survivors in therapy. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Davies, Jody Messier and Frawley, Mary Gail. 1994. Treating the adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse: A psychoanalytic perspective. New York: BasicBooks/HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1966. Introductory lectures on psycho‐analysis. Trans. Strachey, James. New York: Liveright/W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Herman, Judith Lewis. 1992. Trauma and recovery. New York: BasicBooks/HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Kim, . 1993. Untitled. The Cutting Edge: A Newsletter for Women Living with Self-inflicted Violence 4 (3): 3–4.Google Scholar
Leder, Drew. 1990. The absent body. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mazelis, Ruta. 1995. Untitled. The Cutting Edge: A Newsletter for Women Living with Self-inflicted Violence 6 (2): 1.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1962. The phenomenology of perception. Trans. Smith, Colin. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1968. The visible and the invisible. Trans. Lingis, Alphonso. Evanston IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1973. The indirect language. In The prose of the world, trans. O'Neill, John. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Scarry, Elaine. 1985. The body in pain: The making and unmaking of the world. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sharpe, Amy. 1993. Untitled. The Cutting Edge: A Newsletter for. Women Living with Self-inflicted Violence 4 (2): 4.Google Scholar
Umans, Meg. 1992. Untitled. The Cutting Edge: A Newsletter for Women Living with Self-inflicted Violence 3 (3): 7.Google Scholar
van der Kolk, B. A., Perry, J. C., and Herman, J. L. 1991. Childhood origins of self‐destructive behavior. American Journal of Psychiatry 148 (12): 1665–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Waits, Tom. 1993. “Lucky Day (Overture)” and “The Black Rider.”The Black Rider, Island Records.Google Scholar
Walsh, Barent W., and Rosen, Paul M. 1988. Self‐mutilation: Theory, research, and treatment. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar