Amy Chandler, Caroline King, Chris Burton, Steve Platt
{"title":"The social life of self-harm in general practice.","authors":"Amy Chandler, Caroline King, Chris Burton, Steve Platt","doi":"10.1057/s41285-020-00139-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research engaging qualitatively with clinical practitioners' understanding of, and response to, self-harm has been limited. Self-harm offers a particularly compelling case through which to examine the enduring challenges faced by practitioners in treating patients whose presenting symptoms are not clearly biomedical in nature. In this paper, we present an analysis of 30 General Practitioners' (GPs') accounts of treating patients who had self-harmed. Our analysis demonstrates the complex ways in which GPs seek to make sense of self-harm. Illustrated through three common 'types' of patients (the 'good girl', the 'problem patient' and the 'out of the blue'), we show how GPs grapple with ideas of 'social' and 'psychological' causes of self-harm. We argue that these tensions emerge in different ways according to the social identities of patients, with accounts shaped by local contexts, including access to specialist services, as well as by cultural understandings regarding the legitimacy of self-harming behaviour. We suggest that studying the social life of self-harm in general practice extends a sociological analysis of self-harm more widely, as well as contributing to sociological theorisation on the doctor-patient relationship.</p>","PeriodicalId":46551,"journal":{"name":"Social Theory & Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1057/s41285-020-00139-9","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Theory & Health","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-020-00139-9","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2020/5/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, BIOMEDICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Research engaging qualitatively with clinical practitioners' understanding of, and response to, self-harm has been limited. Self-harm offers a particularly compelling case through which to examine the enduring challenges faced by practitioners in treating patients whose presenting symptoms are not clearly biomedical in nature. In this paper, we present an analysis of 30 General Practitioners' (GPs') accounts of treating patients who had self-harmed. Our analysis demonstrates the complex ways in which GPs seek to make sense of self-harm. Illustrated through three common 'types' of patients (the 'good girl', the 'problem patient' and the 'out of the blue'), we show how GPs grapple with ideas of 'social' and 'psychological' causes of self-harm. We argue that these tensions emerge in different ways according to the social identities of patients, with accounts shaped by local contexts, including access to specialist services, as well as by cultural understandings regarding the legitimacy of self-harming behaviour. We suggest that studying the social life of self-harm in general practice extends a sociological analysis of self-harm more widely, as well as contributing to sociological theorisation on the doctor-patient relationship.
期刊介绍:
Social Theory & Health provides an international scholarly forum for theoretical reflection and debate on contemporary health issues, many of which bear directly on the planning and delivery of services. The journal aims to consolidate, refine and extend theoretically informed work on the role of health in modern societies. Interest in issues of theory and health now informs many academic and practice-oriented disciplines and crosses discipline boundaries. The Editors encourage contributions from all relevant disciplines, as well as from those involved directly in front-line treatment and care. Contributions from the developing world are particularly welcome. The journal aims to include contributions from all theoretical perspectives.