Abstract

Non-suicidal self-injury (scratching, cutting and burning on body tissue) has become a major problem among adolescents. Psychiatric and social science research has rarely examined non-suicidal self-injury beyond the clinical setting. More specifically, little attention has been paid to the lives of homeless youth, a group particularly at high risk of self-harm. This article aims to describe the meaning of self-injury in everyday life on the street, and its uses in the context of a life exposed to violence. Using the case study of Violeta, a 17-year-old girl who lives between the street and youth shelters in Santiago, Chile, this article shows how cutting emerges as a paradoxical practice of (self)care that is part of the subjective work of reconstructing a broken life. This paper develops a sociological reflection on self-injury demonstrating how individuals sometimes mobilize so-called “pathological” strategies to cope with the structural fragility of the (psychological and social) experience on the street and to maintain the stability of ordinary life.