{"id":948590,"date":"2026-10-27T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/948590\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:26:10","slug":"why-do-people-self-harm-research-points-to-mind-body-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/948590\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do People Self-Harm? Research Points to Mind-Body Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Finnish lore, the goddess Kivutar stashes away pain in a mountain for safekeeping. And yet she\u2019s also a healer, channeling it into rocks or boiling it down into a less potent form in a huge vat.<\/p>\n

The complexity of pain \u2014 as well as the idea of changing one type into another \u2014 isn\u2019t just the stuff of myths. Non-suicidal self-injury<\/a> (NSSI) is a mental health condition that involves intentionally hurting the body to temporarily ease psychological distress. It affects as many as one in 5 adolescents worldwide, according to Northeastern psychology professor Iris Berent<\/a> and her colleagues. But adults aren\u2019t immune, either.<\/p>\n

The whole thing is puzzling, Berent told Northeastern Global News.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow come the infliction of pain on the body alleviates psychological pain?\u201d she asked. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t compute.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an Oct. 22 Scientific Reports paper<\/a>, Berent and colleagues Chelsea Boccagno and Jill Hooley propose some answers. They show an association between NSSI and the way people intuitively perceive the relationship between their mind and body.<\/p>\n

Most people lean toward dualism, a psychological bias that makes them see their mind as separate from their body \u2014 despite the fact that science says otherwise. In contrast, physicalism is a view that assumes both are made of the same stuff and lines up better with the scientific perspective.<\/p>\n

\"NortheasternNortheastern psychology professor Iris Berent explores how deeply rooted intuitions may shape people\u2019s ability to recognize and explain what they feel. Photo by Matthew Modoono\/Northeastern University<\/p>\n

Berent\u2019s survey found that people with histories of more frequent self-injury leaned toward physicalism. While it can\u2019t prove that this belief causes NSSI or provide specific recommendations, the study gives clinicians a valuable window into the mind of someone who self-injures. Experts noted this could help specialists build rapport and trust, making it easier to identify triggers and reframe urges before they lead to harmful behaviors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After all, NSSI can be a lonely battle.<\/p>\n

Most people learn to avoid pain. Tear open a bag of microwaved popcorn instead of heeding the warning about scalding steam and \u2014 ouch! \u2014 the lesson sticks. That\u2019s an ancient evolutionary safeguard at work.<\/p>\n

But for those engaging in NSSI, it\u2019s not that simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cNon\u2013suicidal self-injury is an attempt to manage emotions that feel unbearable, overwhelming, or impossible to communicate,\u201d Shelli Qualtieri, founder of a therapy practice<\/a> in Calgary, Canada, that specializes in counseling people struggling with self-injury, told Northeastern Global News.<\/p>\n

Research points to shared brain circuitry between physical and psychological pain as a possible cause. Could the sting of the injury temporarily overwrite the emotional suffering underneath?<\/p>\n

On one hand, it makes sense. Signals from the mind and body can be ambiguous, and getting physical and emotional wires crossed is familiar territory for many people. Ever felt \u201changry\u201d \u2014 a popular term for that extra \u201carrgh\u201d that melts away with a slice of pizza?<\/p>\n

The thing is, intuitive dualism keeps most people from interpreting physical and emotional pain as interchangeable. That\u2019s what makes it adaptive, Berent explained. This intuition allows you to take stock of what you\u2019re feeling and resolve the confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou stop to ask yourself, \u2018Is this my mind or body?\u2019\u201d Berent said, adding that you then \u201cstand a better chance of detecting whether what you feel is psychological or physical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine you spot an engagement announcement from that ex who didn\u2019t believe in marriage \u2014 while wearing new shoes that are shredding the skin off your heel. The double whammy might add up to a supremely bad day, but you probably won\u2019t confuse the two sources of distress.<\/p>\n

If you have a natural bent toward physicalism, however, these boundaries get blurred, Berent and her colleagues propose. Emotional pain in particular becomes hard to define, leaving you with the \u201cugh, something\u2019s amiss but I don\u2019t know what\u201d sensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That unease opens the door to self-harm as a way to feel something concrete and give the experience a name, Berent explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot knowing what happens to us is probably worse than even feeling pain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The confusion doesn\u2019t just apply to psychological pain, either. People who self-injure tend to have trouble teasing other feelings apart from bodily signals, too. Seeing the mind and body as part and parcel of the same perceptual stew could explain why the border gets murky, leading to distress.<\/p>\n

To put all these theories to the test, Berent and her colleagues recruited participants with and without a history of self-injury. They then used some futuristic thought experiments to see where everyone landed on the dualism scale.<\/p>\n

Say there was a way to make an exact replica of your body and brain, they proposed. What traits would it have?<\/p>\n

A card-carrying dualist wouldn\u2019t expect a replica to share their love for their dog, fondness for game shows or fear of spiders \u2014 all features of the ethereal mind. Physicalists, on the other hand, would imagine the entire bundle of characteristics getting forwarded along.<\/p>\n

To make sure the physicalists weren\u2019t just saying \u201cyes\u201d to everything on autopilot, Berent and her colleagues added another scenario.<\/p>\n

Consider the afterlife, they asked. With all physical trappings out of the picture, which traits would be retained?<\/p>\n

A true physicalist would answer \u201cnone,\u201d whereas a dualist would implicitly contrast the two types of characteristics, saying those belonging to the psychic realm would persist into the great beyond.<\/p>\n

Participants who reported recent self-injury tended to give the physicalist answers to both questions.<\/p>\n

The team also found that the more physicalist someone who engaged in self-injury happened to be, the harder it was for them to explain what drove them to the behavior. The finding supports the idea that a struggle with naming and processing emotions in general sets the stage for NSSI, with challenges in identifying psychological pain as just one particular sticking point.<\/p>\n

Northeastern Global News,
in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Sign up for NGN\u2019s daily newsletter for news, discovery and analysis from around the world.<\/p>\n

The connection offers a new lead in understanding why people self-harm.<\/p>\n

Comprehending the possible mechanism behind the patient\u2019s struggle could allow clinicians to help patients separate bodily signals from emotions and label what they\u2019re feeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research reinforces the importance of treating the whole person rather than focusing on a single behaviour,\u201d Qualtieri said.<\/p>\n

Katya Poltorak is a science reporter at Northeastern Global News. Email her at e.poltorak@northeastern.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Finnish lore, the goddess Kivutar stashes away pain in a mountain for safekeeping. And yet she\u2019s also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84,324662,393,135366,318235,324663,8680],"class_list":["post-948590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-iris-berent","tag-mental-health","tag-mind-body-connection","tag-nu-research","tag-psychological-health","tag-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}