Just about a year ago, this page published “Is the Source of Addiction Self-Punishment?” by Steve O’Keefe, which referenced several sources whose collective answer to that question seems to be, “Quite possibly, yes.”

All addictions include an element of self-injury which might encompass anything from a slight but bearable loss of self-respect; to a nasal septum dissolved by snorting coke; to a body marred by scars from infected wounds caused by dirty needles. Not to mention the unintended overdose deaths.

“Self-punishment” covers a lot of territory, abounding with fuzzy and tentative definitions and imprecise motivations. People who engage in serious self-mutilation (like intentional cutting) report various reasons for it, like attempting to improve their mood, reduce tension, distract themselves from upsetting thoughts, and even to chastise themselves for behavior they believe (or are told) is wrong.

On the physical plane, one source names five major forms of self-injury, or self-directed violence. These are cutting, piercing, burning, hitting, and picking. Other experts expand the category to include scratching, pinching, burning, hair-pulling, ripping or carving skin, and interfering with healing (like the premature, forceful removal of scabs).

Some professional authorities in the field see a distinction between hitting oneself with a fist, or with an object held by the fist. To make matters more interesting, there is a whole separate realm of officially acceptable, self-inflicted physical damage that happens for spiritual reasons.

The bottom line here is, some of these self-harming reactions to life are reminiscent of displacement as practiced in the animal kingdom. Robert A. Pretlow, M.D., and Suzette Glasner, Ph.D. wrote “Reconceptualization of Eating Addiction and Obesity as Displacement Behavior and a Possible Treatment,” and a lot of it sounds familiar:

Resembling addiction, displacement behavior is irrepressible behavior that is contextually inappropriate, e.g., sleeping or feeding when threatened by a predator, or binge eating in response to a work altercation. It is thought to be due to re-channeling of overflow brain energy to another drive (e.g., feeding drive) when two drives, e.g., fight or flight, equally oppose each other.

For a wild creature to fall asleep when being actively threatened with injury or death, sounds pretty strange; but is it any more weird than when an allegedly sentient human being injects his veins with a narcotic and passes out in the city’s most dangerous neighborhood? An opossum does not have many options, but doesn’t it seem that a human could do better?

A 2006 study of nearly 3,000 college students found that a rather alarming 17% of them reported having purposely injured themselves to a degree that could be considered self-mutilation. Author Natasha Tracy also mentioned additional forms of self-aggression that usually fly under the radar:

Eating disorders and addiction behaviors are not typically considered methods of self-harm, but in some cases, they may be if the intent of their use is specifically to cause harm to the body.

Many professionals see the correlation between, specifically, substance abuse and self-injury. Others may consider eating a box of cookies to be as pathological as amputating a finger for no good reason. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it cannot be denied that our society has become very used to and quite comfortable with an extreme amount of self-damaging behavior on every side.

Here is another angle: Self-punishment is not necessarily active, but is just as apt to be passive. In realm of food-related disorders, anorexia might be seen as self-aggression, even though it does not involve an action, but rather a lack of activity: namely, neglecting to eat.

In brief, the study of self-punishment is a sprawling and relatively amorphous field, with plenty of space for innovative, ambitions work.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published August 29, 2025.

Sources:

“Reconceptualization of Eating Addiction and Obesity as Displacement Behavior and a Possible Treatment,” AddictionNews, August 20, 2024.

“10 Ways People Self-Harm, Self-Injure,” HealthyPlace.com, March 25, 2022.03

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