The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health25 Dec 2025

What Role Does Blood Play in Self-Injury?, with Dr. Christian Schmahl

In this episode, Dr. Christian Schmahl from Heidelberg University and Mannheim, Germany, answers a listener's question and talks about his experimental research assessing how seeing blood affects heart rate and arousal among both those who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and those who don't. He also shares insights into the role of self and blood in ritual and nonritual self-injury, including examples from different cultures about how they may interpret blood differently in the context of self-harm and even trance-like states.

To learn more about Dr. Schmahl and his work, visit here. To stay up-to-date on next year's ISSS conference in Stockholm, Sweden (Wed-Fri June 24-26, 2026), visit https://www.itriples.org/conferences. Below are a few papers referenced in today's episode:

Glenn, C. R., & Klonsky, E. D. (2010). The role of seeing blood in non-suicidal self-injury. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66(4), 466-473.
Naoum, J., Reitz, S., Krause-Utz, A., Kleindienst, N., Willis, F., Kuniss, S., Baumgartner, Ulf, Mancke, F., Treede, R.-D., & Schmahl, C. (2016). The role of seeing blood in non-suicidal self-injury in female patients with borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research, 246, 676-682.
Stacy, S. E., Pepper, C. M., Clapp, J. D., & Reyna, A. H. (2022). The effects of blood in self-injurious cutting: Positive and negative affect regulation. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 78(5), 926-937.
Hornbacher, A., Sax, W., Naoum, J., & Schmahl, C. (2023). The role of self and blood in ritual and nonritual self-injury. In E.E. Lloyd-Richardson, I. Baetens, & J. Whitlock (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of nonsuicidal self-injury (pp. 468-480). Oxford University Press.

Follow Dr. Westers on Instagram and Twitter/X (@DocWesters). To join ISSS, visit itriples.org and follow ISSS on Facebook and Twitter/X (@ITripleS).

The Psychology of Self-Injury podcast has been rated as one of the "10 Best Self Harm Podcasts" and "20 Best Clinical Psychology Podcasts" by Feedspot and one of the Top 100 Psychology Podcasts by Goodpods. It has also been featured in Audible's "Best Mental Health Podcasts to Defy Stigma and Begin to Heal."

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(77)

Can Imagery Help Reduce Self-Harm?, with Dr. Nicholas Westers

Mental imagery refers to sensory processing in the absence of sensory stimuli, and this can be through our visual senses or our senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Below are links to some of t...

21 Sep 1h

Lived Experience: Brittany's Story of Self-Injury & Faith (Re-Release)

In this episode, Brittany details her experience of engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), how it started, and how she makes sense of self-injury and her faith in God. She explains two starkly di...

28 Aug 1h 6min

The Psychology of Self-Injury Pain (Re-Release)

What is the relationship between nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and pain? Are individuals who self-injure less sensitive to pain than those who don’t self-injure? What are the ethics involved in condu...

31 Juli 1h 5min

The Neurobiology of Self-Injury (in Layman's Terms) [Re-Release]

What goes on at the neurobiological level that makes someone more vulnerable to self-injure or self-harm? What biological risk factors are at play? What roles do the vagus nerve, cortisol levels, and ...

26 Juni 50min

The Psychology of Self-Injury Scarring (Re-Release)

How are scars from nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) different than physical scars that are unintentional or result from non-self-inflicted wounds ? What psychological effects can result from daily remin...

29 Maj 43min

Eating Disorders & Self-Harm (Re-Release)

The term "self-harm" is an umbrella term, encompassing a broad range of behaviors, under which is included substance abuse and misuse, suicide, nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and even eating disorder...

28 Apr 38min

Emotion Regulation Individual Therapy for Adolescents (ERITA) Who Self-Harm (Re-Release)

Emotion Regulation Individual Therapy for Adolescents (ERITA) and its internet-delivered version (IERITA) is just one of a couple of treatments developed specifically to address nonsuicidal self-injur...

27 Mars 1h 13min

Emotion Regulation Group Therapy (ERGT) for Self-Harm (Re-Release)

A lot of therapies address the context in which nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and self-harm may occur, but only a few treatments have been designed to address NSSI specifically. In this episode, we d...

27 Feb 1h 40min