The present work aims to develop a psychoanalytic reading about the contemporary phenomenon of self-mutilation. The question that led to our research was the pursuit to understand the function that cuts and self-inflicted injuries assume in relation with the psychic functioning of the subject. Our initial hypothesis was that the act of self-mutilation as a resource would consist in a defense against the instinctual excess. Freud's theoretical considerations regarding the actual neuroses have indicated the existence of an essential aspect related to the instinctual excess: the insufficiency of the psychic connection, which would be articulated to the level of narcissism. In face of that, we introduce the dimension of alterity in order to understand the process of constitution of the Ego in Freudian theory and the importance of the intersubjectivity in D. Winnicott's theory of maturation. In addition, the fact that self-mutilation has the body itself as its object-and, in most cases, the skin-has indicated the need for a discussion about these elements from the theoretical frame of psychoanalysis. Overall, it was possible to observe that the phenomenon of self-mutilation is articulated to the narcissistic constitution's clinical, arranged by a fragility concerning certain specificities of the relationship between the baby and the primary object. Since André Green's work is essential for this theorization, we use his contributions about the complex of the dead mother and the work of the negative. We have reached the conclusion that self-mutilation assumes a defensive function against the psychic suffering of the subject and, in a radical sense, against psychic death. Furthermore, we believe that the act as a resource also has a communicative dimension, especially in these cases, when it might be a form that was found by the subject to ask for help from the desire of being really seen. Finally, we try to understand the potencial of psychoanalysis face of this phenomenon, given the importance of recognizing the suffering of these subjects. In order to illustrate the theoretical considerations, we also proposed a link with materials from the online social network Tumblr.