“…Still, deliberate selfharm and factitious disorders are considered to be difficult to understand and to treat [Eisendrath, 1989], as well as difficult to study [Kinsella, 2001] -more than two thirds of the studies on factitious disorders are case reports [Favazza and Conterio, 1988;Feldman et al, 1996Feldman et al, , 2001Fras and Coughlin, 1971;Kinsella, 2001;Klonoff et al, 1983;Pattison and Kahan, 1983;Solyom and Solyom, 1990]. Theoretical models for the explanation of underlying psychopathological mechanisms of self-harm and factitious disorders are often based on psychoanalysis [Eckhardt, 1994;Friedman et al, 1972;Sachsse, 1994]. These psychoanalytic perspectives understand self-harm to be the expression of an extremely negative aspect of the self, which is experienced as weak, impulsive, helpless, unworthy, and guilty and is identified with the body [Eckhardt, 1994;Hirsch, 1994;Sachsse, 1994].…”