De-Privatizing Self-Harm: Remembering the Social Self in How to Forget

This article reads Malu De Martino ’s 2010 filmComo Esque çer (How to Forget) as a case study in self-harm as a mode of expression and self-inquiry. Drawing on disability and queer theory, psychoanalysis, and sociology of medicine, the author argues thatHow to Forget charts a “crip” epistemology of self-harm and theorizes a “social self.” That is to say, the film models an orientation towards self-harm that offers a coalitional and social therapeutic understanding. Based on this reading, the author suggests the application of practices of knowing-with, or knowing -in-relation as “cripistemology” to a broader therapeutic, research, and lay context.
Source: Journal of Bioethical Inquiry - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research