Scars Intentional And Accidental
The story behind the scar seems to make all the difference in our
response to it. "That's our initial response, 'What happened to you?'"
Rumsey says. Even in cultures that prize ritual scarification, there a
sharp distinction between nature and culture. Intentional scars are
considered beautiful, while random or accidental scars are ugly. To
redeem an ugly scar, therefore, the wounded person must create a scenario
that tells the story of the scar in an attractive and compelling
light.
The ultimate illustration of this desire can be found in the
self-portraits of painter Frida Kahlo. As a young woman, Kahlo's back and
legs were scarred in a streetcar accident. In her paintings, she often
portrayed herself as horribly mutilated, with gore dripping from her many
wounds; one painting shows her cut open down the front.
"The scars in her paintings are mostly invented," says Hayden
Herrera, a Kahlo biographer. "I think she painted them to force the
viewer to respond to her predicament. If her paintings were mawkish, we'd
hate them. But because she keeps her face this mask of reserve, and just
shows her emotions through the scars and wounds, the scars are sort of
noble, in some funny way, rather than self-pitying. She painted herself
scarred so she could deal with it. Her paintings don't look like, `Oh,
help, help, I'm hurting.' They're somebody saying, `This is what's
happening to me. This is the way it is. I'm not going to hide it.' These
paintings are so beautiful; they're incredibly distant and repressed, yet
at the same time jumping with emotion. Those paintings are like a ribbon
around a bomb."
Self-Mutilation
The impulse that drove Kahlo to paint imaginary scars on her body
is mirrored in patients who inflict real scars on themselves. "When I
look at self-mutilation, I try to understand the meaning behind this
supposedly senseless act," says psychiatrist Armando R. Favazza, M.D.,
author of Bodies Under Siege: Self-Mutilation and Body Modification in
Culture and Psychiatry (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). For some
patients, self-mutilation is a symptom of an underlying psychological
problem; patients with borderline personality disorder, for example,
often cut or burn themselves in an effort to relieve their overwhelming
psychic pain. For other patients, Favazza says, self-mutilation is their
primary psychological problem. "It usually starts in early adolescence
and goes on for about 15 years, interspersed with periods of eating
disorders and substance abuse," he says. "Some people call them
multi-impulsive patients."
To outsiders, self-multilation seems frightening and bizarre. But
to the patients themselves, self-inflicted pain makes great internal
sense. "It allows for fairly rapid, but short-term, relief from a lot of
pathological symptoms," Favazza says. "The major one is intense, intense
anxiety; when patients cut, it's like popping a balloon."
Self-mutilation can have great symbolic meaning for patients, as
well. "It ties in with cultural ideas of bodily healing, religious
salvation and establishment of order," Favazza explains. "When you look
at cultural rituals that involve mutilation, the scars are signs of
distinction." Similarly, patients can use their wounds and scars to
create deeply personal semiotics. "I had one patient who was involved in
an old-fashioned Oedipal-type situation, with her Dad coming on to her,"
Favazza recalls. "She was just cutting and cutting and cutting. She would
create the symbol on her body; the gaping wound reminded her of a vagina,
the vagina Daddy wanted. Then she'd go to the emergency room and solve
the problem by having it sewn shut. Afterward, she'd go home and put baby
powder and bandages on the wound. The scar was essentially the
baby"
For many patients with self-inflicted wounds, the scars tell the
story of their illness and their attempts to heal themselves. "For
patients in the middle of the syndrome, the scars are important," Favazza
notes. "Special scars have special meanings. I look at every scar as a
sign of the battle the patient has waged. Scar tissue is a sign that the
patient has won, and is still alive."
Body Modification
The symbolism of scars reaches so deeply beneath the skin that
increasing numbers of American youth are using intentional
scarring--called body modification--to chronicle their emotional lives.
"They say it's a rite of passage, an initiation into greater mysteries,
an opening for beneficial spirits or a healing of the wounded psyche,"
says Favazza. He cites women who get body piercings after being raped.
"By piercing themselves, they're reclaiming their bodies. It gives them a
sense of control."
Lisa Romanienko, a sociology doctoral student at Louisiana State
University, believes the mostly youthful members of the body modification
movement are expressing their alienation from Western civilization, and
use their scars, tattoos, brands and piercings as public signs of their
disgust and defiance. These "self-symbolizers," as she calls them,
actually enhance their self-esteem by offending and repulsing the
bourgeois majority "It's an alternative to political expression, in light
of the decline of other organizations to express political views among
the Left," Romanienko says. "Anyone can see why kids would be doing this.
It's an intentional symbolic message."
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