Abstract
It is rather hard to formulate a clear cut definition on concept regarding human behaviour and disorders of mental health. The study of self destructive behaviour has been hampered by semantic confusion, protean concepts and contradictory toxonomies. In a very broad sense self destructive behaviour can be defined to consist either in taking or in considering to take a life threatening risk, that need not necessarily aim at or lead to self destruction. Thus, it has nowadays become increasingly common to speak separately of indirect self-destruction and on the other hand direct self-destruction in a narrower sense, the latter includes three phenomena: suicidal thoughts, suicidal attempts and suicides. Indirect self-destructive behaviour may be defined as a behaviour characterized by taking a life threatening risk without the intention of dying, mostly repeatedly and often unconsciously, in such a way that the consequences are likely to be destructive to the individual before long (Lounqvist, 1978).
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Okasha, A. (1985). The Self-Destructive Behaviour of Everyday Life. In: Pichot, P., Berner, P., Wolf, R., Thau, K. (eds) Clinical Psychopathology Nomenclature and Classification. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5049-9_146
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5049-9_146
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