The press, the police and the lawyers need to understand that cutting is NOT a suicide attempt
Much has been made of Lisa Maria Zahra’s supposed earlier suicide attempts. She slashed her wrists around two years ago, the court was told. No, she didn’t. She cut her inner forearms.
This is not a suicide attempt but a very common form of self-harm. Some girls and women cut their feet, usually the soles. Others cut their inner forearms. It is most definitely not any kind of suicide attempt, but the deliberate infliction of physical pain in a misguided attempt at relieving emotional distress.
Good doctors are familiar with this practice and, when a girl or young woman presents herself (or is presented by her parents) showing signs of emotional distress, will ask to see her inner forearms. The practice is known as ‘cutting’. It has absolutely nothing to do with wrist-slashing and the severing of arteries for the express purpose of bleeding to death. The cuts are small and superficial, despite the blood.
In attempting to portray Lisa Zahra’s cutting as a suicide attempt, Erin Tanti and his defence counsel are deliberately trying to create evidence that she was suicidal.
The prosecution should call an expert witness – a psychiatrist – to explain that cutting has nothing to do with suicide and that those who wish to kill themselves slash their wrists to sever the artery, not make little nicks on their forearms or feet.
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Great point. The media (and his lawyers) have gone to great lengths to emphasise her slitting her wrists in the past, bears with razors and blood in her room to paint a picture of someone suicidal. Not so.
Whilst disturbing nonetheless, the practice of cutting is a far cry from tentative suicidal cuts which tend to be few and deep when compared to this which is closer to a compulsion. More info here: http://m.kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/cutting.html
It is not a compulsion. It is an attempt to cope with negative emotions and live – the very opposite of suicide, which is about ending life not living with its difficulties.
It’s because it’s so irrational yet the person feels that it must be done to help that it is called a compulsion.
There is real physical, though short lived, benefit. The initial result of cutting is emotional relief brought about by the release of endorphins, unlike in compulsive behaviour like repetitive hand washing where emotional tension is relieved by the fulfilment of a compulsive drive.
it’s a textbook technique out of Scandal – that of breaking the victim and making it look like it’s their fault and not that of the accused with an attempt to influence any future juries
Well said! Self-harming has nothing to do with suicide and does not mean that one has suicidal thoughts.
Far from it, actually. Cutting is a sort of cry for help, and it has nothing to do with trying to end your life.
In the course of my work in the UK I have dealt with many teens who self-harmed and none were suicidal.
Many years later I can say that as far as I know all of them are still well and alive and most of them have grown out of this ‘habit’ and have gone on to have perfectly normal and well balanced lives.
Another critical issue that needs investigation is whether Lisa Maria was the only targeted victim. There may have been others in the past who were subjected to similar treatment but ended up in psychiatric care instead of being thrown over a cliff.
The name Cliff Dingli is a tell-tale sign, not of someone who wanted to commit suicide but of someone who attacks vulnerable persons systematically. Everyone is making the assumption that the name represents what Tanti intended to do to himself – end it all.
To me the name is a metaphor of what Tanti intended to do to others rather than to himself. When placed in the context of a teacher in a classroom, “Cliff Dingli” becomes the medium through which the character brings death/end to his victims.
I agree with you completely. He must have had a deep yearning to get someone to Dingli cliffs and see them jump. Well now, mission accomplished. Now pay for your sick fetishes.
No, I think it’s a case of him being a severe control freak.
Mayo clinic on self-cutting:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/self-injury/basics/definition/con-20025897
Self-injury, also called self-harm, is the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It’s typically not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.
Self-harm is a one of the first signs of emotional distress. Are there any psychologists left on the island?
But even if it were, it does not mean that she was not murdered this time round. It is a non sequitur.
True, but the defence lawyers’ strategy is to portray the victim as suicidal, which may lead a jury to have reasonable doubt about the murder charge.
I think that it’s highly unethical to comment during the course of an ongoing criminal investigation. There are a lot more important matters of national interest, we should be talking about.
There are a lot of national issues and this one puts them into sharp focus: the mistaken belief that children are safe at school, loopholes in the teacher approval system, gaps in schools’ internal monitoring systems, a hidden epidemic of psychological distress, warped acceptance of abnormal behaviour, collective denial that there’s anything wrong here at all, the persistent belief that we should not discuss matters of public interest because that suits defence lawyers, etc.
I am a mother, and I consider this matter of more importance than other issues ‘of national interest’, for the reasons La Redoute outlined above.
As a human being first and a mother second, this terrible incident has shocked me.
I am also pretty certain that the victim’s famiy are not against the matter being discussed publicly – I believe that they would be more than happy with the truth being out, and with more people coming forward should they know of anything else which would be of relevance to the police with regards to the case.
Nothing will bring the poor girl back, but perhaps some good will come out of this terrible incident, and, importantly too, justice will be served, with Tanti getting what he truly deserves.
“Some girls and women cut their feet, usually the soles.”
Not girls and women only, but also boys and people who usually do this are aged 13-20. I remember this sort of thing in secondary school and some crazy guy in my class carved his then-girlfriend’s name on the back of his hand with a compass.
Actually it depends on the method of cutting. Many people as you say self harm by cutting but many also kill themselves in the process. Drink a bottle of wine, lie in a hot bath and cut open your wrists. It won’t take too long to bleed out and I have known many such cases in the past. I also know of cases when the victims cut up a vein rather than across it as it is much harder to repair even if they are found in time and these were genuine suicide attempts many of which succeeded.
[Daphne – Drinking a bottle of alcohol and slitting your wrists open in the bath is not self harm. It is classic suicide.]
Cigarette burns and other forms of self -harm are symptomatic of inner turmoil, usually messed up emotions that young people experience whilst their hormone levels go haywire. Often they are a form of attention seeking -cry of help, but NOT suicidal attempts.
Calling all ex- POMPOM girls for redeployment;
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140414/local/the-afm-needsdancers.514942
I do not understand why the victim’s Facebook pages and her blogs are still up. Surely her family should have had them closed especially in the circumstances.
In Italy, we have a murder amongst youths almost every year, usually the result of drugs/sex. The most famous was the Knox murder also shrouded in a lot of mystery of what was actually going on and what led to the stabbing.
Elisa Clapps and Chiara Poggi were another two girls murdered by “creepy men”. The former killed at least another two women after Clapps, because a priest thought fit to hide the body of the first victim leaving the murderer free to repeat the crime.
Poggi was killed by her boyfriend. It is rumoured that she had caught him with child pornography and threatened to report him.
As for this case, the solution lies in why the jacket was at the bottom of the cliff. Why would Tanti take the jacket off if he had it on and placed his car keys inside it? It must have been chilly at that time of night.
Plus, if he intended to escape the keys and passport were vitally important to him, so would he leave the jacket where he was keeping them lying around in Dingli in pitch darkness?
Could it be that he had wrapped the jacket around her? That she jumped off (as he probably hoped she would) at the wrong moment? I do not think he would have been stupid enough to throw her down with his jacket, passport and car keys on her.
I also find it odd that he would leave the jacket lying around for her to grab and fling over the cliffs in anger.
[Daphne – I think she asked him to borrow it and he couldn’t very well refuse without making her suspicious as to his intentions. This is plausible because I don’t believe either of them was thinking in terms of suicide right then.]
One must also wait for the forensic toxicology results which should throw some light on her mental state. After 40 aspirin pills, a bottle of whiskey and God knows what else I think her actions may not have been that predictable or coordinated.
A plausible way of how things may have happened.
Erin Tanti says it was 3 a.m. when Lisa Marie ‘jumped’. This left him only a couple of hours to go fetch his jacket, which Daphne rightfully points out ‘she threw down herself in anger’ and still hope to catch that catamaran at 6.30 a.m. This is why he kept the time in his head. He had a boat to catch.
Originally he said he saw the girl’s body down below before jumping. Realising that this was impossible to do because of the darkness and foliage he changed his version. He now says he jumped as soon as he saw Lisa Marie jump. But he didn’t really jump, that was not part of his plan.
Tanti had a very serious problem. His jacket was down there somewhere very close to where Lisa Marie lay and this tied him directly to her death. In the jacket were his passport, car keys and ticket to what he presumed would be his safety.
He walked along the cliffs trying to find a way down and came across the path, which incidentally is very visible. He walked all the way down and started looking for his jacket.
He says he opened his eyes at 4 a.m. after his jump. Basically this means that it took him an hour to get down there and start looking for his jacket. That’s quite feasible.
At this point he had only about an hour and a half to find his jacket, walk back up and drive to the ferry.
Time was now against him. The sun rises on the other side of the island, so at 4 a.m. it was still pitch dark down there. In his haste and panic to find his jacket he stumbled and injured himself.
Now he couldn’t walk up either. He was stuck. Well he was an author. It wouldn’t take him too long to think up a story. His mobile phone is in the car so he cannot call for help. Might as well have a nap until rescue comes but that rock’s hard, what better way then remove your trousers and put them under your head. Picnickers at the top of the cliff though he was sunbathing.
There was still a slight problem to his story. The rock he was on is 50 metres away from the cliff face. How does one manage to jump down a 40 metre cliff and land 50 metres away?
He had a solution for that too. He ‘jumped from a different angle’ he said.
Oh well, that’s all right then.
This is the path that leads from the top of Dingli cliffs to the rock.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13995942?source=wapi&referrer=kh.google.com
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/17677248?source=wapi&referrer=kh.google.com
Li hu zgur f`dan il-pajjiz hu li kollox idur bil-kontra.
Biex lanqas nafu bil “cutting” turi kemm baqa x`nitghallmu fil-livell baziku tal-hajja.
Ahseb u ara kemm baqalna aktar x`nitghallmu fuq is-suggett, delikat u komplikat fl-istess hin, tal-politika.
Konsolazzjoni ghandna lill Joe fil-gvern, simbolu haj ta’ kif mhux id-diskors u l-istqarrijiet fil-pubbliku idur bil-kontra imma programm elettorali shih.
Dan ghax skond Corto Maltese, Joe ghandu mandat.
TVM news have just focussed the issue. Good you brought up the subject.
I have a gut feeling that if one had to look into it, it would turn out that one of Lisa’s tormentors on ask.fm will turn out to be no other than Erin.
What do you think?
Oops – sorry, missed your ‘The corruption and destruction of a schoolgirl’ post. My last comment is redundant.
Thanks.
I think you’d be glad to know that the issue of self harm was addressed on the 8 o’ clock news today.
Dr. Azzopardi, a psychiatrist, spoke about the disorder in a clear and concise manner giving sound advice and doing her best to explain the difference between self harm and a suicide attempt. Hopefully this will help raise awareness.
We are a nation obsessed with cats and dogs, modelling, photoshoots and fast flashy cars, to name a few.
Who the hell needs psychologists on the island, Joe?
Suicide pacts usually end with the couple holding hands and taking the plunge together.
One could speculate that instead of his hand Erin offered his jacket, intending to snatch it back quickly.
But he forgot one important detail: gravity exerts a greater pull on an airborne body.
Short of being dragged down as well he had to let go. That would explain the jacket ending up down there.
However, I don’t believe, have never believed and cannot believe that this was suicide of any kind.
The facts known so far don’t seem to point to a double suicide or even to one suicide. The sooner people stop talking and thinking of suicide, the better it will be for everybody.
Death in the family always causes grief. That grief is at least doubled when death is untimely as a result of an accident or murder.
The grief of suicide is immeasurable and not time-limited.
The family have to bear that burden for the rest of their lives. It leaves an indelible scar.
So stop talking about suicide. I don’t know anybody from this particular Zahra family and would not recognize any of them if they bumped into me. But please spare them additional grief.
If any feelings of human decency remain in Erin Tanti, he would tell the truth about what really happened.
As it is, everything he has said so far has brought him nothing but ridicule and contempt.
Telling the truth, he may even receive some sympathy for sparing a grief-stricken family so much additional and unnecessary pain.
This whole affair of Erin Tanti and Lisa Maria Zahra brings to my mind a novel I read many years ago.
It was called Trilby written by George Du Maurier and was about this man Svengali who used to manipulate this young girl’s mind.
Does anyone recall this novel?
How facetious. This is real life, not a telenovela.
Not quite the same scenario, but this coud give some insight into the completely unexpected defence of Erin Tanti by so many who should know better:
“The monster myth also perpetuates a comforting lack of self-awareness. When I heard Bayley forming sentences in court, I froze because I’d been socialised to believe that men who rape are jabbering madmen who wear tracksuit bottoms with dress shoes and knee-high socks. The only thing more disturbing than that paradigm is the fact that most rapists are normal guys, guys we might work beside or socialise with, our neighbours or even members of our family.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/18/my-wife-was-murdered-by-a-monster-but-most-perpetrators-of-violence-are-normal-guys?CMP=fb_gu