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This article draws from focus groups and interviews investigating how young people talk about self‐harm. Some of the research participants had personal experience of self‐harm but this was not a prerequisite for their inclusion in the study. Thematic coding was used initially to organise and give an overview of the data, but the data were subsequently analysed using a discourse analytic approach. The article focuses on the young people's constructions of deliberate self‐harm such as 'cutting'. Throughout the focus groups and interviews, a dichotomy was set up by the young people between authentic, private self‐harm which is rooted in real distress (and warrants a sympathetic response) and public, self‐indulgent attempts to seek attention. This dualistic construction is discussed in some detail and located in various socio‐cultural contexts. It is argued that the dualism illustrates contemporary ambivalence about mental health and youth.

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