Genital self-mutilation in an attempt of suicide by a patient with a borderline personality.

Self-mutilation acts are known to characterize the borderline personality disorders. However, voluntary cutting of the male genital organ remains extremely rare. The present paper reports a case of a 25-years-old young male with a borderline personality. The patient committed a genital self-mutilation (GSM) targeting suicide during incarceration stage in jail. In addition, a discussion of the epidemiological and psychopathological aspects of the self-mutilation of borderline patients was been conducted. A particular interest is attributed to the genital self-mutilation and a review of the literature is presented.