Since we're talking about a heterogeneous group of people some may not fully match any of these! I don't think that really matters. What does is beginning to understand, and control self-injurious behavior.

I do have some updated stuff from psychiatrists Favazza & Rosenthal, 1993. Some of the studies were of Kahan & Pattison who in 1984 when they proposed for a distinctive diagnosis: The Deliberate Self-Harm Syndrome.

<font color="blue"> Feelings that activate feelings of need for self injury can include:
rejection, loss, abandonment, confinement, failure, anger, guilt

People who SI tend to have certain personality traits such as:
perfectionism, rapid mood swings, poor response to intense feelings, poor self body image, inability to express needs

SI'ing can be connected to other disorders such as:
Depersonalization, depression, eating disorders, MPD, substance abuse (info added later also includes: ptsd, Addisons's, inner-cranial hypertension, borderline personality, antisocial and of course MPD is now DID... maybe they are 2 different things, but that's another thread!)
The personality traits tend to be absent when the injury syndrome is resolved.[color]