“Yes, we can talk about self-harm,” explains a psychologist

“I wanted to hurt myself”. This is how Pep Guardiola explained himself at a press conference on Tuesday November 26, after Manchester City's match against Feyenoord which turned into a nightmare for the Citizens. The Catalan coach indeed appeared with his head covered in red marks and his nose covered in blood. “I did this to myself with my finger, with my nail”he justified himself, seeming to put the facts into perspective somewhat.

On Wednesday November 27, Pep Guardiola also felt obliged to clarify his comments by publishing an apology message on X. “My response was in no way intended to minimize the very serious problem of self-harm”he writes in particular.

The Guardiola case once again raises the question of mental health among high-level athletes, a favorite subject of psychologist Meriem Salmi, nicknamed “the psychologist of champions” and who notably counts judoka Teddy Riner among her patients. She answers questions from franceinfo.

franceinfo: Can we talk about self-harm in the case of Pep Guardiola?

We measure Straw: Yes, we can talk about self-harm. It's still spectacular, what he did to his face, to the top of his head; It's still very damaged, it was still far away. Self-mutilation in psychology is most frequently observed among adolescents who cannot express their emotions, who have difficulty regulating them, who do not know how to talk about their suffering and who will use this appeal on the body to speak, to express, to mark on the body what they say. These teens who self-harm have so much pain in their heads, so much pain, that self-harming forces them to focus on a pain that is less painful than the pain they feel in their heads. Obviously, this relief is very temporary, it will not last long, but at the moment it allows them to escape from their anguish and mental distress for a few moments. In the case of Pep Guardiola, I think it's more of a punishment, that it's someone who has a lot of guilt for not succeeding. On the other hand, it didn't have to happen like that all at once. In any case, it's a hypothesis.

Is self-mutilation common among top athletes?

We don't see this systematically. They all have this enormous demand on themselves otherwise they couldn't be in these elite environments, but they are not going to translate it in the same way. Physical violence exerted against one's body has its limits for athletes. If you get hurt, if you hurt yourself, you can no longer do your job because it is your work tool. But psychologically, if there were images, it would be spectacular. People will generate psychopathological disorders, depressive states, they will attack themselves psychologically by finding themselves worthless, by finding themselves worthless, and this is precisely the work that is very important to do in this environment: this It's not because we don't have the results that we are worthless. Human value and performance value merge and this creates very strong vulnerabilities.

We are in a very masculine sporting world where there is still work to be done. People are considered invincible, champions, extremely strong people.

“Showing signs of failure still remains pejorative, it is experienced as fragility.”

Meriem Salmi, psychologist

at franceinfo

Fragility means that we can put you on the sidelines, that we can consider that you are not up to the team. Fears are associated with that. There are athletes who call themselves names, I have encountered this more frequently than physical violence, psychological violence exercised against themselves, it is extremely destructive. Sometimes words are more destructive than blows.

Does this mean that high-level athletes have to deal with equally extraordinary pressure?

Yes, you always have to be very good, especially when you are a footballer and you are exposed to millions of people on the planet with this sport which is the most watched in the world, yes it is hard. And then when you earn a lot of money, you don't have the right to say that you're doing badly because you're going to take a hit. There are football players who are threatened with death, they put guards, security, for their family, their children. Obviously, it is better to have a lot of money and be bad than to have no money and be bad on top of that, one must not fall into indecency, but they have a lot of things to manage.

They have this notoriety, this international visibility, the media, social networks, often they are businessmen at the same time, they have a family, very often footballers marry young, so we ask them to have maturity “confirmed” adults, knowing how to manage everything at the same time, being perfect, being exemplary, there is significant pressure. Some people arrive in my office depressed but they don't know it because they are people who have extraordinary abilities and who have an enormous capacity to tolerate physical and psychological suffering. It's not that they try to hide it, they often don't see it.