Severe and persistent self-injurious behavior (SIB) is notoriously 10 difficult to understand and to treat. The current study used self-organization 11 theory to investigate the possible relationship between SIB and changing levels 12 of behavioral flexibility. Data consisted of categorical time-series of sequential 13 behaviors from individuals with developmental disabilities and severe SIB. 14 Orbital Decomposition was used to analyze each series for measures of 15 structure and entropy. Overall, results showed evidence for self-organization in 16 behavior patterns. Second, series including SIB were on average more flexible 17 than those without SIB; while, higher numbers of SIB events (perseveration) 18 were associated with higher behavioral rigidity and structural disintegration. 19 Finally, there was evidence that behavioral flexibility almost always shifts 20 reliably after a discrete bout of SIB, either increasing or decreasing in 21 complexity. Altogether, these results may provide a deeper and more 22 theoretically grounded understanding of the function of SIB beyond the 23 traditional behavioral paradigm involving simple stimulus-response or 24 response-consequence relations. Instead, some behaviors, such as SIB, may 25 serve a resilience-making function as more global regulators of behavioral 26 flexibility and coherence. 27