In Brief
Alien Limbs
- Estimates suggest that several thousand people worldwide wish to get rid of a normal healthy limb. Such desires stem from an extremely rare psychiatric illness called body integrity identity disorder (BIID).
- BIID can be distressing, disfiguring and deadly. The afflicted agonize over their dangerous desire and may even take matters into their own hands, by crushing a leg under weights or placing the offensive limb in the way of an oncoming train.
- Some researchers believe that BIID arises from a conflict between a person’s anatomy and his or her body image. Such a mismatch could result from damage in a part of the brain that contains a map of the body—a disparity that scientists hope to resolve.
In 1997 Robert Smith, a surgeon at the Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary in Scotland, fulfilled one of his patient’s deepest desires: he amputated the lower part of the man’s left leg. Smith performed a similar operation on a German retiree two years later, the British daily The Independent reported in 2000. Neither procedure was medically necessary. Both patients had told Smith that one of their legs was superfluous and that its mere presence had caused them enduring emotional pain.
Psychiatrists estimate that several thousand people worldwide, most of them male, wish to get rid of a normal healthy limb; a smaller number actually request its surgical removal. Such radical requests stem from an extremely rare psychiatric illness called body integrity identity disorder (BIID).
This article was originally published with the title Amputee Envy.
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3 Comments
Add CommentWill the gay community see the mention of the transsexuals desire to discard penis and breasts as part of this syndrome or will they continue to include the cutting nuts in their political group? How about the kids that stab themselves and cut their bodies because they are suffering??? Rally, the only kids I know who did that were semi-rich shits whose daddy still makes sure that they don't have to finance a car in an emergency, etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey do identify people who feel uncomfortable with their gender as having gender identity disorder just as they identify these people with body integrity identity disorder. You sound a bit hateful and homophobic. I'm glad I don't have any issues like this, and I really don't delude myself into thinking that I'm any more superior than them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey do identify people who feel uncomfortable with their gender as having gender identity disorder just as they identify these people with body integrity identity disorder. You sound a bit hateful and homophobic. I'm glad I don't have any issues like this, and I really don't delude myself into thinking that I'm any more superior than them. You're obviously letting an isolated case affect your prejudices. You need to know that there is a difference between using the idea of suicide for attention and actual, suicidal ideation.
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