* * * * *
“Remove my leg and I'll be complete.”
> But just what counts as apotemnophilia is part of the problem in explaining
> it. Some wannabes are also devotees. Others who identify themselves as
> wannabes are drawn to extreme body modification. There seems to be some
> overlap between people who want finger and toe amputations and those who
> seek piercing, scarring, branding, genital mutilation, and such. Some
> wannabes, Robert Smith suggests, want amputation as a way to gain sympathy
> from others. And finally, there are "true" apotemnophiles, whose desire for
> amputation is less about sex than about identity. "My left foot was not
> part of me," says one amputee, who had wished for amputation since the age
> of eight. "I didn't understand why, but I knew I didn't want my leg." A
> woman in her early forties wrote to me, "I will never feel truly whole with
> legs." Her view of herself has always been as a double amputee, with stumps
> of five or six inches.
>
A New Way to Be Mad [1]
A long and fascinating article on a condition that may be related to gender-
identity disorder, whereby people wish to have body parts amputated to feel
complete.
[1]
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/12/elliott.htm
Email author at
[email protected]
