People who don’t feel “right” in their fully functioning body
It seems inconceivable to most, but for a tiny percentage of people there is something wrong with having a fully functioning body. They feel that they shouldn’t have an arm or a leg, and sometimes go as far as to deliberately damage it so it has to be amputated, or do it themselves.
Clive Baldwin (PhD) has studied the phenomenon and talked to dozens of people who have this need to remove part of their bodies or senses , to become “trans-abled”.
He is a professor of Social Work at St Thomas University, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is also the Canada Research Chair in Narrative Studies, and Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative.
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It’s being called “Body Integrity Identification Disorder”, and the people who do have a body part or sense removed deliberately, as “trans-abled”.
The condition is somewhat similar to those who feel they aren’t of the right sex, that they were born male but really feel female, or vice versa, and some of whom go through sex-change operations to become “trans-gendered”
In the case of BIID, the people feel there is something wrong with their body and they just don’t feel “right” and shouldn’t have two functioning legs or arms etc.
Professor Baldwin interviewed some 37 people in Europe identified as trans-abled, mostly men who have or want to become disabled. Most want to remove a limb, although one wanted to be blind, and another wanted his penis removed.
One man, who calls himself “one-hand Jason” cut his own hand off, while another sought to crush his leg so badly with an extremely heavy concrete block such that it would have to be amputated. In that case doctors saved the leg and although the man walks with a limp, it is not the disability he sought.
Professor Baldwin says that current thinking is that this is not some form of mental illness, but rather a neurological condition.
“It’s a problem for individuals because it’s distressing. But lots of things are.” He feels it may be another form of body diversity, such as
Transgenderism or other forms of body modification. He adds that amputation may achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believe their ideal selves to be.
He notes that in the cases he’s encountered, the trans-abled live happy and successful lives and for the most part with continued relationships with loved ones after the “amputation”. He says with the loss of the particular body part or sense, they tend to feel empowered as their mental image of themselves finally matches the physical image.
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