Amputees By Choice Summary

593 Words2 Pages

AMPUTEES BY CHOICE BY CARL ELLIOTT Today I am going to talk about the article “Amputees by Choice” by Carl Elliott. This topic is not about amputees in general but by people who want to cut off a healthy part of their body. Now you may ask, who in their right mind would want to do such a thing. Believe it or not, there is a condition called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). This is a mental disorder in which a person wants to amputate one or more of their healthy limbs. We then should ask, what motivates a person to want to amputate a healthy limb? There are couples of reasons or explanations for this disorder. First is that they are suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a condition in which the person believes that part of their body is diseased or ugly. The second explanation is psychosexual disorder call Acrotomophilia. This is a sexual attraction to an amputee. The last explanation is a mismatch between their bodies as they experience it. …show more content…

On the internet through blogs, forums or chat rooms call they are referred to as “Wannabees” and “Devotees”. The medical tern for Devotees is Acrotomophili. The medical term for Wannabees is Apotemnopholi. As I previously mentioned Devotees are sexually attracted to people with amputated limbs. On the other hand, Wannabees want to amputate their healthy limbs. I am going to explain the difference between the two disorders. With Wannabees their issue is more related to body image. For example: POWER POINT. Nevertheless, Devotees have a strong sexual preference for amputees. For example: POWER POINT. Strange as that this may sound, when a Wannabee person lose a limb they are actually gaining so much more of who they felt they are. As one Amputee said to his doctor “you have made me the happiest of all men by taking away from me a limb which put an invincible obstacle to my

Open Document