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Apotemnophilia - The Desire To Amputate A Limb (1 Viewer)

rockaction

rockaction

Footballguy
So being in the music thread and looking at the faces of Daniel Hernandez (Takeshi 69), Post Malone, and Lil Peep got me to thinking, who does this to their face? What is the cause? 

This in turn, got me to thinking about something I studied briefly in my twenties, which is apotemnophilia. In this disorder, otherwise sane and rational individuals express a strong and specific desire for the amputation of a healthy limb or limbs. I'd read a cover article in The Atlantic about it way back when and watched a documentary about it. 

The Atlantic - A New Way To Be Mad

Whole (trailer)

So here's my question: What do you think the impulses behind these two phenomena are? Should these things be allowed in civil society? Should doctors and tattooists perform these procedures? Does it violate the social contract in spirit? 

And lastly, what of God? What does God inform us about this issue?

 
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Sometimes I get this feeling that I'd like to smash my hands.  Like crack my knuckles or wrists but totally just mangle my hands.  It's kind of scary.  

 
Don’t know the mindset of cutting off limbs, but the face tattoo phenomenon is just because they think it looks cool/gangster/unique. Same with the morons that put those huge circle gauges to stretch out earlobes.  

The cutting off limbs is a mental issue, the face tattoos is a vanity and individualism issue.  Two different mindsets in my opinion.  

 
offdee said:
Don’t know the mindset of cutting off limbs, but the face tattoo phenomenon is just because they think it looks cool/gangster/unique. Same with the morons that put those huge circle gauges to stretch out earlobes.  

The cutting off limbs is a mental issue, the face tattoos is a vanity and individualism issue.  Two different mindsets in my opinion.  
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This is what I'd like to think, too, but I can't even look at their faces and I wonder if there actually isn't a deeper underlying issue. Someone in another thread mentioned the same. But yours is probably the conservative (apolitically) position on both phenomena. It's Occam. 

 
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rockaction said:
 And lastly, what of God? What does God inform us about this issue?
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It wasn't in the list of things He's brought up with me.

You?

ETA:  Though I'm guessing He probably doesn't have apotemnophilia.   Just a guess though.

 
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GregR said:
It wasn't in the list of things He's brought up with me.

You?

ETA:  Though I'm guessing He probably doesn't have apotemnophilia.   Just a guess though.
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I only brought that into the discussion so that the more religious members of the board could talk about bodily desecration and its religious component. Unbelievers are more than welcome to give their opinion and leave the God question totally out.  

The wording was clunky. I should have just said "What would your religion think of this?"

 
rockaction said:
A link to an abstract of studies on apotemnophilia and body integrity identity disorder put out by the National Institutes of Health. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094630/
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don't need to read no articles on it - i've seen the roots of it every day since awareness came to me.

control. i got to control something. no special skills, so i can't control the world. too nice or weak to control another person, or maybe that's not enough. maybe i can control a small portion of everybody's behavior by disrupting or outraging or redirect it by being pathetic but, if i'm thinking this way, i'm already too selfish to be satisfied with that. i'll get a pet cuz a pet is always there, has to love me cuz i feed it and never offers contest to what i do or say.

DAMN, there so much frustration in this life that i bite my tongue 40 times a day to keep from screaming. ow ow ow ow OWWWW! hmmmm, that pain kinda focuses me. i'll do it again. OWmmmm, OWmmmm, OWmmmm. well i cant keep biting my tongue or i wont be able to talk & eat. i'll find a spot on my body to give myself an owwie and i can rub it or scratch it or stab it and feel that cleansing pain. and I"M in control of it. yum. y'know, i hear tattoos really hurt - since i buy em, i control em even though someone else is doing it. UNNHHHH, that's delcicious. and it's scary, a li'l bit scary. be scared of me, world! note to self: get a scarier pet. hey, and the tatooier i get, the scarier more powerful i am and won't need to hurt myself.......

.......but wait, i WANT to hurt myself. PIERCING, yay!!!! Ear, lip, eyebrow, nose. Stab a stick thru that tongue i useta bite and put sumn in there that reminds with every movement where my control began.  Tattoo my inner lip, staple my ballsack 14 times. What else can i "control"?! Yeeaaahhhh....

 
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I went to school with a kid that had this.  He cut off his arms and legs and just sat on his front porch all day.

His name was Matt.

 
Deepster said:
I went to school with a kid that had this.  He cut off his arms and legs and just sat on his front porch all day.

His name was Matt.
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Yeah, there's a bunch of these.

Hanging out by the wall? That's Art

In the ocean? That's Bob

Out in the yard in a pile of leaves? That's Russell

2 weeks later? That's Pete

 
rockaction said:
And lastly, what of God? What does God inform us about this issue?
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Well, there's stuff like this:

"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna,* into the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna."

 
jhib said:
Well, there's stuff like this:

"If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna,* into the unquenchable fire.

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna."
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Gehenna, huh? Isn't that the place of the damned where the Kings of Judah sacrificed children by fire? I think maybe Gehenna here is a substitute for hell. 

 
Interesting topic.   I don't really know enough about the subject of the desire to amputate healthy limbs to really formulate a theory on that--but the first thought that crossed my mind about the face tattoo thing is this:   I think it could be viewed as the ultimate "bet" and one of the ways that somebody who wants to pursue a career in music/show business almost forces themselves to maintain a path to that goal.   They effectively are making themselves virtually unmarketable in any other field by covering their faces with tattoos.  That basically forces them to focus on their desired craft as they are putting themselves in a position where the results are binary.  They will either hit it big or they will most likely end up having to settle for low end jobs for the rest of their lives.  It might just be a crazy way that one "forces motivation" to pursue a dream.  

 
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