Here’s a new paraphilia for you all. The more I read up on these the more I’m tempted to come out as a normophiliac and claim my own place under the queer as fuck umbrella. Sexually arousing thoughts of amputation. #Apotemnophilia

Longer study on the phenomenon. 37 years of research. The same denial of sexual motivations & search for a biological basis as we see in the trajectory of Gender Identity disorders.

Sexual component, psychiatric co-morbidities, predominantly a male phenomenon, as with sexual paraphilias. There’s even a genre of amputee porn.

No wonder the phenomenon was first discussed in *Penthouse* and of course our old friend John Money was there at the start.

Similar to Gender Dysphoria there seems to be a desire to de-sexualise the motivation, emphasise the argument it is “hard-wired”.

Links with masculinity, homosexuality & a fear of social disapproval. The term apotemnophilia was coined by John Money. As we will see we will go through different nomenclature as competing theories emerge.

This research is based on one case. Emerging homosexuality with first erotic target an amputee.

Research links apotemnophilia to sexual disturbance, paraphilia. Here are psychiatric co-morbidities of depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.These are described as co-occurrences. That is not seen as causal but coincidental.Same arguments defend medicalising Gender Dysphoria.

Similar themes emerge with Michael Firsts research. Paraphilia, co-morbidities of psychiatric conditions. Interestingly he downplays the sexual motivation, calling it “secondary”. Also reports “successful out comes with amputation. Would love to see the follow up time frame.

This is where the term proposed is “Bodily Integrity Disorder”. The first study that proposed other motivation than “sexual”. Also draws a direct parallel to Gender Identity Disorder.

Helen De Preester disagreed with the desexualisation of the motivations arguing it was impossible to exclude a sexual component. It’s not surprising that people seek to downplay this motivation. Sexuality is often rooted in shame and denial is not an unsurprising feature.

So we see the same split in terms of psychiatric hypothesis as we do in explanations of Gender Dysphoria.

In a similiar parallel we now move onto neurological explanations. Much like the #LadyBrain school of Gender Identity theory.

Some studies do appear to confirm this hypothesis but the results are mixed and we are really in chicken and egg territory.

Striking parallels to Gender Identity issues in this condition. Clear evidence of * some* sexual motivation, link to social shame and homosexuality, attempts to deny sexual motivation. Focus on neutral, biological explanations gains traction. Yet! Not convincing.

I have missed out quite a lot around the phenomenon of paralysis desire. (More women have this). Full paper is here: https://www.dovepress.com/apotemnophilia-body-integrity-identity-disorder-or-xenomelia-psychiatr-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-NDT