Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people

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Ran across this article in the national post by chance, about transable persons.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/becoming-disabled-by-choice-not-chance-transabled-people-feel-like-impostors-in-their-fully-working-bodies

When he cut off his right arm with a “very sharp power tool,” a man who now calls himself One Hand Jason let everyone believe it was an accident.

But he had for months tried different means of cutting and crushing the limb that never quite felt like his own, training himself on first aid so he wouldn’t bleed to death, even practicing on animal parts sourced from a butcher.
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People like Jason have been classified as ‘‘transabled’’ — feeling like imposters in their bodies, their arms and legs in full working order.
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“We define transability as the desire or the need for a person identified as able-bodied by other people to transform his or her body to obtain a physical impairment,” says Alexandre Baril, a Quebec born academic who will present on “transability” at this week’s Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa.
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Chloe Jennings-White adjusting her leg braces at her home on May 16, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Chloe-Jennings White wears leg braces and uses a wheelchair, even though her legs work fine, and she does not need them.
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As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans people within the disability movement are also seeking their due, or at very least a bit of understanding in a public that cannot fathom why anyone would want to be anything other than healthy and mobile.

But this has been met with great resistance in both the disability activist community and in transgender circles
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I believe there may have been a thread on this a few years ago. If there's a more recent one, I couldn't find it.
I admit I had trouble accepting this at first glance, but I found myself interested in why I did.
Is this any different than body modification or plastic surgery? Is it akin to transgendered persons in terms of being in a body that needs to be modified to correct unfortunate physical birth defects? Will transablism be accepted as a legitimate condition (in a broad, populist sense) in the future?
Or is this the result of "mental illness" that is manifesting in a time that allows for individuals to physically manifest their issues?

I thought this article might make for an interesting discussion.
 
Very interesting debate. Although I find removing a limb to be rather morbid and extreme. I thought I remember reading something about a guy that wanted to cut his legs off so he could be permanently in a wheelchair.
 
I remember reading about Jason's story a few years back. He felt so out of place with two hands that his life actually started falling apart. After ruining his hand to the point where it could no longer be re-attached, he finally felt he was, for the lack of a better word, whole. His life picked up from there and he found a girlfriend, gained self confidence etc etc. I was a very interesting read. Can't remember where I found it though.

edit: The link where I read it from is in OP's article: http://news.bme.com/2008/02/19/one-hand-jason-biid-interview-in-bmenews-publishers-ring/
 
Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body’s mapping, rather than a mental illness.
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I don't buy this. It just seems way out there that this isn't some form of obsession related mental thing.

Not saying people shouldn't be taken seriously, but the treatment should be something other than chopping off limbs.
 
If people are intentionally harming themselves to become disabled... that's self-harm taken to a pretty horrifying extreme and these people need help, in my opinion.

I also don't get the transgender comparison. A transgender person wishes to fix what is broken, not break what isn't.
 
Yeah that's mental illness. When my mental health was at its worst I would have very vivid impulsive fantasies about removing my limbs, along with other types of self harm and suicide. These people need support and help.
 
I watched this short documentary about people who have this condition where they feel this innate urge to remove a certain part of their body, such as an arm, leg, foot or what have you. This urge comes from the feeling that the body part doesn't feel like its 'part' of them and the longer said body part stays with the body, the more the person is likely to become mentally unhinged or depressed.

Reading this, it looks like a similar condition, or maybe even the same one, but its definitely a source of hot ethical debate. There's been a tonne of cases of people trying to seek professional help to amputate themselves due to the amount of stress its causing and when they don't get that help due to the ethics of the situation, they resort to their own DIY methods. Most people that go through with it say they feel absolutely fine afterwards and the stress that gripped them when they had this body part that 'didn't belong' completely evaporates.

EDIT: Just did a quick Google search - The condition is called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). Good article about a case on The Guardian
 
As long as the person understands the consequences and are still able to make a decent living in life, then who cares, it's their body.
 
This kind of reminded me of a debate I was having the other day with a dude who intentionally got infected with HIV.

I mean, do whatever you want with your health, body, mind buuut, it is hard not to be judge mental when such self affirmative campaign implies or requires self destruction.
 
Sounds like a mental illnes to me.
Comparing it to transgender sounds like an insult to them and people who are actually disabeld
 
Melkr_ said:
This kind of reminded me of a debate I was having the other day with a dude who intentionally got infected with HIV.

I mean, do whatever you want with your health, body, mind buuut, it is hard not to be judge mental when such self affirmative campaign implies or requires self destruction.
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just... why
 
So like the opposite of a Phantom Limb?

If these people feel like one of their limbs doesn't belong there, more power to them I suppose.
 
frankie_baby said:
They're either mentally ill or complete morons, in fact probably both
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I mean I've been trying to be less judgemental at a glance but seeing that lady wanting to wear leg braces and be in a wheelchair when both or her legs work perfectly fine is a bit... perplexing.

I can only imagine if I was disabled thinking these people were delusional or something.

And yeah I don't really get the transgender comparison, as someone already pointed out.
 
I think I saw a Jerry Springer clip related to this, where a guy injected feces into his knee in an attempt to force medical amputation. I thought it was just made up for the show.
 
I remember a CSI episode about this. It's a body dysmorphia. Similar to how an anorexic person always thinks they aren't thin enough.
 
Came across something about this several years ago, with an article quoting a man who claimed to have been refused surgery to remove one of his legs and instead paid a black market doctor in Mexico.

As pointed out above, his argument was that the limb felt completely wrong to him, that in his mind he had only one leg and that his life was miserable until he had the limb removed.

Hard to wrap your head around, but not unfathomable.

Whether we as a society should enable these individuals to have such extreme (and obviously non-reversible) procedures is a question I have a hard time formulating a stance on.
 
maquiladora said:
Only a few decades ago people would have said the same and transgender people, hell there are still people who say that now.

Just because something is unfamiliar to us or seems "weird" we shouldn't rush to label it as an illness....
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well, the problem here is that while a woman does not believe her female gender to be a disability, a disabled person would hardly consider their disability something desireable. Even those who have learnt to cope with their handicap in the best way possible (i would think. at least most of them)

So while a transgender person has the desire to change from one gender to another, both equally abled, a "transabled" person seems to have the desire to change from ability to disability.
I'd assume some legitimately disabled people would find this somewhat insultig even.

Especially when we're going into the whole issue with government benefits due to disability.

I'm not a psychologist, but this does reek of the desire for either:
* having (the need for) someone to care for you
* having an "excuse" for being 'less productive' than other similarly abled people.

then again... live and let live.

It's kinda weird to me, and i do believe that cutting off a limb is mutilation. It's not even remotely compareable to gender reassignment surgery.
 
maquiladora said:
Only a few decades ago people would have said the same and transgender people, hell there are still people who say that now.

Just because something is unfamiliar to us or seems "weird" we shouldn't rush to label it as an illness....
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That's a weird logic, because it's applicable to literally anything you want. "Why make a judgement about anything? Our views may change in a few years."

I mean, it's not really difficult to see the difference between transgender and this. This is just glorified self-harm, whereas being transgender doesn't harm anyone.
 
is cosmetic surgery a form of mental illness too considering you're altering your physical self because you're not satisfied with how you look?
--
lmao @ smokydave
 
maquiladora said:
Only a few decades ago people would have said the same and transgender people, hell there are still people who say that now.
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I might sound like the biggest bigot with this, but here goes: wanting to be a different gender kind of is a mental illness. Not feeling right in your body even when in perfect physical health. Except it's a mental illness that can be fixed by switching genders. If that's what makes them a happier person, go for it. (Terribly sorry for offending anyone but it's just what i think.)

In this case though the way of fixing it is cutting off a limb or something similarily extreme. That should not be the way to go. You go down that road too far you end up letting suicidal people kill themselves because "that's what they want".
 
FUME5 said:
Came across something about this several years ago, with an article quoting a man who claimed to have been refused surgery to remove one of his legs and instead paid a black market doctor in Mexico.

Whether we as a society should enable these individuals to have such extreme (and obviously non-reversible) procedures is a question I have a hard time formulating a stance on.
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That's the thing.

For a doctor, it should look so wrong and unethical
 
This is interesting. I wonder how far the image of self such people has to warp in order to become "genuine fakes": they feel a role so sincerely in their minds that doesn't add up to reality, like the woman in the wheelchair despite not actually needing it. Most people actually fall into this problem with the illusion of self by and large - we identify with ideas that are usually projected onto reality, but not real by themselves - but very few take it to such extremes as some highlighted in the article above.

Perhaps this is the problem of self or ego taken to its full form, emphasizing subjective projections over objective reality...
 
there were times when homosexuals and transgender people were accused of "mental illness", too, if this really is a neurological problem as stated in the article then I have no reason to not take this seriously
 
maquiladora said:
Only a few decades ago people would have said the same and transgender people, hell there are still people who say that now.

Just because something is unfamiliar to us or seems "weird" we shouldn't rush to label it as an illness....
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It's not necessarily mental, but it's not the same as transgender. Gender is a variable attribute of a human being. Number of limbs is not, if it's less than four it's the result of an injury or birth defect or other disability.
 
Banzai said:
I might sound like the biggest bigot with this, but here goes: wanting to be a different gender kind of is a mental illness. Not feeling right in your body even when in perfect physical health. Except it's a mental illness that can be fixed by switching genders. If that's what makes them a happier person, go for it. (Terribly sorry for offending anyone but it's just what i think.)
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I see what you're getting at, but I think it's much better to look at being transgender as a physical condition, as it's the body that is wrong, not the mind. Suggesting it's a mental illness implies the cure is to fix the mind - which is not what you're saying here - but it does carry a certain stigma.
 
maquiladora said:
Only a few decades ago people would have said the same and transgender people, hell there are still people who say that now.

Just because something is unfamiliar to us or seems "weird" we shouldn't rush to label it as an illness....
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So your point is basically that mental illnesses don't exist. It's always something that we haven't accepted already.


Because if SELF-HARMING is not something that we should try to cure with a treatment, I don't know what is.
 
What happens when it puts them in a position of not being able to fully care for themselves or require external assistance of some sort, "transability allowance?" :|
 
I am really hating to see how post-modernity is turning mental illnesses into precious snowflake-y identities. You're not "choosing" shit. You are objectively harming yourself and then assembling a post-rationalization as to why "society" ought to cope with your illness rather than you facing your own mental condition and going to the psychologist. That type of "reasoning" is the source of many, many evils.
 
Arjen said:
Sounds like a mental illnes to me.
Comparing it to transgender sounds like an insult to them and people who are actually disabeld
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From the sounds of it the mechanism through which this affects people's health is really similar. The difference is where the disconnect between body and the brain's image of the body lies.
 
If thats what they want, then thats what they want. Seems strange on first glance, but if being fully able bodied is a clear detriment to their life, then sure.
 
This sounds like a sketch premise, like something out of Mr. Show.

Part of me figures they can cut off their own limbs if they want, but another part feels that condoning this is insanely disrespectful to those who are physically disabled through no choice of their own.
 
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