Merleau-Ponty’s sexual schema and the sexual component of body integrity identity disorder

Preester, Helena De

doi:10.1007/s11019-011-9367-3

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…First, the desire for amputation is often triggered by encounters with amputees (Aoyama et al, 2012). Second, a profound admiration for amputees up to a sexual attraction towards incomplete bodies has been described in some individuals with xenomelia (De Preester, 2013;First, 2005) and third, affected persons frequently pretend in private or public to be amputees. The perception of one's own and another person's body are intimately linked (Schilder, 1935), and sensorimotor processes are influenced by observation and imitation of others (de Guzman et al, 2016;Tsakiris, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

Macauda

Bekrater-Bodmann

Brugger

et al. 2017

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Individuals with xenomelia identify with an amputated rather than with their physically complete, healthy body. They often mimic amputees and show a strong admiration of and sexual attraction towards them. Here we investigated for the first time empirically whether such unusual preference for amputated bodies is present also on an implicit level. Using the well-validated Implicit Association Test we show that individuals with xenomelia manifested a stronger implicit and explicit preference for amputated bodies than a normally-limbed control group and a group of involuntary amputees did. Interestingly, the two latter groups did not differ in their implicit and explicit preference for complete versus amputated bodies. These findings are an important step in understanding how deeply rooted attitudes about a socially normative body appearance may be influenced by a developmentally disordered experience of one's own bodily self. We conclude that this is the first behavioral evidence demonstrating a conflict of self-identification on an implicit level and this enriches current understandings of xenomelia as a primarily neurological disorder. AbstractIndividuals with xenomelia identify with an amputated rather than with their physically complete, healthy body. They often mimic amputees and show a strong admiration of and sexual attraction towards them. Here we investigated for the first time empirically whether such unusual preference for amputated bodies is present also on an implicit level. Using the wellvalidated Implicit Association Test we show that individuals with xenomelia manifested a stronger implicit and explicit preference for amputated bodies stronger than a normally-limbed control group and a group of involuntary amputees did. Interestingly, the two latter groups did not differ in their implicit and explicit preference for complete versus amputated bodies. These findings are an important step in understanding how deeply rooted attitudes about a socially normative body appearance may be influenced by a developmentally disordered experience of one's own bodily self. We conclude that this first behavioral evidence to demonstrate a conflict of self-identification on an implicit level and this enriches current understandings of xenomelia as a primarily neurological disorder.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

Macauda

Bekrater-Bodmann

Brugger

et al. 2017

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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“…The actual debate on BIID hypothesizes also that this disturbance might be induced by a psychiatric disorder with a wider emotional impairment (De Preester, 2011). Consequently, individuals with BIID might manifest a general pathological emotional processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the desire for amputation related to disturbed emotion processing? A multiple case study analysis in BIID

2014

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Body integrity identity disorder (BIID) is characterized by the overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or to be paraplegic. Recently, a neurological explanation of this condition has been proposed, in part on the basis of findings that the insular cortex might present structural anomalies in these individuals. While these studies focused on body representation, much less is known about emotional processing. Importantly, emotional impairments have been found in psychiatric disorders, and a psychiatric etiology is still a valid alternative to purely neurological accounts of BIID. In this study, we explored, by means of a computerized experiment, facial emotion recognition and emotional responses to disgusting images in seven individuals with BIID, taking into account their clinical features and investigating in detail disgust processing, strongly linked to insular functioning. We demonstrate that BIID is not characterized by a general emotional impairment; rather, there is a selectively reduced disgust response to violations of the body envelope. Taken together, our results support the need to explore this condition under an interdisciplinary perspective, taking into account also emotional connotations and the social modulation of body representation.

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“…First, in his seminal study with 52 persons with disability desires, 1 emphasized that only 15% of the participants indicated sexual arousal as the primary motivation for their desire. It was later pointed out 15,33 that another 52% indicated sexual arousal at least as their secondary motivation. Also, 45 of First's 52 participants reported being sexually attracted to amputees -thus 87% had paraphilic desires on top of an affliction of "purely bodily identity"!…”

Section: Proposed Diagnostic Criteria and Differential Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…74 The conceptualization of xenomelia as a mirror image of aplasic phantom limbs 75 is perhaps more than a metaphor; if in the latter case, seeing a limb in motion can elicit feeling a corresponding own limb, in xenomelia, observing the absence of another person's limb could unmask a congenital underrepresentation of the own limb -in the words of Robert Smith, the sight of an amputee "seems to awaken an internal identity that had previously been unrecognized". 76,p.73 The undeniable paraphilic component of the desire for amputation 15 may find an explanation in the architecture of low-level body representations. The adjacency of the foot/leg representation and that of the genital organs in the postcentral gyrus may be more than a coincidence when it comes to explain the four-fold incidence of legs over arms in amputation desires and the stronger erotic connotations of disability desires with leg compared to arm amputees.…”

Section: Towards a Social Neuroscience Of Disability Desiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This might explain its repeated inclusion among the hot spots of functional 47 and structural 61 cerebral abnormalities in persons with xenomelia. De Preester 15 localized a "sexual schema" in conceptual proximity to an insular-parieto-frontal system that merges somatosensation, erotic arousal and visual observation of conspecifics. Specifically, she considered conceivable that the observation of an amputee during early development could lead to a "dramatic explication of the sexual schema into the body image".…”

Section: Towards a Social Neuroscience Of Disability Desiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Limb amputation and other disability desires as a medical condition

Brugger

Christen

Jellestad

et al. 2016

The Lancet Psychiatry

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Some people have a profound dissatisfaction with what is considered an able-bodied state by most others. These individuals desire to be disabled, by conventional standards. In this Review, we integrate research findings about the desire for a major limb amputation or paralysis (xenomelia). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging explorations of xenomelia show functional and structural abnormalities in predominantly right hemisphere cortical circuits of higher-order bodily representation, including affective and sexual aspects of corporeal awareness. These neural underpinnings of xenomelia do not necessarily imply a neurological cause, and a full understanding of the condition requires consideration of the interface between neural and social contributions to the bodily self and the concept of disability. Irrespective of cause, disability desires are accompanied by a disabling bodily dysphoria, in many respects similar to gender dysphoria, and we suggest that they should be considered a mental disorder. SummaryThere are persons who suffer from a profound dissatisfaction with what is considered an ablebodied state by most others. They desire to be "dis-abled" by conventional standards. We integrate recent research findings on the desire for a major limb amputation or paralysis ("xenomelia"). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging explorations of xenomelia revealed functional and structural abnormalities in predominantly right hemisphere cortical circuits of higher-order bodily representation, including affective and sexual aspects of corporeal awareness. These neural underpinnings of xenomelia do not necessarily imply a neurological etiology, and a full understanding of the condition requires consideration of the interface between neural and social contributions to the bodily self and the concept of (dis)ability. Irrespective of etiology, disability desires are accompanied by a disabling bodily dysphoria, in many respects similar to gender dysphoria, and deserve to be considered a mental disorder.3 IntroductionThis review integrates recent research findings concerning a condition that is not yet recognized as a mental disorder, which is still in search of a generally accepted medical label and whose conceptual basis is still "under construction". The condition involves a person's dissatisfaction with an able-bodied state. It is referred to as "body integrity identity disorder" (BIID) in the psychiatric literature, "xenomelia" in neurologically oriented studies, and "transability" ("transableism") in approaches to disability from a primarily sociological perspective (table 1, appendix and figure 1, appendix, for the terminology). In this review we use the term "disability desires" to remain descriptive and avoid controversial concepts of identity and too narrow notions of focal brain damage. Although deafness, blindness or the status of a eunuch can be the target of disability desires, the focus of our review is on the desire for limb amputation or paraplegia. These forms of profound bodily modification are the...

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Merleau-Ponty’s sexual schema and the sexual component of body integrity identity disorder

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

Is the desire for amputation related to disturbed emotion processing? A multiple case study analysis in BIID

Limb amputation and other disability desires as a medical condition

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