There is a very anguishing mental illness known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder in which the ill person believes their “true self” to be disabled–usually paraplegic or an amputee.
Recently, I have noticed BIID moving toward normalization in the media, now being called “transabled.”
This uncritical story of Jewell Shuping, a woman with BIID who self-identified as blind–and a psychologist helped take away her sight–reveals how far we have fallen as a society. From the Tribune Media story:
In 2006, Shuping found a psychologist who was willing to help her become blind. The psychologist began putting numbing drops in her eyes, followed by a couple of drops of drain cleaner. “It hurt, let me tell you. My eyes were screaming and I had some drain cleaner going down my cheek burning my skin,” she told Barcroft TV.
“But all I could think was ‘I am going blind, it is going to be okay.’” It took about half a year for the damage to take effect. “When I woke up the following day I was joyful until I turned on to my back and opened my eyes – I was so enraged when I saw the TV screen,” Shuping said.
Eventually, one of her eyes had to be removed and the other had glaucoma and cataracts.
Shuping says she is now “happier than ever.” That’s all the matters, I guess.
But she’s seriously seriously mentally ill. The story doesn’t even mention the horrors to come if ”consent” to medical professionals intentionally causing harm justifies the act.
I have noticed increasing voices saying that taking actions such as intentionally blinding a woman who doesn’t want to see is not harming, but helping. Indeed, it is already being advocated.