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Acrotomophilia (from the Greek ἀκρότομος "having the top cut off" (from ἄκρον "akron" "extremity" and -τομος "-tomos" from τέμνω "temno" "I cut") and φιλία "philia" "love") is a paraphilia in which an individual expresses strong sexual interest in amputees. It is a counterpart to "apotemnophilia", the sexual interest in "being" an amputee.
Acrotomophiles may be attracted to amputees because they like the way they look or they may view the amputee’s stump as a phallic object which can be used for sexual pleasure.A small number of Acrotomophiles may enjoy the idea of dominating the amputee during couples play and they may also become aroused with the thought of having to take care of an amputee.
Attraction to disability or devotism is a sexualised interest in the appearance, sensation and experience of disability. It may extend from normal human sexuality into a type of sexual fetishism. Sexologically, the pathological end of the attraction tends to be classified as a paraphilia. (Note, however, that the very concept "paraphilia" continues to elude satisfactory definition and remains a subject of ongoing debate in both professional and lay communities) Other researchers have approached it as a form of identity disorder. The most common interests are towards amputations, prosthesis, and crutches.
Until the 1990s, it tended to be described mostly as acrotomophilia, at the expense of other disabilities, or of the wish by some to pretend or acquire disability. Bruno (1997) systematised the attraction as factitious disability disorder. A decade on, others argue that erotic target location error is at play, classifying the attraction as an identity disorder. In the standard psychiatric reference "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", text revision (DSM-IV-tr), the fetish falls under the general category of "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders" and the more specific category of paraphilia, or sexual fetishes; this classification is preserved in DSM-5.
Apotemnophilia is a disorder characterized by the intense and long-standing desire for amputation of a specific limb. In recent years the word apotemnophilia has come to be seen to carry pejorative overtones, meaning as it does "a love of amputation" and implying that the condition is a sexual paraphilia. In an attempt to move towards a more neutral term for desiring an amputation McGeoch, Brang and Ramachandran proposed that the desire for an amputation be renamed "xenomelia", which derives from the Greek to mean foreign limb. Another term for the condition is body integrity identity disorder (BIID), but this has come to apply to not only those who desire an amputation but also those who want a range of disabilities including deafness, blindness and a spinal cord injury.
Apotemnophilia (xenomelia) has features in common with somatoparaphrenia. Some apotemnophiles seek surgeons to perform an amputation or purposefully injure a limb in order to force emergency medical amputation. A separate definition of apotemnophilia is erotic interest in being or looking like an amputee. This separate definition should not be confused with acrotomophilia, which is the erotic interest in people who "are" amputees.
Apotemnophilia (xenomelia) was first described in a 1977 article by psychologists Gregg Furth and John Money: "Apotemnophilia: two cases of self-demand amputation as paraphilia." Until recently, the primary explanation for Apotemnophilia was psychological/psychiatric, however recent research suggests that here may be a neurological etiology for this disorder.
Apotemnophia / Body Integrity Disorder (BIID) is a is a rare, infrequently studied and highly secretive condition in which there is a mismatch between the mental body image and the physical body. Apotemnomphilia is characterized by an intense desire for amputation of a limb. Currently BIID is not included in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases 11 or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV. It is often not known to surgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists. BIID individuals typically avoid healthcare and often act out their desires by pretending they are disabled or perform actual self-amputation.
A 2012 study concluded, based on interviews with 54 individuals, that the main rationale for their desire for body modification (amputation) was to feel complete or to feel satisfied inside. Based on the results of the survey, researchers concluded that psychotherapy was often supportive, but did not help diminishing BIID symptoms. Individuals reported that antidepressants were helpful in reducing depressive symptoms related to BIID, but that antipsychotics were not. Actual amputation of the limb was effective in all 7 cases who had surgical treatment.