# A somewhat disturbing link... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 21, 2001, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-somewhat-disturbing-link/58856 "2001-03-21T14:31:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-somewhat-disturbing-link/58856/3 "2001-03-21T15:27:01Z")
Yes, it’s a bona fide fetish/lifestyle. The desire to be an amputee is called apotemnophilia. I’ve seen a few documentaries on it and the brilliant British magazine Bizarre has run a few interesting and fairly in-depth articles on it. Here are the [Google](http://www.google.com/search?q=apotemnophilia) and [Altavista](http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?q=apotemnophilia&kl=XX&pg=q&Translate=on) search results on it - there are thousands of sites devoted to apotemnophilia. It’s really quite widespread. Obviously, it’s controversial topic and the first rection is usually “Noooooooo way! That’s mentalist behaviour!” but a little research reveals that there are many perfectly rational people who hold these desires, for a wide variety of reasons. And of course, there’s a few mentalists as well. But isn’t there everywhere? Fran --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-somewhat-disturbing-link/58856)._