Anyone not already know what that was? You might want to let that curiosity rest on this one. It’s a severe case of icthyosis whose victims typically do not live out the week. The pictures are not for the faint of internal organ.
I had to have my right eye sewn closed once, but I didn’t get to wear an eyepatch.
Life’s just not fair.
After having more than a fair sampling of seeing people injured or sick and disabled, I will be a buzzkill and state I am very happy that I am healthy.
Yeah, I know. “go away Shirley, your ruining our fun.”
Well, as long as Shirley is being a buzzkill…
I work as a psychologist with folks who have had amputations (and spinal cord injuries, but that’s another story). Amputations have this freaky quality to them in fantasy, and when you don’t see them often or know the person, they can seem very freaky in real life, too, so I can sort of understand the fascination. People just aren’t supposed to look that way, you know? I remember seeing a guy once on TV who had lost both of his legs at the hip. Just watching him walk on his hands with his torso swinging between them was freaky as hell and was fascinating. In real life, though, for most of us, when you see someone with an amputation, it is just another medical problem, although I must admit to a little visceral reaction at when I first meet someone sometimes even now, when I have known hundreds of people with amputations.
However, there are people who are sexually aroused by the sight or thought of amputations (called devotees) and others who really want amputations themselves (wannabes). Devotees are considered to have a paraphilia (aka fetish). They tend to be males who are interested in young females who have lost a leg (not arms, interestingly). If you look, you can find devotee websites and even erotic comics, but don’t blame me if you are skeeved out by it. The fact that the paraphilia is so specific and sex-linked (female devotees are extremely rare at best) and that it is hard to imagine that it is learned (what, someone had an early erotic experience with an amputee?) makes researchers think it is due to an abnormality in the brain. IMHO, it is the normal horror/fascination we all have, taken to a very extreme level. On a practical level, I discuss this issue with all my young female patients. If someone chooses to be in a relationship with a devotee (and some amputees do and are happy), that is up to them. I just don’t want an amputee to walk into a relationship without some information.
Less is known about wannabes. They are rare, fortunately, and don’t come to psychologists or psychiatrists for help. There is some suspicion that occasionally one will deliberately hurt a limb to force an amputation, but I think that is extremely rare. I think they tend to focus on fantasy.
For a nice, normal woman, I know way too much about this stuff…