# Woman self identifies as blind...so she blinded herself
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 1, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177 "2015-10-01T22:14:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/21 "2015-10-02T01:40:37Z")
> [@pbbth](#):
>
> The kind who work out of their van with their degree from Harvord duct taped to the window.
What, you think that duct tape can’t hold their Harvord degree? I got news for you, pal, it can hold it; and… hold it well.
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/22 "2015-10-02T01:41:39Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I don’t see anything funny about this.
There are none so blind…
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/23 "2015-10-02T01:47:44Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> [http://kfor.com/2015/10/01/woman-says-she-is-happier-than-ever-after-fulfilling-lifelong-wish-of-becoming-blind/](http://kfor.com/2015/10/01/woman-says-she-is-happier-than-ever-after-fulfilling-lifelong-wish-of-becoming-blind/)
>
> WTF!!!
>
> What kind of psychologist would assist a person this way?
Perhaps of the same school (or maybe even the _same_ doc) as described by our resident **Mercotan** in [this classic post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=273825).
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/24 "2015-10-02T01:51:21Z")
TRUE story:
The late Art Hoppe, long-time resident humor columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, addressed this topic back in the early 1970’s, when sex-change operations were very new and very experimental at Stanford University, and very controversial.
He wrote a column titled “The Operation”, about a man who felt he had been born into the wrong body. So he went to Stanford for _The Operation_ and came home as a gorgeous, long-haired blond Golden Retriever.
(I wish that article was on-line somewhere where it might be found.)
(ETA: I think that column was also sort of a spoof on the movie _Myra Breckinridge_ which was current about that time.)
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/25 "2015-10-02T08:22:07Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> I have Tourette’s and if I had grown up in today’s school system I probably would have been diagnosed on the spectrum myself.
>
> Be glad you don’t live in Europe, where they will help you kill yourself for Depression:
>
> [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/03/the-dutch-debate-doctor-assisted-suicide-for-depression.html](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/03/the-dutch-debate-doctor-assisted-suicide-for-depression.html)
>
> I wasn’t trying to be funny. I was commenting on how the medical community is doing away with the concept of objective reality. To the point where even life itself is a disorder rather than the depression.
They aren’t. A clinic in the Netherlands is–one that has everyone else questioning their determination.
Got another example, or is this as transphobic as it seems?
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/26 "2015-10-02T08:30:56Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> Maybe it was a friend that thought she was meant to be a psychologist and therefore she is a psychologist.
Won thread in 5.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/27 "2015-10-02T09:49:15Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I don’t see anything funny about this.
Geez, I got a chuckle from a silly pun. I wasn’t chuckling at the situation. I feel so scolded.
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### Author:  [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/28 "2015-10-02T10:00:28Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#):
>
> Geez, I got a chuckle from a silly pun. I wasn’t chuckling at the situation. I feel so scolded.
Did **Left Hand** ’s joke blindside you, I wonder?
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### Author:  [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/29 "2015-10-02T10:01:37Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#):
>
> My money is still on hoax.
Yeah. I think this is someone trying to make a point about transgender people.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/30 "2015-10-02T10:32:50Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#):
>
> Did **Left Hand** ’s joke blindside you, I wonder?
And now I feel stupid too.
:smack: I’m gonna need a second pot of coffee today.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/31 "2015-10-02T11:34:12Z")
Y’know, a little digging online reveals that, on the black market, apparently corneas are going for $24,000 a pop…
So, this woman and/or her physician would be not only potentially nuts, but _stupid_ as well.
(Personally, I would have just given her saline drops, and when she complained that she could still see, told her that she just had [Anton-Babinski Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%E2%80%93Babinski_syndrome), and she was just _hallucinating_ still having vision. I figure that’d at least buy me enough time to get away with my very reasonable fee for a dose of Doctor Ranchoth’s Painless Blinding Serum™)
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/32 "2015-10-02T13:57:40Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#):
>
> Did **Left Hand** ’s joke blindside you, I wonder?
I just didn’t see the humor in it.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/33 "2015-10-02T14:05:51Z")
Although repeated by multiple “news” outlets (probably just repeating the same script) I find it hard to believe a licensed professional would intentionally treat his patient this way. YMMV.
If s/he did, s/he should be arrested. If not, this woman is to be pitied. But does one get to apply for Medicare/Medicaid if the disability is of one’s own making?
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/34 "2015-10-02T14:13:27Z")
> [@Leaper](#):
>
> I too find it hard to believe that a medical professional did this (if any of this happened at all), especially not with such crude methods.
A psychologist is not a medical professional. They’re not allowed to write prescriptions. I wonder how one would get access to “numbing eye drops.”
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/35 "2015-10-02T14:16:48Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> A psychologist is not a medical professional. They’re not allowed to write prescriptions. I wonder how one would get access to “numbing eye drops.”
How about diluted toothache gel?
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/36 "2015-10-02T14:20:51Z")
The original source for the story is something called “Barcroft TV.” I’ve never heard of it, but the story there says she acquired the numbing eye drops on a trip to Canada.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/37 "2015-10-02T14:52:51Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> I just didn’t see the humor in it.
I see what you did there.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/38 "2015-10-02T14:57:09Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> [http://kfor.com/2015/10/01/woman-says-she-is-happier-than-ever-after-fulfilling-lifelong-wish-of-becoming-blind/](http://kfor.com/2015/10/01/woman-says-she-is-happier-than-ever-after-fulfilling-lifelong-wish-of-becoming-blind/)
>
> WTF!!!
>
> What kind of psychologist would assist a person this way?
Clearly he was quite a visionary.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/39 "2015-10-02T16:57:23Z")
In a recent thread, I posted some things I look for in a news story that set off my hoax suspicions. One of them was when a news articles makes a point of saying it’s just reporting what another source said - this covers them for reporting when somebody else is lying.
In the linked article there are six separate times where the article says it is reporting what Barcroft TV said.
If you go to the Barcroft TV site, you’ll find that “Barcroft brings you the amazing side of life” and their sections are dedicated to HOT TOPICS, AMAZING REAL LIFE STORIES, UNBELIEVABLE BODIES, and INSPIRATIONAL LIVES.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-self-identifies-as-blind-so-she-blinded-herself/733177/40 "2015-10-02T17:14:30Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#):
>
> What kind of psychologist would assist a person this way?
Sigmund Fraud?
And if you’re not comfortable in your own skin, there’s always B.F. Skinner.
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