Body Integrity Identity Disorder also known as BIID, has recently become a phenomena many psychologists and neurologists have taken interest in. Although the disorder may have existed for centuries, the vocalization and advocacy of the condition has brought more attention to the community and research for possible psychological or neurological causes.

            Jesse Ellison defines BIID in the article “Cutting Desire” as “…an exceedingly rare condition characterized by an overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or become paraplegic.”  The overwhelming concern with the condition is the procedures many people will perform on their own bodies to amputee or paralyze themselves. Ellison mentions a few of the practices people have done which include sawing ones hand off, freezing a leg off with dry ice and blowing a leg out with a shotgun. These self-inflicted mutilations can result in a number of health issues such as infection and even death. However many of those with the condition feel this is the only way to feel relief from their obsessive thoughts. Sean O’Connor, of transabled.org and biid-info.org states “Nothing touches it, other than surgery. Psychotherapy doesn’t work. Psychiatry doesn’t work. Medication doesn’t work. I’m a pretty typical example of someone who’s attempted a [number] of ways to address the problem, done years of therapy of many types, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, and nothing helps.”

            Although it seems ineffective, I believe people with BIID should go through Cognitive-Behavioral therapy to refrain from inflecting any harm upon themselves. Similar to other body image disorders, psychologist should approach this condition in a way that doesn’t discount any of their thoughts and feelings on their body but should find ways to help people live as normal as possible with their disorder. Cognition, or thoughts have a direct relationship with our behavior, or our actions. If one can control these thoughts of being an amputee or a paraplegic, they can resist the urges to handicap themselves using dangerous methods. I believe the goal as of now should be to uncover the causes of BIID, whether it be a physical deformity in the brain or a psychological disorder. The disorder resembles gender identity, where many people feel they were not intended to be the sex they were born as, people with BIID feel they were not meant to have certain limbs. This choice of becoming disabled seems to more complex than that. Without proper research it’s difficult to accuse people with BIID with wanting something they shouldn’t want. It seems as if they are already suffering from a mental disability, which is difficult enough on its own.

            In “Cutting Desire,” Elllison asserts that many people with BIID are “…white middle-aged males.” I find this extremely interesting as the majority of people who suffer from any body image disorder are overwhelmingly women. A plausible cause of this might be the standards set for males when it comes to their physical strength and ability. Males are pressured to be physically strong and have bigger, muscular physiques. A man’s inability to reach this ideal body might lead to developing any body image disorder but a man deemed in capable of any physical strength might specially develop BIID. This is in contrast to women who are pressured to have slimmer bodies and as a result are more likely to become bulimic or anorexic.