We’re such funny animals
Breaking up bones between our teeth
Lennon says, “Love” three times
And the killing stops
Just for a heart (((beat)))
But there is something melancholy,
Something sweet
Something ironic
That a preacher of love
Would be shot in the street.

Why is there so much anger and aggression
In the places, the interfaces
Where people meet?
Some say the media’s to blame
But I didn’t go and jump in the lake
Just the same.
Would you say everything’s ok
If I told you, “Life is just a game.”
Where gentlemen row their boats so merrily
That it feels just like a dream, and I am

In a stream.

And I am

Going to (((scream)))

A New Way to Be Mad
The True Self

The True Self

In 1977 the Johns Hopkins psychologist John Money published the first modern case history of what he termed “apotemnophilia”—an attraction to the idea of being an amputee. He distinguished apotemnophilia from “acrotomophilia”—a sexual attraction to amputees.

The suffix -philia is important here. It places these conditions in the group of psychosexual disorders called paraphilias, often referred to outside medicine as perversions. Fetishes are a fairly common sort of paraphilia. In the same way that some people are turned on by, say, shoes or animals, others are turned on by amputees. Not by blood or mutilation—pain is not usually what they are looking for. The apotemnophile’s desire is to be an amputee, whereas the acrotomophile’s desire is turned toward those who happen to be amputees.

I found John Money’s papers on amputee attraction at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand, shortly after the Falkirk story made the news. Money is an expatriate New Zealander, and he has deposited his collected manuscripts in the Otago medical library. I had come to Dunedin to write a book at the university’s Bioethics Centre, where I’d worked in the early 1990s. I have a medical degree, teach university courses in philosophy, and write a fair bit about the philosophy of psychiatry, and I was interested in the way that previously little-known psychiatric disorders spread, sometimes even reaching epidemic proportions, for reasons that nobody seems fully to understand. But I had never heard of apotemnophilia or acrotomophilia before the Falkirk story broke. I wondered: Was this a legitimate psychiatric disorder? Was there any chance that it might spread? Like Josephine Johnston, a lawyer in Dunedin who is writing a graduate thesis on the legality of these amputations (and who first brought the Falkirk case to my attention), I also wondered about the ethical and legal status of surgery as a solution. Should amputation be treated like cosmetic surgery, or like invasive psychiatric treatment, or like a risky research procedure?

more…

Here’s some NYC photos from Fetishist Street Festival by DeLares (Eliud Martinez) – Just click on the photo above to go to the whole series on flickr.

Five Minutes In January (series) no. 3, originally uploaded by baisemoi.

Here is another in the series of self-portraits, which I shot yesterday in five minutes, as the title explains. cheer-i-o, cocopuff.

Five Minutes In January (series) no. 8, originally uploaded by baisemoi.

I wanted to show these, because I am an autoerotic, but I have no desires to asphyxiate myself. Quite to the contrary, I don’t enjoy being uncomfortable at all. I remember playing with apnea (not the model, but in the fantasy dept., of course). I was younger and lots of times experimented with that feeling of suspending my breathing. I also remember waking suddnely very often, and taking a breath quickly, because I was in some kind of suspended animation state where I just stopped breathing. Apnea in itself is interesting to me, but not the asphyxiation method.

In general, the folks on flickr use the theme of asphyxiation and autoerotic in a synonymous way – the media has firmly fixed this generic reference, and because it is so sensational, bloggers and the like are proliferating it in one liners with photos everywhere.

roguemaster1, originally uploaded by baisemoi.

The Virtue Of Selfishness, by Ayn Rand… it just made me think of that book.

Aynd, of course altruism ain’t my thing, selfishness is what I am inclined toward.  I don’t take it to any intellectual extreme: how about this – start by loving yourself and you can find the pathways to everything else.

It is the most commonly known application of autoeroticism. But remember that autoerotic asphyxiation is a very sensationalized aspect of autoeroticism, and is not any kind of central focus for this blog. I thought I would touch on this aspect of autoeroticism, because it’s so prevalent in the media, that it needs to be talked about. See the about section to get some basic points on autoeroticism.

Here are some points about autoerotic asphyxiation.

“suicide” is a misnomer
approx. 50 deaths annually nationwide
the victims are mostly young males
sometimes using a partner

Autoerotic asphyxiation arose out of the observation that men executed by hanging often got an erection and sometimes ejaculated. It’s described in detail in de Sade’s Justine and is mentioned in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Lack of oxygen causes lightheadedness, reducing inhibitions and enhancing the sexual experience. Other factors are possibly masochistic fantasies, castration anxiety, and psychological factors.

It’s easy to accidentaly suffocate. Only seven pounds of pressure will collapse the carotid artery, producing unconsciousness within seconds. Sometimes those into bondage and fetishes, will use elaborate bindings and self-rescue difficult (partners are a good safety net!)

Reading: The Breathless Orgasm: A Lovemap Biography of Asphyxophilia by John Money, Gordon Wainwright, and David Hingsburger (Prometheus Books, 1991). Includes story by an “asphyxiophile”

This is what Autoerotic Asphyxiation is called in clinical terms:
Hypoxyphilia/Auto-erotic Asphyxia

Hypoxyphilia is a paraphilia which is a sub-category of sexual masochism. Also known by terms such as asphyxiophilia, autoerotic or sexual asphyxia, this potentially lethal sexual practice refers to sexual arousal that is produced while reducing the oxygen supply to the brain.

Hypoxyphilia has been known to medical science for nearly a hundred years, and to others perhaps since antiquity, but most of what we know about it has come from the study of cases in which a mishap has occurred and the individual has died as a result of, or during, the practice. Living practitioners tend not to present clinically or to make their behaviours widely known and hence detailed insight into the paraphilia is not widely available in the literature.

It should be emphasized that this practice is intended to induce sexual pleasure but practitioners are usually aware of the risk element that is inherent in the act should they lose consciousness. Because of that , the individual is usually careful to use some kind of safety mechanism intended to prevent accidental death in the event of unconsciousness.

There is no evidence that hypoxyphilia is a form of disguised suicide. In most cases hypoxyphilic deaths are a complete surprise to family and friends as the deceased was typically in a good mood and giving every indication that they were looking forward to the future. forensicpsychiatry.ca

Hypoxia is a term that simply means ‘low oxygen’. It can refer to high altitude climbing, for instance, or the level of oxygen in waters where it has various biological indications. In humans, low oxygen can naturally create a sexual euphoric feeling. This is the reason that people become attracted to it as a form of sexual play.

If you really want to learn more about autoerotic asphyxiation, this looks like a good book -

Autoerotic Asphyxiation: Forensic, Medical, and Social Aspects
Sergey Sheleg and Edwin Ehrlich
Paperback, 6×9 in, 208 pages Bibliography
Wheatmark, August 2006
ISBN: 1587366045