![]() |
|
![]()
February 27th, 2012
06:30 PM ET
Why some patients take out their own eyesRemember the myth of Oedipus, where the king of Ancient Thebes stabbed his own eyes after he realized he'd killed his own father and married his mother? As gory as it sounds, intentionally blinding oneself isn't entirely mythical. Although rare, there have been cases of people seriously injuring their own eyes, and sometimes completely removing them. There's even a technical term, self-enucleation, for the behavior of taking out your eyeballs. Dr. Matthew Michael Large at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues have analyzed the records of this behavior available, and published several journal articles on the subject. Their latest is in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, appearing this week. Based on more than 50 reports of self-injury of the eyes over the past 50 years, the scientists argue that it is not necessarily a so-called Oedipal phenomenon; people do not generally harm themselves this way because of guilt regarding incest. Instead, it is a symptom of untreated psychosis, Large and colleagues write. The authors noted in a 2008 study that in no recorded culture is the eye ritually mutilated; in fact, it is the only external body part for which this is the case. They analyzed 89 published cases describing serious self-inflicted eye injury by patients with a diagnosis of a psychotic illness. Patients more commonly removed an eye than penetrating it, or inflicting other orbital injuries. “Three patients blinded themselves with air guns and three patients sustained eye injuries in the course of attempting to stab their brains with a pen or pencil," the authors wrote. Many patients also attempted or engaged in other violent acts: Two had previously committed homicide and there were several reports of serious assaults. And some had also tried other forms of self-mutilation: stabbing themselves in the neck, attempting to amputate their hands, or biting off their own tongues. Two patients attempted to amputate their own penises, and one castrated himself. They cite a 1984 study in the journal Survey of Ophthalmology looking at 33 case reports, which found that half of them were young women, two-thirds had religious delusions and six cited the same Bible passage from Matthew:
In 94% of the 89 cases, patients had psychotic symptoms related to the eye - for instance, that the eye was evil or had threatening powers. And some believed that to save themselves or others, they had to sacrifice a normal eye. In 76 of the cases, there was a schizophrenia-related diagnosis. “None of the patients was reported to have self-enucleated for reasons that could be reasonably compared to the story of Oedipus," they write. Mostly, patients injured themselves before getting treated. And they weren't only Christians of European descent, as some studies have suggested. Chinese, Japanese, Jewish and Muslim patients have also been documented, Large and colleagues write. Eye injury of this nature is a medical and psychiatric emergency, they write. Patients should always consult with an ophthalmic surgeon immediately, and they should get prophylactic antibiotics and corticosteroids. A doctor should assess patients for vision loss in the other eye if only one eye was removed. "Although we hesitate to recommend restrictive treatment for any patient, in the situation of a first or attempted self-enucleation, 1:1 nursing and the application of fingerless mittens and arm restraints until antipsychotic treatment has taken effect might be the only way to prevent deluded and determined patients from blinding themselves," Large and colleagues write in the new study. "Electro-convulsive therapy has also been described as a useful treatment." Eye injuries are distinct from other forms of self-injury, which don't necessarily have psychotic roots, say ethnographers Peter and Patti Adler, authors of "The Tender Cut: Inside the World of Self-Injury." Cutting oneself and similar methods of self-harm are often motivated by troubled feelings, and see injuring themselves as a way to self-soothe, self-punish, or express inner bad feelings. Teenagers and adults experiencing these feelings are also known to engage in self-injury, as well as disadvantaged populations. "People with serious psychological problems may self-injure, but at this point in time there are many, many more people who self-injure because their lives are tough and they don't know other ways of dealing with it," Adler and Adler told CNN in an e-mail. But injury to the eye signifies more serious psychological problems, experts say. "Although to the naked eye these behaviors may appear related, they are probably not that close," the Adlers said. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() About this blog
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love. |
|
I'm just glad I was wearing glasses while reading this.
I'm so glad I took the time to see what this article was about.
1/2 of them were young women? How shocking, since 1/2 of young adults are women. I'm guess most eye-gouging psychotics don't live to be very old.
why even report this? was there a mass of people gouging out their eyes??
Just Ewwwww!
Owe. Owe. Ouch! What a horrible psychosis!
Two words: "Jersey Shore".
hummm ok let's see...a good reason for you to take your own eyeball right now = you can take your own eyeball after reading this article, then buy a fake one – take a picture with it and, then remove it put it into a box and send it to however wrote this article with the words written next to it: "I'm keeping my eye on you"
where we're going, we won't need eyes to see
I was wondering how long it would be till someone makes that allusion.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Bill! Robin looks like he's in for a painful time in that Batman #33 cover (and Santa doesn't look like it's going to be fun for him eihetr on Action #105.
Interesting article#**
Sick Sick Sick
They forgot to mention people who get murderers eyes transplanted and then start seeing things the murderers did, 'cuz that happens a lot, too.
weird and I think I have something in my eye
if you take out your own eye than you deserve to perish. disgusting.
Hahaha a pirates tale...... Thank god for protective glasses
If Sarah Palin gouged out her own eyes would she still wear those stupid glasses?
I had a friend who, after a night partying, tried to take out her contact lens and ended up with an eyepatch for a few weeks b/c she had worn her glasses that day.
So this behaviour has to do with some sort of psychosis? Really, ya think so?!
Thank you, Betsy, enraging sujcbet tho it is. People who use their age and power to abuse children, well, words just fail me. And people who change laws to protect the predators are guilty of criminal conspiracy in my farmgrrrlll book. And hugs to your amazing friend in the previous post. He shows the good side of the human race.okay, more coffee! *stumbles off for Oxdown and stimulating beverage*
I wish CNN would just shut down theirweb site. I am really tired of pathetic artciles like this. I just don't know why and how they come up with stuff like this.
Why do you read them then hmmmmmmmm?
Not a particularly edifying article. However, when I teach Oedipus again next year, I will provide a copy of this article just for "fun".
Sooo, that explains St Lucy gouging out her eyes so she would be unattractive to males and thus serve the lord more completely.........hmmmm............even as a former catholic, I found that just..........hmmmmmm
So true. Somewhere along the way, the media came to regard baalcne as the pinnacle of journalism. Balance is a false goal. If you have a spokesman opposed to child rape would you bring on a proponent for baalcne? If you have someone commenting on the roundness of the Earth would you bring on someone to argue that it is actually flat just so you can say you covered both sides? Of course not.The primary goal of journalism is not baalcne, but truth. And you do not need an advocate of lies to baalcne that perspective.
baalcne
my younger sister did this to herself last October. It is un-fathomable that someone could do this to themselves as it is very difficult to remove an eye but she managed to do this while in a hospital ER awaiting examination. She did it, we suppose as she will not discuss it, with her own hands. Can you imagine the poor ER nurse who came into the room to discover this horrific scene? She had such beautiful eyes but has been a tortured soul her entire life. It saddens me so that her existence has come to this; a blind, mentally handicapped person living in a Psychiatric Hospital.
"Self-enucleation" was also notably studied by Doctors in a medical experiment held in Nuremberg, Germany. Does the Nuremberg Experiment sound familiar? Contrary to this article, these patients did not do this consciously stemmed out of their own unique psychological thought.(which is also driven by a chemical imbalance in the brain) These patients, or test subjects, removed or injured their eyes after being administered dangerous concoctions of hormones and chemicals cooked up by the Doctors. Depending on dosage, the formulas or mixes of these medications also caused other types of neurological reactions. After triggering the behaviors, Doctors could then diagnose and deem the patient as Psychotic so as to continue onto another level of “treatment”. They, or anyone else given this recipe, including you, could have the same unconscious, immediate biological response, of “taking out your own eyes”. The drug’s observed reaction in humans: both hands make strong thumbs up, stab backwards at face into the inner corners of the eye, tear eye out outwards away from nose, and pull hard-like pulling a rip cord. This particular methodical act of yanking out one’s own eye, was discovered as being an innate human survival mechanism to stop unbearable chaos or sheer agony in the brain. Thus, the individual is forced, from the act of pulling out the eye, to give themselves their own personal lobotomy to stay alive. This horrific drug from Neuremberg, was conceived as an optimal effective weapon of biological warfare and torture against the enemy or P.O.W..
That is the very best search system in the planet
http://google.com
The crucial point to recognize is this fact applies not just in , but additionally to.
http://6dollarmillion.xyz
Earn 100 commissions of up to 900+ dollars DAILY. 90 Second Set Up- 100 Newbie Friendly – Fully Hosted "MonsterMode PRO Funnel" Included FREE – Fully Scalable $10K+ Per Month Income Potential More details: Click the link in profile
https://bit.ly/2YfQFcC
As I web site possessor I believe the content matter here is rattling excellent , appreciate it for your hard work. You should keep it up forever! Good Luck.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you have been utilizing? I’m having some small security problems with my latest site and I’d like to find something more safe. Do you have any solutions?
http://yourmatrixcashmachine.com
I do consider all the ideas you've introduced in your post. They are very convincing and can definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are too short for beginners. Could you please prolong them a bit from next time? Thank you for the post.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Great write-up, I am regular visitor of one¡¦s site, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a lengthy time.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer.
I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet
browser compatibility but I thought I'd post to let you know.
The design look great though! Hope you get the issue solved soon. Kudos
Needed to put you the tiny observation to be able to say thanks a lot once again with the breathtaking concepts you have shown here. It's quite particularly generous with you giving unreservedly just what some people would've distributed for an e book to get some bucks for their own end, particularly seeing that you could have tried it in the event you decided. These smart ideas likewise served like a good way to know that some people have the identical dream really like my personal own to know whole lot more with reference to this problem. I'm certain there are a lot more enjoyable instances in the future for people who take a look at your blog post.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
I was looking at some of your articles on this internet site and I believe this web site is real instructive! Retain posting.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Spot on with this write-up, I seriously believe that this amazing site
needs a great deal more attention. I'll probably be back again to see more, thanks for the advice!
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, subscribers? Our Company provide SMM Services that means (Social Media Marketing) that is directly using social network websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to promote a website. High Quality Services / Our prices are the cheapest in the market, starting at $0.01 / 24/7 Support / API Support for panel leaders / Best prices
https://bit.ly/3iOPatX
I think other website proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and wonderful user genial style and design, as well as the content. You're an expert in this topic!
http://www.zortilonrel.com/
Do you want get more social network traffic, likes, and retweets? SMM Supreme uses his own panel system to generate social media traffic to any website. Best Quality-Price Ratio on the market with 714928 orders until now. – Facebook Fan Page Likes: $4.50/1000 – Instagram Followers: $0.78/1000 – Youtube Views: $1.62/1000 – Twitter followers: $2.10/1000 – Paypal Deposit – Payeer Deposit – Automatic order processing – 30 minutes to send to customers
https://bit.ly/2Hnl7vE
Absolutely composed content material, thanks for information. "You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it." by Samuel Butler.
https://www.electricpercolatorcoffeepot.com/10-top-coffee-bloggers/
Keep Posting, I really enjoyed this! Beaver Tree Services, 2545 N 29th Pl, Phoenix, AZ 85008; (602) 671-0226
https://goo.gl/maps/ymGC5gevqg4c2ihWA
Very nice post and right to the point. I am not sure if this is truly the best place to ask but do you people have any thoughts on where to hire some professional writers? Thanks in advance 🙂
http://www.froleprotrem.com/
I?¦ve recently started a web site, the info you provide on this site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.
https://europa-road.eu/hu/vasuti-szallitmanyozas.php
I just like the helpful information you supply on your articles. I’ll bookmark your blog and test once more here frequently. I am moderately sure I will be told plenty of new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!
http://www.dumpawaste.co.uk
I really like reading through an article that can make men and women think.
Also, thanks for allowing for me to comment!
Ahaa, its nice discussion regarding this piece of writing
here at this website, I have read all that, so at this time me also commenting at this place.
I know this web page gives quality based content and extra data, is there any
other site which provides such stuff in quality?
I don't know if it's just me or if everybody else experiencing issues with your blog.
It appears like some of the text on your posts are running off
the screen. Can somebody else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them as well?
This might be a issue with my web browser because I've had this happen before.
Kudos
Enjoyed reading the article above , really explains everything in detail,the article is very interesting and effective.Thank you and good luck for the upcoming articles. Flooring Installers of Pittsburgh, 1933 Crafton Blvd #5, Pittsburgh, PA 15205, (412) 415-7629
https://posts.gle/XDxNUbCioP3hqdAb6
I really like this post. R 5 Roofing and Construction, 405 E 151st St, East Chicago, IN 46312, (219) 266-6596
https://www.google.com/maps?cid=9372183643165594565
The Goldfinch Book Cliff Notes Ya Literature Characteristics
Feel free to visit my website pdf