Neurology and Psychiatry

After initially reading A New Way to Be Mad by Carl Elliott, I was left completely confused and horrified to say the least. A lot of unanswered questions pertaining to this new phenomenon known as apotemnophilia, which I had never heard about before reading this article, were left circulating in my mind. My first thoughts were that this ‘disorder’, and yes, I do believe it should be classified as such, was more of an emerging fetish or fascination brought on by our ever-changing society and the increasing popularity of body modification, opposed to a biologically scripted gene pattern.

Apotemnophilia: a neurological disorder written by David Brang really spoke to my inner scientist, persuaded by evidence, and caused me to formulate an entirely different opinion on this disorder. What was once thought of as strictly psychological, now has proof of having a related neurological component after heightened skin conductance response to a pinprick was found to be elevated below the desired line of amputation. In biological terms, this corresponds to a dysfunction of the right superior parietal lobe. This finding agreed with me substantially due to my familiarity and interests in biology and psychology.

I immediately associated this article with a syndrome I had remembered learning about in my psychology class last semester. The story can be found in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks who describes different neurological disorders found in his patients. There is a man who wanted to throw his leg out of bed, because he thought it was fake and a woman who felt her hands were useless. Most significantly is the story introducing Phantom Limb Syndrome which is where a person still has the sensation and feeling that a limb is intact, even after it has been amputated. This is due to a theory referred to as the forward model, which states people plan movements consciously as well as unconsciously due to neural signals integrated within the parietal lobes. The ability to form a coherent sense of body image is associated with the parietal lobe as well.

With this knowledge brought to my attention, it makes a lot of sense to me that a disruption in the wiring of neurons in one’s parietal lobe could very well contribute to this peculiarity we have come to call apotemnophilia. If a person is still able to sense that a limb is present and belongs to them when it is not there, why wouldn’t someone not be able to feel the presence of a limb that IS there and feel like it does not belong to them?

I understand this may be hard for someone to agree with if he or she doesn’t have any sort of neuroscience background. Here is an article that explains the functions of the parietal lobe for anyone who wants to become more knowledgeable in this area or is just curious: http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume11/issue3/articles/rauschecker.html.