Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies
OTTAWA — When he cut off his right arm with a “very sharp power tool,” a man who now calls himself One Hand Jason let everyone believe it was an accident.
But he had for months tried different means of cutting and crushing the limb that never quite felt like his own, training himself on first aid so he wouldn’t bleed to death, even practicing on animal parts sourced from a butcher.
“My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment, and I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do,” he told the body modification website ModBlog. . His goal was to become disabled.
People like Jason have been classified as ‘‘transabled’’ — feeling like imposters in their bodies, their arms and legs in full working order.
“We define transability as the desire or the need for a person identified as able-bodied by other people to transform his or her body to obtain a physical impairment,” says Alexandre Baril, a Quebec born academic who will present on “transability” at this week’s Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa.
MELANIE PROVENCHERAlexandre Baril, a Quebec born academic who will present on "transability" at this week's Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa. Baril himself is not transabled..
“The person could want to become deaf, blind, amputee, paraplegic. It’s a really, really strong desire.”
Researchers in Canada are trying to better understand how transabled people think and feel. Clive Baldwin, a Canada Research Chair in Narrative Studies who teaches social work at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., has interviewed 37 people worldwide who identify as transabled.
Most of them are men. About half are in Germany and Switzerland, but he knows of a few in Canada. Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed. Another wants to be blind.
Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal. One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary. But doctors saved the leg. He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted.
The transabled are very secretive and often keep their desires to themselves, Baldwin says. One 78-year-old man told Baldwin he’d lived with the secret for 60 years and never told his wife.
Some of his study participants do draw parallels to the experience many transgender people express of not feeling like they’re in the right body. Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body’s mapping, rather than a mental illness.
I guess nature can make mistakes by making people able bodied when they are meant to be disabled. Thank goodness for modern medicine and can correct natures mistakes. Does obamacare cover voluntary amputation? I certainly hope so, it would be awful to see disabled people forced to live their lives in an able body.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: 'Transabled' people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies
Oh, The Humanities: Part of a series showcasing research at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences this week. OTTAWA - When he cut off his right arm with a "very sharp power tool," a man who now calls himself One Hand Jason let everyone believe it was an accident. But he had for months…
Some of his study participants do draw parallels to the experience many transgender people express of not feeling like they're in the right body. Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body's mapping, rather than a mental illness.
"It's a problem for individuals because it's distressing. But lots of things are." He suggests this is just another form of body diversity - like transgenderism - and amputation may help someone achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believe their ideal selves to be.
I have a nephew that feels like he should have the physical attributes to be a professional football linebacker. Being that his parents don't appear to possess the genetics to produce offspring that resembles the typical height, weight, and strength of a NFL linebacker like Ray Lewis, it would only be the act of a socially responsible and caring society to help my nephew achieve his "ideal self" by allowing him to choose to take Human Growth Hormone and Steroids, to overcome his genetic predisposition. The randomness of nature should not prevent anybody from achieving their ideal selves.
"Approval ratings go up and down for various reasons... An example is the high post 911 support for GWB even though he could be said to be responsible for the event." --- Box A Rox '9/11 Truther'
Melania is a bimbo... she is there to look at, not to listen to. --- Box A Rox and his 'War on Women'
He suggests this is just another form of body diversity - like transgenderism - and amputation may help someone achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believetheir ideal selves to be.
Is it politically correct or allowed under freedom of speech to say this is just 'sick'???
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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