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QUIRKY MINDS
WHEN A COMPLETE BODY MAKES YOU FEEL INCOMPLETE
AT THE AGE of 4, Robert encountered a teenager whose left leg had been amputated. "I wanted to be him," Robert says, explaining why, at age 12, he strapped a tourniquet above his left knee in a failed effort to induce necrosis. Now a doctor in Manhattan, he still wishes he could be one-legged, "with a midthigh, abovethe-knee amputation."
Robert suffers from Body Identity Integrity Disorder (BIID), a bizarre psychological condition in which people fixate on amputating healthy limbs to achieve their ideal body image. (Imagine having an unwanted third arm.) In addition to feeling trapped in the wrong body, sufferers often endure shame and depression. Commonly known as "amputee...