apotemnophilia love

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A compulsive desire to lose one or more healthy limbs through amputation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun psychology A compulsion to become, or appear to be, an amputee.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[apo– + Greek temnein, to cut; see tem- in Indo-European roots + –philia.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined in a 1977 paper by J. Money et al. in the Journal of Sex Research,, from Ancient Greek ἀπό (apo-, "away") + τέμνω (temno) +‎ -philia.

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Examples

  • But just what counts as apotemnophilia is part of the problem in explaining it.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Smith, in agreement with many of the wannabes I have spoken with, believes that apotemnophilia is closer to gender-identity disorder, the diagnosis given to people who wish to live as the opposite sex.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • But just what counts as apotemnophilia is part of the problem in explaining it.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Clinicians and patients alike often suggest that apotemnophilia is like gender-identity disorder, and that amputation is like sex-reassignment surgery.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • If sexual desire, even paraphilic sexual desire, can be directed toward one's own identity, then perhaps it is a mistake to try to distinguish pure apotemnophilia from the kind that is contaminated with sexual desire.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Smith has elsewhere speculated that apotemnophilia is not a psychiatric disorder but a neuropsychological one, with biological roots.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Clinicians and patients alike often suggest that apotemnophilia is like gender-identity disorder, and that amputation is like sex-reassignment surgery.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • If sexual desire, even paraphilic sexual desire, can be directed toward one's own identity, then perhaps it is a mistake to try to distinguish pure apotemnophilia from the kind that is contaminated with sexual desire.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Smith has elsewhere speculated that apotemnophilia is not a psychiatric disorder but a neuropsychological one, with biological roots.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

  • Smith, in agreement with many of the wannabes I have spoken with, believes that apotemnophilia is closer to gender-identity disorder, the diagnosis given to people who wish to live as the opposite sex.

    A New Way to Be Mad 2000

Comments

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  • The desire to have limbs amputated.

    I have this, but only for other people's limbs.

    August 7, 2008

  • acrotomophilia?

    August 7, 2008

  • alternapotemnophilia?

    May 13, 2009

  • This word contains the alphabetical string "mnop".

    December 6, 2011

  • "Clinicians and patients alike often suggest that apotemnophilia is like gender-identity disorder, and that amputation is like sex-reassignment surgery."

    --<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/12/a-new-way-to-be-mad/304671/">The New Way to be Mad</a>, The Atlantic, Dec. 2000.

    June 16, 2015