Medicine:Autoenucleation

From HandWiki
Short description: Self-inflicted removal of one's own eye

Autoenucleation, also known as oedipism, is the self-inflicted enucleation (removal) of the eye. It is considered a form of self-mutilation and is normally caused by psychosis, paranoid delusions or drugs.[1] Between 1968 and 2018 there were more than 50 documented cases of "complete or partial self-enucleation in English medical journals".[2] According to a 2012 study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, self-enucleation was previously "considered to be the result of psycho-sexual conflicts" even if psychosis is a more likely cause.[3] A particularly extreme form of self-mutilation, autoenucleation.[4][5]

History

A famous case of autoenucleation can be found in Greek mythology: Oedipus, according to Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus Rex, gouged his own eyes out after discovering he had married his mother.

In the 13th century, Marco Polo witnessed a pious Baghdad carpenter who enucleated his right eye for sinful thoughts of a young female customer.

In the 19th century, Jews in the Pale of Settlement in eastern Europe sometimes resorted to self-mutilation, including blinding themselves in one eye, to avoid the Russian empire's onerous regime of military conscription.[6]

On February 6, 2018, a 20-year old American, Kaylee Muthart, received national attention after she gouged both her eyes out while high on methamphetamine, believing that "sacrificing her eyes [would] save the world".[2] The incident left Muthart permanently blind, though she later said "I'm happier now than I was before all this happened".[7][8][9]

In March 2019, Tanya Suárez removed her own eyes in a San Diego, California, county jail while under the influence of methamphetamine. She sued San Diego county, alleging that a sheriff's deputy watched her from outside her cell door but did nothing; video footage to that effect has reportedly been seen in court, but not released to the public.[10] In October 2022, she settled with the county for $4.35m.[11]

References

  1. NP Jones (1990-09-01). "Self-enucleation and psychosis.". The British Journal of Ophthalmology 74 (9): 571–573. doi:10.1136/bjo.74.9.571. PMID 2393650. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Kee, Caroline (2018-03-14). "A 20-Year-Old Gouged Out Her Own Eyes While In A Drug-Induced Psychosis". BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinekee/why-people-gouge-out-eyes-psychosis-drugs. Retrieved 2018-03-15. 
  3. Matthew Michael Large, Olav B Nielssen (24 July 2012). "Self-enucleation: forget Freud and Oedipus, it's all about untreated psychosis". British Journal of Ophthalmology 96 (8): 1056–1057. doi:10.1136/bjophthalmol-2012-301531. PMID 22373824. http://bjo.bmj.com/content/96/8/1056. Retrieved 2018-03-15. 
  4. K.N. Rao and Shamshad Begum (1996). "Self-enucleation in depression: A case report". Indian Journal of Psychiatry 38 (4): 269–270. PMID 21584146. 
  5. BB Patil (2004-04-07). "Bilateral self-enucleation of eyes". Nature 18 (4): 431–432. doi:10.1038/sj.eye.6700667. PMID 15069443. 
  6. Taylor, Sharon (7 September 2020). "Dodging the Draft in the Old Country". National Library of Israel. https://blog.nli.org.il/en/lbh-dodging-the-draft/. 
  7. Narins, Elizabeth (2018-03-09). "Kaylee Muthart Talks About Gouging Out Her Own Eyes On Crystal Meth". Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/a19179723/kaylee-muthart-eye-gouge-crystal-meth/. Retrieved 2018-03-16. 
  8. Feit, Noah (2018-02-22). "Mom of woman who gouged eyes out tells "People" she was going to have her committed". thestate. http://www.thestate.com/news/state/article201676979.html. Retrieved 2018-03-15. 
  9. Feit, Noah (2018-03-18). ""The world just got darker," SC woman who gouged out her eyes talks about ordeal". thestate. http://www.thestate.com/news/state/article204806574.html. Retrieved 2018-03-15. 
  10. Davis, Kelly (12 September 2021). "Lawsuit: Jail video shows deputy watched as inmate blinded herself". San Diego Union Tribune. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2021-09-12/eye-gouge-case. 
  11. Davis, Kelly (19 October 2022). "San Diego County will pay $4.35 million to woman who blinded herself in jail". https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2022-10-19/tanya-suarez-jail-blind-settlement.