Willful blindness

Last week, the New York Post ran a feature story titled "I poured drain cleaner in my eyes to blind myself." In this disturbing story, a young woman named Jewel Shuping describes her struggle with what has come to be called "body integrity identity disorder" (BIID) — a condition in which able-bodied people are certain that they "should have" a disability. BIID is a fairly obscure disorder, but its sufferers demand extreme remedies. In some notable cases, people have insisted that they should be amputees, even going so far as attempting to amputate their own limbs, or finding surgeons who will amputate them.

By her own account, Shuping became obsessed as a child with the notion that she should have been born blind. She pretended to be blind for years (called "blind-simming"), but this was inadequate. According to the story, in 2006, Shuping found a "sympathetic psychologist" who counseled her for several weeks before agreeing to Shuping's request to place drops of lye drain cleaner in both Shuping's eyes to destroy her eyesight. Shuping is now blind.