SELF-CANNIBALISM

It is said that some humans will eat anything. That includes eating themselves.
It is called autophagy---self-cannibalism.
Autophagy in some forms is surprisingly common. For example, many people bite their fingernails and cuticles and then swallow the shavings. This is technically a mild form of autophagy.
True autophagy is sometimes seen in psychiatric patients, often in psychotics. For instance, a patient may cut off their finger and eat it.
But what of severe autophagy in normal people?
The first case reported in the psychiatric literature of severe authophagy in a non-psychotic person only recently appeared. (1) The author of this case study is Dr. Mark Benecke of the University of Koln in Germany.
Dr. Benecke writes of a 28-year-old Caucasian female office manager living in New York City. She is outwardly "normal" to all but her family and close friends who know her secret. Although she is receiving psychiatric counselling at her family's urging, she regards herself as psychologically healthy and not a psychiatric patient.
Dr. Benecke writes, "as part of her lifestyle she routinely injures and allows subsequent healing of her skin and other tissues. Her body modifications include a 'split tongue' (a tongue split to the base), which does not interfere with speaking and eating. Other modifications include large scarification patterns produced by branding and cutting . . . . This woman has been known to eat parts of her skin, which were previously cut out of her body. She also performs 'needle play' by allowing medical syringe needles to be lodged temporarily under her skin. The patient had a normal childhood, is currently employed full-time as an office manager, and is psychologically stable . . . . These body modifications are easily concealed by her clothing and hair."
Dr. Benecke adds that at the age of 16, she started to continuously scrape the interior of her hands until a small bleeding wound appeared in which a scar approximately 2mm in length is still visible. Three years later, she began to cut her wrists to produce triangle-shaped scar patterns 7 cm long and 5cm wide. During these procedures, she clearly avoided damaging her blood vessels, which she could see and feel while cutting. The scar patterns on her wrists are still clearly visible.
At the age of 26, she moved to New York City. And with help from her male friends, who were professional "piercers", she became interested in having up to 150 medical syringe needles temporarily stuck under the skin of her back and front torso. This would include her nipples and clitoral hood. She also became permanently pierced (transfixed) with removable jewellery, such as rings and short sticks in her labia, clitoral hood, nipples, and tongue.
At the age of 27, she had surgery to split her tongue.
She had prior knowledge of tongue splicing. This involved the performance upon a person of an extremely painful procedure using fish line pulled through a pierced hole in the centre of the tongue and slowly tightened over a period of three weeks. (2) Attracted to this type of body modification, she approached a maxillo-facial surgeon who was known to perform tongue splicing. Using a laser beam, the surgeon split her tongue 4cm from the tip. After a few weeks, the tongue healed together from the base. The surgeon then performed maintenance operations in June and September 1998 in order to keep the tongue split apart. The actual wounds continued to heal within a few days without complications. Dr. Benecke points out that in her case, having a split tongue did not interfere with eating and speaking and she "quickly adapted to this oral modification".
Another body modification procedure performed by the patient was to remove strips of skin in order to produce large scar patterns. The largest of these stretches in a zigzag and diamond shape from left to right across her entire back. Also, she has another scar pattern that stretches over the front abdominal region. The width of the scars were 7mm.
Other body modifications performed on this patient include tattoos and brandings (i.e., scarification patterns caused by induction of heated metal forms). During all of the aforementioned body modification procedures, the patient showed extreme control and immunity to pain.
Dr. Benecke reports that this patient grew up in an immigrant, middle-class family from a town with approximately one million inhabitants in the western region of the United States. In addition to her regular school education, she also attended Sunday school until the age of 15. Later, she relocated to another State and finished university with a B.A. degree in Sociology.
Her current friendships are focused on people involved in body modification (tattoos, piercing, branding, needle play, etc.). In order to maintain a relationship, she has performed sado-masochistic acts but has no personal interest in such activities.
She has constant and stable contact with her family. She has two older brothers, one is a physician, and the other is an engineer. Her parents were never divorced and the family did not move during the patient's childhood or adolescence. The entire family disapproves of her body modifications and to try and comprehend such behaviour, they have openly discussed the possibility of psychological disturbances (and even sexual abuse) in her early childhood or adolescence. However, there is no evidence pointing to abuse ever happening. She is not involved in any religious or pseudo-religious activity.
Dr. Benecke reports that during one of the cutting sessions, "which are always performed without anaesthetic (including alcohol)", the patient "consumed some of the tissue, with the largest piece measuring approximately 10cm x 7mm. After chewing on the skin, which she could not bite through, she swallowed the piece of tissue". Furthermore, members of her group are also known to eat their skin during such procedures.
This is clear autophagy.
Besides her autophagy, why does this person and her friends behave the way they do?
We humans like to differentiate ourselves from others in our society. Extreme differentiating practices (weird clothing, odd jewellery, body piercing, tattooing, etc.) may be aimed at rebelling against mainstream social behaviour and at identification with a certain sub-group within that society. In a large, complex, and confusing society, there is comfort in affiliation with and acceptance by one subgroup within that society---no matter how weird their appearance and behaviour. The subgroup gives security in an insecure world. This is a strong source of human motivation.
Sometimes it's even stronger than avoiding pain.

(1) Benecke, M. (1999) First Report Of Non-Psychotic Self-Cannibalism (Autophagy), Tongue Splicing and Scar Patterns (Scarification) As An Extreme Form Of Cultural Body Modification In Western Civilization. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PATHOLOGY 20:3:281-285.
(2) Musafar, F. (1997) Dustin's Split Tongue. BODY PLAY
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