Self-mutilation
Self-mutilation (in the technical term automutilation ) describes the willful damage to the human body . The term “ autotomy ” is used in animals.
It is to be distinguished from self-injurious behavior (SVV), which serves to reduce aggression and tension or to punish oneself. There is (mostly) no suicidal intent in self-mutilation .
Legal motives
One reason for self-mutilation could be avoidance of conscription for military service . For this reason there was temporarily a military division for one-eyed people in Egypt , since too many Egyptians had tried to avoid participating in a war by removing one eye.
In 2008, 92 South Korean footballers were indicted for having injured their shoulders so badly from excessive dumbbell exercise that they eventually required surgery, rendering them unfit for military service at the time of their draft.
Self-mutilation was and is also found among soldiers at the front who are trying to be transferred to a hospital or home (see also home shot ).
Another motive can be the intent to cheat at the expense of an insurance company, for example in that self-mutilation results in incapacity for work or benefits from accident insurance .
Self-mutilation in religion
Self-mutilation has also been committed by some adherents of religious groups. In ancient times , the priests of the goddess Cybele were eunuchs . Every year at the time of the spring festival there were lavish pageants of the priests and followers of Cybeles, during which young men in women's clothes cut off their genitals with a ceremonial sword or sharp-edged objects, which they then threw into the crowd of spectators. They then had to furnish the newcomer to the eunuch with women's clothes.
The members of the Skopzen moved away - motivated by interpreting Bible passages - testicles and penis or the breasts and the clitoris .
To this day, the Hijra , a Hindu sect, have emasculated themselves in India .
Automutilation in diseases
- psychiatry
Self-mutilation can occur in people who suffer from a mental illness such as personality disorders , retirement neurosis , schizophrenia , delusional disorders .
Self-mutilation in people with Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) is a special form. These are people with impaired body awareness who feel the desire to remove one or more of their limbs. The part of the body that is perceived as annoying can generate so much suffering that some of those affected (if they cannot find a doctor who fulfills their wish for an amputation) decide to mutilate themselves.
Also anthropophagic tendencies (cannibalism) can lead to self-mutilation if they are not directed against others.
The urge to genital self-mutilation is called scoptic syndrome .
Apotemnophilia is aterm coined in1977 by the American psychologist John Money for the gain in sexual pleasure through amputation of healthy limbs of one's own body. However, the existence of such a psychiatric disorder is controversial among professionals.
- Pediatrics
In the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome , severe forms of auto-mutilation with fingers and lips can occur.
Legal assessment (in connection with conscription)
Switzerland
According to Art. 95 of the Swiss Military Criminal Law, (self-) mutilation is punishable by imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine; in times of war can be sentenced to imprisonment.
Germany
According to German law, self-mutilation (in addition to mutilation of another person and disqualification in other ways) is punishable under certain conditions as a sub-case of evasion of military service.
For example, someone is liable to prosecution for “evading military service through mutilation” according to § 109 StGB by mutilating their own body if the maimed person is doing this to fulfill military service in full (§ 109 Paragraph 1 StGB) or temporarily or for a specific use for the fulfillment of military service (in each case Section 109 (2) StGB) becomes unsuitable.
“Mutilation” means the removal or rendering of a part of the body (limbs, organs) unusable, regardless of how it was performed.
The concept of military service includes any activity that is required by the Military Service Act and is determined according to Sections 1 to 3 of the Military Service Act (WPflG). Therefore, according to Section 3 (1) in conjunction with Section 25 WPflG , civil service of the (so-called) conscientious objector is also included here.
The penalties for the permanent and usage un -related mutilation minimum of three months to five years imprisonment (§ 109 para. 1 of the Criminal Code), for temporary or usage from pending mutilation are up to five years imprisonment or fined threatened (§ 109 para. 2 StGB).
For soldiers in the Bundeswehr , self-mutilation and mutilation by others is punishable under Section 17 of the WStG ( Military Penal Act ). How the relationship between the areas of application of Section 109 StGB and Section 17 WStG is to be determined is extremely controversial.
In the Second World War, self-mutilation was the rule example and a concrete tangible content of the otherwise rather vague criminal act of undermining military strength and was regularly punished with death.
See also
- Gaius Mucius Scaevola , who burned his right hand in fire to save Rome.
- Acral mutilation syndrome , a congenital nerve disease in dogs with paw self-mutilation
literature
- H.-P. Haack: Self-mutilation from a phylogenetic and psychiatric point of view. In: Journal of Psychiatry, Neurology, Medical Psychology. Volume 22, 1970, ISSN 0555-5469 , pp. 247-249.
- Eberhard Hildebrand, Klaus Hitzer, Klaus Püschel : Simulation and self-harm. With a special focus on insurance fraud. Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft, Karlsruhe 2001, ISBN 3-88487-906-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Automutilation. In: Duden - The dictionary of medical terms. Bibliographical Institute.
- ↑ self-mutilation. In: Meyer's Lexicon in 10 volumes. Bibliographical Institute.
- ↑ Klaus Dern: Self-mutilation in private accident insurance. Hamburg, Med. F., Diss. March 19, 1962
- ^ Rolf Combach: Insurance Fraud : A Mass Delict . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . tape 100 , no. 34-35 . Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag , 2003, p. 58 .
- ^ Eser in: Schönke / Schröder: Criminal Code, Commentary. 27th edition, Munich 2006, § 109 Rn. 11
- ^ A b Tröndle, Fischer: Penal Code and ancillary laws. 54th edition. Munich 2007, § 109 Rn. 2; Eser in: Schönke, Schröder: Criminal Code, Commentary. 27th edition, Munich 2006, § 109 Rn. 5
- ^ Eser in: Schönke, Schröder: Criminal Code, Commentary. 27th edition, Munich 2006, § 109 Rn. 17th
