Scoptic Syndrome

The Skoptische syndrome is a disease , during which needs to genital mutilation occur. The name is derived from the Skopzen , a Russian sect that practiced ritual genital mutilation. The DSM-IV defines it as unspecified form of gender identity disorder (Gender Identity Disorder).

Clinical picture and scientific classification

There are various clinical pictures as well as assumptions about the causes and justifications for the overall rather problematic classification of the scoptic syndrome by specialist science and medicine . A sexually induced feeling of guilt is often suspected on the psychiatric side as the reason for the needs and desires of those affected after genital (self) mutilation, for example after castration , penectomy or clitoridectomy . Another explanation is the classification of the disease as an extreme form of masochism that has not yet been fully researched scientifically . In some cases, the syndrome is viewed by specialist scientists as a form of dysmorphophobia . There have been reports of some people who described self-inflicted mutilation or surgery as "liberation," while others said they mutilated themselves for sexual stimulation.

Trivia

• A watercolor painting by the musician Marilyn Manson is called "Skoptic Syndrome". He dedicated it to his grandfather Jack Warner, who suffered from Scoptic Syndrome.

literature

• John Money: The Skoptic Syndrome: castration and genital self-mutilation as an example of sexual body-image pathology. In: Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality. Volume 1, 1988.