Body integrity identity disorder

Robin Marantz Henig in the New York Times:

When the legless man drove up on his own to meet Dr. Michael First for brunch in Brooklyn, it wasn’t just to show Dr. First how independent he could be despite his disability.

It was to show Dr. First that he had finally done it – had finally managed to get both his legs amputated, even though they had been perfectly healthy.

Dr. First, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, had gotten to know this man through his investigations of a bizarre and extremely rare psychiatric condition that he is calling body integrity identity disorder, or B.I.I.D.

More here.