In Raleigh, North Carolina, Jewel Shuping is finally happy. With the help of what was described as a “sympathetic psychologist,” Shuping, 30, fulfilled a lifelong dream in blinding herself with drain cleaner. Shuping says that she always wanted to be blind and is now overjoyed to be disabled. It is the latest example of what is called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) where able bodied people disable themselves. What is even more astonishing is that there is no indication of any discipline of the alleged psychologist who performed this harmful practice.
Shuping says that the tried previously to blind herself in 2006 and spent her childhood staring into the sun to try to become blind. By 18, she was walking around with dark glasses and a white cane. By 20, she was fluent in braille.
She said that she finally found a doctor who agreed to blind her by giving her numbing eye drops and then drops of drain cleaner. She recalls the painful procedure with joy as fulfilling her longtime dream. A hospital tried against her will to save her eyes but they were unsuccessful. Indeed, she said that she was enraged when she woke and could see the television but soon her eyes failed entirely.
Shuping is now studying for a degree in education and says that she wants to help fellow blind people. Her only regret is that she wishes that she could have seen her father’s face again and now he has died. That could raise a challenging question of the suitability of a person for a teaching position (if she seeks one) after engaging in self-mutilation.
She insists “I really feel this is the way I was supposed to be born, that I should have been blind from birth . . . When there’s nobody around you who feels the same way, you start to think that you’re crazy. But I don’t think I’m crazy, I just have a disorder.”
This strikes most of us as a form of mental illness and the question is why a psychologist would participate in the mutilation of a patient to satisfy her craving to be blind. Obviously, such a doctor should be stripped of his or her license but there is no indication of any effort to identify the doctor. There is also the question of whether such action should be prosecuted as a crime. Many of us believe in the right of people to take their own lives but this is a case of someone who is clearly mentally ill seeking assistance with a mutilation of their body. Yet, there are clearly tough lines to draw here. After all, we allow people to engage in extensive piercings, branding, and blood lettings for recreation or style. Some are effectively permanent changes like the cutting of the tongue of “Lizard man.” Yet, this is a disability which imposes social costs for the community. The one thing that I am confidant about is that any doctor who participated in this action should not be treating patients of any kind. Shuping may be lying about the doctor but it seems hard to believe that someone could do this without help (at least not in both eyes as opposes to one eye given the pain, even with numbing drops). It is not impossible but, given her account, I would think that there would be an effort to determine the truth.
Source: Mirror
I don’t want your credentials (argumentum ad verecundiam), I want you to show your evidence.
You claim that those who disagree with you are fearful or stupid.
The prove your case, if you can.
Annie,
Either someone needs a hug or…
Simple question, Max, where in the brain is “gender” located?
You must know, claiming as you do that others fear the truth.
Lay those superior facts on me, brother.
Max is either unaware of the the similarities in the disordered brains between transgenders and people who burn their own eyes out.
Or, more likely, he refuses to address the science as I’ve laid out above.
More, he goes directly to ad hominem, suggesting that those who disagree with his unscientific approach are ‘afraid’ (of what?, one must ask) or simply stupid.
You want to demonstrate your significant scientific background and proofs of concept on this, Max?
Annie,
When people measure gender by what exists between their legs…
… Know that what they’re trying to do is overcompensate for what they lack between their own ears.
Is a person still functional without their sexual organs? To clarify my point above.
True, Max.
The rampant transphobia here is not surprising… The root of it all is called ignorance and fear.
“Eyes are a gift. Gender is kind of disposable/controversial; you can argue what’s good or bad about being female or male….”
Jack, you make a good point.
Can humans function without their specific sexual organs? Is a woman still a woman if she has had a hysterectomy? How about a male without his testicles due to testicular cancer? Is he still a man? Those who have surgeries for sexual reassignment is not comparable to this. Maiming oneself because of some desire to be blind is destructive. Despite her self inflicted blindness (I don’t believe any doctor did this) she may be eligible for disability due to her mental illness alone? Obviously if she is working she won’t be eligable for any disability.
Texan Polygynist – Thanks for the book recommendation, I’ll definitely check it out. Dune also enthralled me so I read it three times in three months last year. I mention Iron Maiden – To Tame A Land is their song about Dune. Blind Guardian also did a number of songs about Dune(Lost In The Twilight Hall, Traveler In Time) – none of which made sense really until I had read the book. These bands have a way with crafting lyrics describing the story without actually giving anything away. They manage like politicians, to beautifully say nothing- unless you know what they are talking about. Also can you decipher their singing??? When Enter Sandman came out I used to think ‘off to never never land’ was ‘hossenfeffer needlehead’. I was 8.
Good luck with your endeavors, it sounds like you’ve got some good goals. My goal in sight is to move out of NJ summer 2016. Eight more months of teaching for me, then I’m out. Too many lamp crimes go unreported here.
Also apologies for off topic. I saw Dune and that was it for my thought train.
I cannot understand this person–an obsession that got out of control? It’s a matter of degree between an idle thought, a conviction, and then actions, and a final action. She must have obsessed about this until it indeed, drove her crazy and became “embedded.” If there’s some good for her to do in the world, she should do it, but I find this sad and disturbing. Eyes are a gift. Gender is kind of disposable/controversial; you can argue what’s good or bad about being female or male and what decision to make (again, I do not understand the need to surgically change genders!)…. But who would argue it’s “better” to blind? But she thinks it is.
@Steg, sorry to hear about the fact you didn’t read Dune 2. It sounds like I have spoiled the whole story in Dune 2 but it is not. It’s integral to the whole story. I won’t divulge further. As for the first Dune, I loved it! Absolutely loved it. The political intrigue, backstabbery, treachery, and the strict importance of Arrakis as being the balance of the entire Imperium… Herbert was a brilliant author, right up there with Jack Vance and his T’schai Adventures series. You should look into Planet T’schai, or more popularly known as “Planet of Adventure”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Adventure
Planet of Adventure isn’t too politically intriguing, just more psychologically intriguing but it does have the same theme of “balance of power in a macguffin, an individual, or a group of individuals.”
As for music, never listened to Iron Maiden. I did listen to Metallica, Aerosmith, Stone Temple Pilots (a few times), Soundgarden (for their awesome, cryptic song “Black Hole Sun), Alice Cooper, etc.
As for college, I wanted to take PC Repair Technician. I didn’t take it too seriously. Now, I’m taking a 2-year course in Computer Programming at a community college. Then it’s on to Computer Science, then Game Development, then BBA in Business Administration.
Sorry for being off-topic here guys. Now, back to the topic.
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@davidm2575 Why would they? They don’t exactly have absolutes in their lines of thinking. For example, gun control. If they’re going to ban guns, why not ban cars? After all, cars are definitely treated as a “ballistic missile” that’s capable of destroying property, pedestrians, and other miscellaneous structures/items/other that could be lost in the process during the “ballistic missile’s” rampage. After all, guns are bad! Cars are bad too! It’s not the person that does it! It’s the car! “The devil made the car do it!”
I wouldn’t be too surprised if the pro-choice and gay rights advocates have skewed thoughts on this.
I am having trouble understanding why pro-choice advocates and homosexual advocates would not be supportive of Jewel Shuping and her psychologist. The rationale seems to be in line with what they preach.
This is a failure of courage emblematic of such failures across the spectrum of the professions. Some “professional” indulged this person’s delusion, physically disabled her, and even gave her delusion a clinical diagnosis sciencey sounding name, but just could not work up the courage to tell her the truth: That she’s a mental case and/or stupid and should not further burden society by becoming physically disabled.
She does have a disorder . . . a mental disorder. I sympathize with her, because this mental illness renders her unable to make rational decisions.
I wonder how her future blind students will feel about her, having blinded herself on purpose, while most likely wish they could see.
Perhaps we are becoming enablers for mental illness, instead of dealing with it as an illness that needs to be treated. There are also people who feel like they should have been born as Disney’s Peter Pan (Michael Jackson), Barbi (Valeria Lukyanova), amputees, and plastic surgery obsessives. This is exactly why I’ve struggled with the issue of transgender, since it is not associated with sexuality. Is transgender simply the same body dysmorphia that amputees suffer? Because this is a desire to amputate genitalia and completely remake a body. What if a transgender 50 year old 6’4″ male believes he was born to be a 24 year old petite woman? No amount of plastic surgery will reconcile his body image. Is this why depression and suicide is so common in transgender patients, or is it because they feel they are not accepted by society? I sympathize with and support transgender patients, but I do not know what the best course of action is for them. Is it healthy or unhealthy to surgically alter gender? Is this feeding a mental illness, treating it, or is it some other phenomenon entirely?
Karen S, I believe it is enabling mental illness, and the surgeries and cross-sex hormones are medically dangerous. Because transgendered people hitched their wagon to LGB organizations, many people who are allies to the LBG community believe, without knowing much about transgendersim, that by default they also must be allies to the transgender community. However, homosexual people are not delusional — they are simply attracted to persons of the same sex.
IMHO, those who believe they are the opposite sex or that they should have been born the opposite sex are delusional and suffering from BIID, or in some cases, especially older men like Bruce Jenner, they are autogynephiles. It is very important to them that they continue the “born this way, we are just like gays” meme because it lends them credibility and allows them to push their agenda onto the public and the medical community, so that their delusions are enabled.
When it comes to children, transitioning “treatments” are criminal, in my humble opinion.
Texan Polygynist- Aw man! I didn’t read Dune 2 yet. Only the first one a few times… Do you listen to Iron Maiden? To Tame A Land?
When I was in college figuring out what to do with my life, I started as an art major (bleh. Drawing was fun, I liked to draw, so..) I took a guitar class for non-music students on the side, and got totally absorbed. Now I’m a music teacher. I decided some time ago if it were to be my eyes or my ears, I’d rather have my ears. Go all Ray Charles up in here.
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This woman is crazy. Her only regret in being blinded was wishing that she could see something again. Well, if you knew your dad was old, why not blind yourself next week? Crazy people. I think she would be a fine resident/teacher inside a mental institution.
If only. . .ah. . .yes, if only JT were to use some of the same righteous indignation when discussing the obviously mentally disturbed individuals who, along with their compliant physicians, abuse and mutilate their bodies, all the while claiming to be housed in the wrong gender. When it’s dealing with the topic of transgenders, missing is any discussion of insisting that these unfortunate individuals receive the much needed pysch assistance. No condemnation of the doctors who carve up their bodies like briskets. Crickets. Well, it’s just not the PC thing to do. We’re all told that perception is reality, so anything goes–I can be male, female. . .hell, I can even claim to be black, if I want. I wonder at the astonishment claimed by JT. Is the taking of another’s eyesight the new threshold for what is considered obscene? Interesting. Lop of some dude’s penis–that’s ok. Blind the same guy–outrageous, perverted and demented.
There is even a surgeon in San Francisco who will give a guy a vag-facsimile AND let him keep his penis, if that’s what he “feels” like he “should have been born with.” http://4thwavenow.com/2015/10/01/surgeons-like-dr-curtis-crane-see-new-bonanza-in-youthful-transgender-surgeries/
ftmskeptic,
Because they have no moral absolutes.
Jim, there are plenty of cases where transgendered people have self mutiliated.
Just like Bruce Jenner she is STUNNING AND BRAVE!!!
Why does society accept that this woman is mentally ill and her therapist is a criminal, but when it comes to doctors and parents who are sterilizing children and injecting them with synthetic cross-sex hormones in an attempt to turn them into someone of the opposite sex, they are doing the right thing and are stunning and brave?