An Overwhelming Desire to Be Blind: Similarities and Differences between Body Integrity Identity Disorder and the Wish for Blindness

Abstract

Background: The urge to be permanently blind is an extremely rare mental health disturbance. The underlying cause of this desire has not been determined yet, and it is uncertain whether the wish for blindness is a condition that can be included in the context of body integrity identity disorder, a condition where people feel an overwhelming need to be disabled, in many cases by amputation of a limb or through paralysis. Objective: The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that people with a desire for blindness suffer from a greater degree of visual stress in daily activities than people in a healthy visual control group. Method: We created a Likert scale questionnaire to measure visual stress, covering a wide range of everyday situations. The wish for blindness is extremely rare and worldwide only 5 people with an urge to be blind were found to participate in the study (4 female, 1 male). In addition, a control group of 35 (28 female, 7 male) visually healthy people was investigated. Questions addressing issues that may be experienced by participants with a desire to be blind were integrated into the questionnaire. Results: The hypothesis that people with a desire for blindness suffer from a significantly higher visual overload in activities of daily living than visually healthy subjects was confirmed; the significance of visual stress between these groups was p < 0.01. In addition, an interview with the 5 affected participants supported the causal role of visual overload. Conclusions: The desire for blindness seems to originate from visual overload caused by either ophthalmologic or organic brain disturbances. In addition, psychological reasons such as certain personal character traits may play an active role in developing, maintaining, and reinforcing one’s desire to be blind.