[describing a patient with body integrity identity disorder] These people believe that one of their limbs, part of their body, is not their own. His sense of self does not extend to the fingers on his left arm. It stops at the elbow.
[bemused] Sorry, it sounds a little out there to me.
I mean, who are any of us to say where we end, right? Or begin. Physicists will tell you there's no physical self at all, right? Just waves of energy. A mystics will say that we're one big soup.
I'm not a physicist or a mystic, I'm a doc who spent his career treating wounded soldiers who begged me "Save my leg", "Save my arm". You don't think I should commit this guy?
