Phantom Penis
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:31 am
The item below on the phantom penis was posted yesterday in response to the academic article whose abstract Ive posted following it. The academic article appeared in print earlier this week.
I would like to ask for input from the various members of the Eunuch Archive community who have had genital surgery whether they have had phantom feelings or not, both states are of interest:
1) What was removed?
2) How old were you at the time?
3) How long ago was the surgery (e.g., number of years)?
4) Have you had any phantom feelings in the removed part? (Both yes and no answers are of interest.)
5) If you have had such feelings, were they pleasurable or not?
6) Any additional details about the timing and/or nature of the phantom feeling would also be of great interest, if you are willing to share.
A history of the phantom penis
Mind Hacks
October 16, 2010
After amputation, many people feel phantom limb sensations that seem to come from the missing body part. Although typically associated with missing arms or legs, these phantom sensations can arise from almost anywhere and a new study in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences looks at how the phantom penis has enjoyed a surprisingly long history in the medical literature.
The first case of a phantom penis was mentioned in passing by the father of phantom limbs, Silas Weir Mitchell, and there has been an assumption that these sensations are rare or unusual.
In fact, a 1999 case report of a phantom penis after amputation noted only a few previous mentions of the experience, some of which have become quite well-known.
Among the most cited publications is one by Boston surgeon A. Price Heusner (1950) containing two case studies. His first case was an elderly man whose penis was accidently traumatized and amputated, and who was intermittently aware of a painless but always erect penile ghost whose appearances were neither provoked nor provokable by sexual phantasies (Heusner, 1950, p. 129). This man had to look under his clothes to be sure that his penis was, in fact, absent. Heusners second case was a middle-aged, perineal cancer patient. Because his malignancy had spread and was causing intense burning pains in his groin, he opted to undergo penile amputation. Thereafter, he continued to have painful sensations suggesting the continuing presence of the penis, until he underwent spinal surgery
This new historical study shows that there were actually many reports of phantom penises in the 18th Century medical literature that have previously been overlooked.
These include reports from some of the most important doctors of the time, and indeed, some of the most important in history.
This included the Scottish surgeon and anatomist John Hunter who reported on what can only be described as phantom wanking:
A serjeant of marines who had lost the glans, and the greater body of the penis, upon being asked, if he ever felt those sensations which are peculiar to the glans, declared, that upon rubbing the end of the stump, it gave him exactly the sensation which friction upon the glans produced, and was followed by an emission of the semen.
Hunters case highlights an interesting aspect of the phantom penis sensation which seems to differentiate it from most other forms of phantom limb sensations they tend to be pleasurable rather than painful.
Phantom limbs are often associated with the feeling that the missing body part is stuck in an awkward position, such as the fingers digging into the palm, something which the mirror box treatment attempts to correct.
Although some painful phantom penises have been reported they seem more likely to appear as pleasurable sensations and phantom erections.
This may have some interesting implications for neuroscience. Phantom limbs are thought to arise when activity in the brain maps that represent the limbs no longer have a constant flow of sensory feedback that keep them tied to their task.
The boundaries of the maps become blurry and information from other body areas starts to cause activity in the map for the missing limb, leading to the phantom sensations.
However, in contrast to the penis, arms and legs involve much more of a feedback loop, because fine action control signals are being sent and modified on the basis of the sensations from the limb.
As the penis has less need for such fine action control, its probably less likely that misfiring of the signals can make it seem as if it is in an awkward or painful position, possibly reducing the chance of an uncomfortable phantom pecker.
http://mindhacks.com/2010/10/16/a-histo ... tom-penis/
[The Mind Hacks site then has a link to the abstract of the original article which is expensive, if you are not a subscriber to the journal.]
Phantom Penis: Historical Dimensions
Authors: Nicholas J. Wade; Stanley Finger
Abstract: Interest in sensations from removed body parts other than limbs has increased with modern surgical techniques. This applies particularly to operations (e.g., gender-changing surgeries) that have resulted in phantom genitalia. The impression given in modern accounts, especially those dealing with phantoms associated with penis amputation, is that this is a recently discovered phenomenon. Yet the historical record reveals several cases of phantom penises dating from the late-eighteenth century and the early-nineteenth century. These cases, recorded by some of the leading medical and surgical figures of the era, are of considerable historical and theoretical significance. This is partly because these phantoms were associated with pleasurable sensations, in contrast to the loss of a limb, which for centuries had been associated with painful phantoms. We here present several early reports on phantom penile sensations, with the intent of showing what had been described and why more than 200 years ago.
DOI: 10.1080/09647040903363006
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Volume 19, Issue 4 October 2010 , pages 299 312
.
I would like to ask for input from the various members of the Eunuch Archive community who have had genital surgery whether they have had phantom feelings or not, both states are of interest:
1) What was removed?
2) How old were you at the time?
3) How long ago was the surgery (e.g., number of years)?
4) Have you had any phantom feelings in the removed part? (Both yes and no answers are of interest.)
5) If you have had such feelings, were they pleasurable or not?
6) Any additional details about the timing and/or nature of the phantom feeling would also be of great interest, if you are willing to share.
A history of the phantom penis
Mind Hacks
October 16, 2010
After amputation, many people feel phantom limb sensations that seem to come from the missing body part. Although typically associated with missing arms or legs, these phantom sensations can arise from almost anywhere and a new study in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences looks at how the phantom penis has enjoyed a surprisingly long history in the medical literature.
The first case of a phantom penis was mentioned in passing by the father of phantom limbs, Silas Weir Mitchell, and there has been an assumption that these sensations are rare or unusual.
In fact, a 1999 case report of a phantom penis after amputation noted only a few previous mentions of the experience, some of which have become quite well-known.
Among the most cited publications is one by Boston surgeon A. Price Heusner (1950) containing two case studies. His first case was an elderly man whose penis was accidently traumatized and amputated, and who was intermittently aware of a painless but always erect penile ghost whose appearances were neither provoked nor provokable by sexual phantasies (Heusner, 1950, p. 129). This man had to look under his clothes to be sure that his penis was, in fact, absent. Heusners second case was a middle-aged, perineal cancer patient. Because his malignancy had spread and was causing intense burning pains in his groin, he opted to undergo penile amputation. Thereafter, he continued to have painful sensations suggesting the continuing presence of the penis, until he underwent spinal surgery
This new historical study shows that there were actually many reports of phantom penises in the 18th Century medical literature that have previously been overlooked.
These include reports from some of the most important doctors of the time, and indeed, some of the most important in history.
This included the Scottish surgeon and anatomist John Hunter who reported on what can only be described as phantom wanking:
A serjeant of marines who had lost the glans, and the greater body of the penis, upon being asked, if he ever felt those sensations which are peculiar to the glans, declared, that upon rubbing the end of the stump, it gave him exactly the sensation which friction upon the glans produced, and was followed by an emission of the semen.
Hunters case highlights an interesting aspect of the phantom penis sensation which seems to differentiate it from most other forms of phantom limb sensations they tend to be pleasurable rather than painful.
Phantom limbs are often associated with the feeling that the missing body part is stuck in an awkward position, such as the fingers digging into the palm, something which the mirror box treatment attempts to correct.
Although some painful phantom penises have been reported they seem more likely to appear as pleasurable sensations and phantom erections.
This may have some interesting implications for neuroscience. Phantom limbs are thought to arise when activity in the brain maps that represent the limbs no longer have a constant flow of sensory feedback that keep them tied to their task.
The boundaries of the maps become blurry and information from other body areas starts to cause activity in the map for the missing limb, leading to the phantom sensations.
However, in contrast to the penis, arms and legs involve much more of a feedback loop, because fine action control signals are being sent and modified on the basis of the sensations from the limb.
As the penis has less need for such fine action control, its probably less likely that misfiring of the signals can make it seem as if it is in an awkward or painful position, possibly reducing the chance of an uncomfortable phantom pecker.
http://mindhacks.com/2010/10/16/a-histo ... tom-penis/
[The Mind Hacks site then has a link to the abstract of the original article which is expensive, if you are not a subscriber to the journal.]
Phantom Penis: Historical Dimensions
Authors: Nicholas J. Wade; Stanley Finger
Abstract: Interest in sensations from removed body parts other than limbs has increased with modern surgical techniques. This applies particularly to operations (e.g., gender-changing surgeries) that have resulted in phantom genitalia. The impression given in modern accounts, especially those dealing with phantoms associated with penis amputation, is that this is a recently discovered phenomenon. Yet the historical record reveals several cases of phantom penises dating from the late-eighteenth century and the early-nineteenth century. These cases, recorded by some of the leading medical and surgical figures of the era, are of considerable historical and theoretical significance. This is partly because these phantoms were associated with pleasurable sensations, in contrast to the loss of a limb, which for centuries had been associated with painful phantoms. We here present several early reports on phantom penile sensations, with the intent of showing what had been described and why more than 200 years ago.
DOI: 10.1080/09647040903363006
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Volume 19, Issue 4 October 2010 , pages 299 312
.