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

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.