This article provides research case histories for 2 patients that performed of auto-castration. The article discusses the religious context of how the practice of auto-castration derived the label of the Eshmun complex. It also provides a case study of a suicidal male who performed auto-castration as a means of seeking spiritual purity. The article examines paranoid schizophrenia, spirituality, & guilt. The article also gives an outline of the historical antecedents of auto-castration occurring in a religious setting, & discusses the difficulty in deciding when a religious idea becomes pathological. (14 refs.) (AK)