Year: 1980 Source: American Journal of Psychiatry, v.137, no.5, (May 1980), p.626-627 SIEC No: 19842707

Although transsexual surgery has received considerable attention, autocastration remains a rarity. Self-castration is usually performed in a state of psychotic confusion, except for those few men throughout history who castrated themselves for religious reasons. A case report describes a man with minimal psychotic confusion & elements of psychotic depression, who committed autocastration in a premeditated & carefully thought out manner, possibly as a substitute for suicide.