Autoenucleation

Autoenucleation, also known as oedipism, is the self-inflicted enucleation (removal) of the eye. It is considered a form of self-mutilation and is normally caused by psychosis, paranoid delusions or drugs.^[1] Between 1968 and 2018, there were more than 50 documented cases of "complete or partial self-enucleation in English medical journals".^[2] According to a 2012 study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, self-enucleation was previously "considered to be the result of psycho-sexual conflicts" even if psychosis is a more likely cause.^[3]

The mythical Oedipus gouged his eyes out.

History

A famous case of autoenucleation can be found in Greek mythology: Oedipus, according to Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus Rex, gouged his own eyes out after discovering he had married his mother.

In the 13th century, Marco Polo witnessed a pious Baghdad carpenter who enucleated his right eye for sinful thoughts of a young female customer.

In the 19th century, Jews in the Pale of Settlement in eastern Europe sometimes resorted to self-mutilation, including blinding themselves in one eye, to avoid the Russian empire's onerous regime of military conscription.^[4]

On April 1, 2004, Andre Thomas removed his right eye with his bare hands whilst he was in jail awaiting trial for fatally stabbing his estranged wife and her two children.^[5] Thomas was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.^[6] On December 9, 2008, whilst on death row after being convicted of capital murder, Thomas removed his left eye and ate it.^[7] Thomas said he ingested his eye to prevent the federal government of the United States from reading his thoughts.^[8]

On February 6, 2018, a 20-year old American, Kaylee Muthart, received national attention after she gouged both her eyes out while high on methamphetamine, believing that "sacrificing her eyes [would] save the world".^[9] The incident left Muthart permanently blind.^[10][11][12]

In May 2019, Tanya Suárez removed her own eyes in a San Diego, California, county jail while under the influence of methamphetamine. She sued San Diego county, alleging that a sheriff's deputy watched her from outside her cell door but did nothing; video footage to that effect has reportedly been seen in court, but not released to the public.^[13] In October 2022, she settled with the county for $4.35m.^[14]