A depressed New Zealander cut off one of his fingers, cooked it with vegetables and ate it, a newspaper reported on Saturday, quoting a case study in a psychiatric journal.
Psychiatrist Erik Monasterio and clinical psychologist Craig Prince wrote in Australasian Psychiatry that the 28-year-old patient had a “vulnerable personality structure” and would sometimes think of suicide, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Following a personal crisis at the end of 2008, he spiralled into depression and ruminated for days about cutting off his fingers.
“In an effort to seek reprieve from these thoughts, he tied a shoelace around his [little] finger to act as a tourniquet and cut the finger off with a jigsaw,” the article said.
“He then cooked it in a pan with some vegetables and ate its flesh.”
He abandoned thoughts of amputating two more fingers the following day after getting a sense of relief, the report said: “Given the instantaneous benefit, he felt that there was no point in cutting off any more fingers.” – Sapa-DPA