A New Zealand man cut off his own finger and ate it for dinner, it has been reported.
The man amputated the finger with a small electric saw before cooking it with vegetables.
The 28-year-old was battling with long-term depression, and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol while carrying out the extreme act.
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Forensic psychiatrist Erik Monasterio and clinical psychologist Craig Prince wrote about the case in the Australasian Psychiatry last week.
The report stated: “Mr X’ would suffer episodes of low mood and sometimes think of suicide. He had been successfully treated with anti-depressant medication and received supportive psychotherapy”.
However, once while he was depressed, two men had assaulted the man.
“He felt extreme anger and for the first time fantasised about not only killing his assailants, but of eating them too,” researchers said.
“He believed that by doing so, he would ‘rob them of everything'”.
Although the man didn’t carry out these actions he later made a decision to cut off his own finger and eat it.
Before removing the finger with a jigsaw, the unnamed man, tied a shoelace around the extremity to act as a tourniquet.
“He then cooked it in a pan with some vegetables and ate its flesh.”
“His plan was to amputate another two fingers the following day.”
Researchers said that the man might have felt that medical staff wasn’t taking him seriously and that his actions may have been a cry for help.
“It is possible that his lack of violence and any offending behaviour, as well as his lack of psychosis, made clinicians somewhat complacent about his threat and that more drastic action was finally required by him,” the report said.
The man later regretted cutting off his finger.
