Erotic asphyxiation

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Erotic asphyxiation, asphyxiophilia, breath control play, or scarfing, is the potentially lethal practice of intentionally reducing the amount of oxygen to the brain during sexual stimulation in order to heighten the received pleasure from orgasm.

Contents 1 Practice 2 Famous cases 3 Cultural references 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] Practice

A sexual partner may or may not be involved in the act, however, if one is excluded the practice can be referred to as autoerotic asphyxiation, or AEA. Various methods are used to achieve the level of oxygen depletion needed such as a plastic bag over the head or self-strangulation, typically by the use of a ligature (scarfing). The increased pleasure results from the body producing more endorphins as it approaches the state of asphyxia. Pleasurable or not, it is an extremely dangerous practice that results in many accidental deaths each year.^[1]

Historically, the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation has been documented since the early 1600s. It was first used as a treatment for erectile dysfunction and impotence.^[2] The idea for this most likely came from subjects who were executed by hanging. Observers at public hangings noted male victims developed an erection, sometimes remaining after death (death erection), and occasionally ejaculated when being hanged.^[3] Note that, however, ejaculation occurs in hanging victims after death because of disseminated muscle relaxation; this is a different mechanism from that sought by AEA practitioners.

Deaths often occur when the loss of consciousness caused by partial asphyxia leads to loss of control over the means of strangulation, resulting in continued asphyxia and death. Victims are often found to have rigged some sort of "rescue mechanism" which has not worked in the way they anticipated as they lost consciousness.

In some cases autoerotic asphyxiation may have triggered carotid sinus reflex death, but this claim is controversial^{[citation needed]}.

With the exception of the books Autoerotic Fatalities by Hazelwood et al. (1983) and Autoerotic Asphyxiation: Forensic, Medical, and Social Aspects by Sheleg et al. (published in 2006) there has been no comprehensive coverage of the problem of erotic asphyxiation.^[4]

[edit] Famous cases

The composer Frantisek Kotzwara died from erotic asphyxiation in 1791, probably the first recorded case.

It is a popular subject in tabloids and celebrity gossip magazines, particularly when a celebrity dies as a result of suicide or other mysterious circumstances.

The artist Vaughn Bodé died from this cause in 1975.

Progressive Rock musician Kevin Gilbert died from this in 1996, as did drummer Robin Hanssen.

The death in 1994 of Stephen Milligan, the British Conservative MP for Eastleigh, was a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation combined with self-bondage[1].

Michael Hutchence, lead singer for INXS is likely to have died from auto-erotic asphyxiation in 1997, although suicide was the official cause of death.

A more recent case is the death in 2004 of National Front member Kristian Etchells. [2][3]

On March 28, 2007, the New York Times had a front-page story on a teen-ager who had suffered a heart attack and spent three days in a coma after hanging himself for a "rush".

Recent court cases have come to varied results as to whether the unintentional death resulting from autoerotic asphyxiation falls under the "self-induced injury" clause of standard life insurance policies, which prevents payouts for suicide. In June of 2003, one US court said the intent was not death and therefore the case was an accident [4], while another in August 2003 said it does technically fall within the terms since death is the logical result of asphyxiation [5].

[edit] Cultural references

Autoerotic asphyxiation is key to the plots of many books, movies, and TV shows.

Film:

• An accidental death in the film The Ruling Class (1972), starring Peter O'Toole
• "Scarfing" is practiced by the character Tate (while listening to women's tennis) in the controversial 2002 Larry Clark film Ken Park (with a non-simulated masturbation scene)[6].
• Full Frontal - The character played by David Duchovny dies of what is portrayed to be autoerotic asphyxiation. This may have been a reference to the fact that the character Fox Mulder, played by Duchovny in "The X-Files", was told by Clyde Bruckman, played by Peter Boyle, that he might die that way.
• Killing Me Softly in which Alice, the protagonist, experiments with autoerotic asphyxiation.
• In the movie Life As A House the main character Sam, played by Hayden Christensen is depicted indulging in autoerotic asphyxiation in the first few scenes.
• This practice was also depicted as leading to the death of a character in Rising Sun, a movie based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton.
• It appears in the less publicized 2003 movie Young and Seductive, starring Julian Wells, Alana Evans, and Robert Donovan.
• The practice was central to Nagisa Oshima's highly controversial 1976 movie In the Realm of the Senses.
• The main hero of Kirill Serebrennikov's 2006 movie Playing the Victim Valya did some scarfing with his girl-friend.

Literature:

• Thomas Harris, Hannibal features a character named Mason Verger, who performs it in front of Hannibal Lecter. Hannibal gives him drugs, and convinces him to slice off his face. He then feeds the face to Mason's dogs, and breaks Mason's neck, leaving him severely deformed, and permanently confined to a specialized sickbed or wheelchair.
• P. D. James, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
• Erika Barr, Acquisiti (ISBN 1-59129-307-3)
• Chuck Palahniuk's book Haunted features a story called "Guts," in which a character masturbates with a pool pump located at the bottom of the pool. The character attempts to come up for air after orgasming and is actually attached to the pump via his intestine, creating the dilemma of either dying from AEA or biting through his intestine.
• It has been suggested that Robert Browning's dramatic monologue Porphyria's Lover is about erotic asphyxiation rather than murder.^[5]

Television:

• Six Feet Under, 2002 episode ("Back to the Garden," Season 2, Episode 20) of the HBO television series.
• the American version of Queer as Folk, the Showtime television series: In the first-season finale, Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) turns 30, an event looked upon by many in the gay community (jokingly and otherwise) as the year one "dies". Kinney decides to experience scarfing, but his best friend Michael (Hal Sparks) discovers and stops him. Kinney claims he wanted to experience "the best fucking orgasm of my life", but Novotny counters that it would have been "the last fucking orgasm of your life". When it aired, the episode featured a disclaimer about the dangers of the practice and discouraged viewers from attempting it.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, (2005, Season 6, episode 2) of the CBS television series
• The League of Gentlemen
• The 2005 George Carlin HBO Special Life is Worth Losing.
• X-Files, episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (first aired Friday, October 13, 1995), the psychic Bruckman (played by Peter Boyle, who won an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy for the part) implies that Special Agent Fox Mulder will die of AEA.
• "Peep Show", a UK Channel 4 TV show, when Jez says "I'm so bored, dangerously bored, I even considered doing that thing that Michael Hutchence and that MP did".
• The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode Ridicule involves a woman who died as a result of erotic asphyxiation
• Upright Citizens Brigade TV show.
• In the FX series Dirt, the character Lucy Spiller achieves sexual pleasure by being choked during intercourse.

Other

• The song "Self Suicide" by Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin' Chain includes two references to the death of Michael Hutchence, including the line "Wanking with a bag on your head tied to a door/That bloke from INXS he knew the score"
• In December of 2005, Dane Cook, who hosted Saturday Night Live, played a character whose wife told his loved ones that he had died of AEA instead of being in a coma.
• It was also mentioned by George Carlin, on his CD Life is Worth Losing. He devoted a skit to it.
• Brutal Death Metal band Devourment have a song called "Autoerotic Ashpyxiation"
• In the novel Pig by Irvine Welsh, the main character indulges in both AEA and "scarfing".
• The death of British MP Stephen Milligan by autoerotic asphyxiation is briefly mentioned in the song Mr. Robinson's Quango on the album The Great Escape by British rock band Blur.

[edit] See also

• Autoerotic fatalities
• Anoxia
• Choke hold
• Jane Longhurst

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Robert R. Hazelwood, Park Elliot Dietz, Ann Wolbert Burgess. Autoerotic Fatalities. Lexington, Mass.: LexingtonBooks, 1983.
• Sergey Sheleg, Edwin Ehrlich. Autoerotic Asphyxiation: Forensic, Medical, and Social Aspects. Tucson, AZ: Wheatmark, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Informational Portal about Autoerotic Asphyxiation Syndrome
• BBC News story about the death of Stephen Milligan
• Well Hung: Death By Orgasm
• Jenkins AP. When Self-Pleasuring Becomes Self-Destruction: Autoerotic Asphyxiation Paraphilia
• Turvey B. "An Objective Overview of Autoerotic Fatalities"
• The Medical Realities of Breath Control Play By Jay Wiseman