Date:  Tue, 25 Nov 1997 10:49:04 EST
From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Auto-erotic asphyxiation (new term?)

The most detailed discussion I could find via Nexis was a New York Times story
on March 27, 1984, which addresses the increasing concerns voiced by mental
health professionals about the increasingly popular practice. We learn that
victims are generally young men, but range in age from 9 to 77 and include
some women as well; parents should be wary if their sons appear to have rope
burns around their necks. (Some of you may recall an earlier description of
the practice from William Burroughs's _Naked Lunch_, and it's also depicted in
a couple of movies, as noted in the article.)  Oh, and if anyone's interested,
Hustler won that lawsuit on first amendment grounds.
 Here's a characteristic passage from the Times piece:

>  In their recently published book, ''Autoerotic Fatalities'' (Lexington
>Books), Mr. Hazelwood and his colleagues also described cases in which other
>people had rescued unconscious victims of <autoerotic asphyxiation,> but the
>rescue had occurred too late to prevent permanent brain damage.
>
>  ''Most people don't realize how easy it is to lose consciousness when
>pressing on the neck,'' Dr. Robert Litman, a psychiatrist and suicidologist in
>Los Angeles who studied the problem a decade ago, explained in an interview.
>
>  ''There is an extremely sensitive area of the carotid artery,'' he said,
>referring to the main artery in the neck that feeds the brain. ''Just turn the
>wrong way and you become unconscious. You may do it right 40 times, but on the
>41st, you may make a wrong move and die.''

Let this serve as a warning to all of us. For those seeking more detailed
information, the book mentioned--by Robert Hazelwood (wasn't he the captain
of the ill-fated Exxon Valdez?) and his colleagues Park Elliot Dietz and
Ann Wolbert Burgess (1983) sounds like a good place to start.

Larry