[First Amendment]

I just checked the link, and read the first part. It's a little late for me to read more tonight (scarey dreams?). I have heard about these people before, this was in even more detail.

The author mentions something about identity confusion. I think that is the key point. When people identify solely as their body, this is actually a form of insanity right there. The body is a changing, growing and then decaying, vehicle of flesh and blood, and every day is a reminder of its impermanence. My understanding (and a common one among various religions) is that one's real identity is a soul, or in Sanskrit, atma, eternal self. The nature of the soul or atma is that of an eternal spiritual individual, temporarily inhabiting the body.

So the changes and imperfections of the body actually are foreign to the soul's nature, which is (in the pure state) experienced as blissful, full of wisdom, and untouched by the destruction of time. Only the body is subject to decay.
Sick people such as "transgendered" and the amputee devotees are people who have really gone off the deep end. I can't imagine how they could be healed - have you heard of anything that helps them?

[hotpotato]

have you heard of anything that helps them?

It is addictive behavior which often revolves around sexual arousal or gratification. Sometimes, simply attention. For some, the arousal is about feet, for some it's amputation, and there are those who are aroused by dead people. Andrew Luster (cosmetic heir) had a thing for comatose individuals, women he could "have his way with" who mentally were not there. I think it is a combination of a predisposition to addictive behavior and that individual's life experiences. I would assume the best way to treat an addiction is with addiction therapy and drug therapy but the success rate for addiction therapy is not particularly high.

The article, "A New Way to Be Mad" describes a "fad" if you will, during the 19th century (I believe it was then) where amnesia became popular. The "fad' eventually disappeared. Multiple personalities became popular for a while then that began to wane. I think that transgenderism will do the same. For many, it's a fad. Lesbianism was a fad during the roaring 20's. The fad is beginning to return for various reasons, some of it about attention, some of it about rebellion, and some of it about the "cool" factor. From what I've read, for some, the urge disappears because it no longer satisfies or something else takes its place or reality sets in on how the fetish may be destroying that individual's family or imposing unfair hardship on others. Some take the fetish further (such as with the amputation fetish where the individual may graduate from admirer to amputating a toe now, a leg later). This is a very rare fetish.

Much of this is perpetuated through the internet (lots of encouragement from anonymous cheerleaders) and provided an acceptance factor by the media and validated by laws passed such as what Gray Davis has done here.