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In psychology and sexology, paraphilia (in Greek para παρά = besides and '-philia' φιλία = love) is a term that describes sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity. However it is important to notice that the term can be and is also used to imply "less mainstream sexual practices" but without necessarily negatively implying any dysfunction or 'wrongness'.
Definition
The word is used differently by different groups. As used in psychology or sexology, it is simply a neutral umbrella term used to cover a wide variety of atypical sexual interests.
- Clinical definition
A paraphilic interest is not normally considered clinically important by clinicians unless it is also causing suffering of some kind, or strongly inhibiting a "normal" sex life (according to the subjective standards of the culture and times).
- Lay-public view
Paraphilia is sometimes used by laypeople in a more judgmental or prejudicial sense, to categorize sexual desires or activities lying well outside the societal norm. Many sexual activities now considered harmless or even beneficial by many (such as masturbation) have often been considered perversions or psychosexual disorders in various societies, and how to regard these behaviors has been, and continues at times to be, a controversial matter. (For a contrasting view see: Wisdom of repugnance)
- Usage of the term in English
The term "paraphilia" is rarely used in general English, with references to the actual interest concretely being more common. Some see the term as helping to aid objectivity when discussing taboo behaviors or those meeting public disapproval, but which may not in fact be a problem. Some have even interpreted the term pejoratively, seeing paraphilias as "rare conditions or serious disorders" that should either be criminalized or require serious treatment.
- Clinical warnings
It is worth noting typical clinical warnings given against improper assumptions about paraphilias:
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- "Paraphilias are ... sexual fantasies urges and behaviors that are considered deviant with respect to cultural norms..."
- "Although several of these disorders can be associated with aggression or harm, others are neither inherently violent nor aggressive"
- "The boundary for social as well as sexual deviance is largely determined by cultural and historical context. As such, sexual orientations once considered paraphilias (e.g., homosexuality) are now regarded as variants of normal sexuality; so too, sexual behaviors currently considered normal (e.g., masturbation) were once culturally proscribed"
- (Source: Psychiatric Times)
- Social norms
What is considered to be "perversion" or "deviation" varies from society to society. Some paraphilias fall into the kinds of activities often called 'sexual perversions' or 'sexual deviancy' with negative connotations or 'kinky sex' with more positive connotations. Some specific paraphilias have been or are currently crimes in some jurisdictions. In some religions certain sexual interests are forbidden, and this has led to some people believing that all paraphilias must be sins. Since the development of psychology attempts have been made to characterize them in terms of their etiology and in terms of the ways they change the functioning of individuals in social situations. Some of these psycho-medical etiologies and descriptions have allowed many societies and religious/ethical traditions to view some of the paraphilias in a less negative light, at least in some circumstances. Some behaviors that might be classified as paraphilias by some subsets of society may be viewed as harmless eccentricities by other subsets of society, or entirely normal behavior within other societies.
Due to the somewhat subjective nature of their definition, the specific acts included under the umbrella of paraphilia vary from time to time and from place to place, and indeed from edition to edition of such works as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
History of the term
The term was coined by Viennese psychotherapist Wilhelm Stekel (in his book Sexual Aberrations) in 1925, from the Greek para- (beside) + philos (loving), and first used in English in Stekel's translated works. It was not in widespread use until the 1950s, and was first used in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM) in 1980. It was used by Sigmund Freud, as well as by the sexologist John Money.
Categorization of paraphilias
There is much debate about what (if anything) should constitute a paraphilia, and how these should be clinically classified (see Controversy, below).
Clinically recognized paraphilias
Clinical literature discusses eight major paraphilias individually, and according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the activity must be the sole means of sexual gratification for a period of six (6) months, and cause "marked distress or interpersonal difficulty" to be considered such.
Note that their listing in DSM is mostly because, either due to widespread commonality or the nature of any psychological distress, standardized clinical assessment methods (as opposed to general guidance) is considered valuable for these.
They are:
- Exhibitionism: the recurrent urge or behavior to expose one's genitals to an unsuspecting person
- Fetishism: the use of non-sexual or nonliving objects or part of a person's body to gain sexual excitement. Partialism refers to fetishes specifically involving nonsexual parts of the body.
- Frotteurism: the recurrent urges or behavior of touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting person.
- Masochism: the recurrent urge or behavior of wanting to be humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer.
- Pedophilia: the sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
- Sadism: the recurrent urge or behavior involving acts in which the pain or humiliation of the victim is sexually exciting.
- Transvestic fetishism: a sexual attraction towards the clothing of the opposite gender.
- Voyeurism: the recurrent urge or behavior to observe an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobing or engaging in sexual activities.
Other paraphilias are grouped together under "Other paraphilias not otherwise specified."
Homosexuality was previously listed as a paraphilia in the DSM-I and DSM-II, but this was declassified from both DSM-III and DSM-IV, consistent with the change of attitude among psychiatrists. There is still a disorder of homosexuality, but this refers to clinical distress caused by the repression of homosexuality. Likewise, zoophilia was clinically re-evaluated between DSM-III and DSM-IV as a result of research, and is now not considered a clinical problem unless distress is caused. As of 2004, transvestic fetishism was still listed as a paraphilia in the DSM-IV-TR. There are also many other paraphilias, both common and rare.
It seems that anything can (in theory) become sexualized, given the right circumstances, and that therefore paraphilias can (in theory) encompass almost any imaginable subject.
Psychology of paraphilias
Behavioral imprinting
Observation of paraphiliac behavior has provided valuable scientific information on the mechanisms of sexual attraction and desire, such as behavioral imprinting. Careful investigation has also led to the tentative conclusions that normal biological processes may sometimes be manifested in idiosyncratic ways in at least some of the paraphilias, and that these unusual manifestations are frequently associated with unusual (and especially traumatic) events associated with early sexual experience. They tend to be caused by classical conditioning in that a sexual stimulus has been paired with stimuli and situations that do not typically result in sexual response, then perpetuated through operant condition because the sexual response is its own reward or positive reinforcement.
Views on paraphilias
Religious views
- Main article: Religion and sexuality
Some religious adherents view various paraphilias as deviations from their conception of God's original plan for human sexuality, or from their religious laws. Depending in part on the nature of the paraphilia in question, judgements can differ as to whether religiously it should be considered a case of sexual sin, or of mental illness. Another variable is whether it is the acting out, or (less commonly) just the desirous thought alone, which is critically viewed in such cases. In any event, several paraphilias are viewed negatively (or with distaste) by various religions.
Legal views
As a general rule, the law in many countries often intervenes in paraphilias involving young or adolescent children below the legal age of consent, nonconsensual deliberate displays or illicit watching of sexual activity, harm to animals, acts involving dead people, harassment, nuisance, fear, injury, or assault of a sexual nature. Separately, it also usually regulates or controls censorship of pornographic material.
Non-consensual exhibitionism, where people who have not previously consented to watch are exposed to sexual display, is also an offense in most jurisdictions, as is non-consensual voyeurism. (See indecent exposure and peeping tom)
Non-consensual sadomasochistic acts may legally constitute assault, and therefore belong in the list below. Some jurisdictions criminalize some or all sadomasochistic acts, regardless of legal consent and impose liability for any injuries caused and that, for these purposes, non-physical injuries are included in the definition of grievous bodily harm in English law. (See Consent (BDSM) )
The paraphilias listed below may carry a condition of illegality in some areas if acted out (though they may usually be legally role-played between consenting partners).
The following paraphilias are common among serial killers:
- biastophilia: sexual pleasure from committing rape
- lust murder: sexual arousal through committing murder
- necrophilia: sexual attraction to corpses
- necrozoophilia: sexual attraction to the corpses or killings of animals (also known as necrobestiality)
- zoosadism: the sexual enjoyment of causing pain and suffering to animals.
Controversy over the term
The definition of various sexual practices as paraphilias has been met with opposition. Advocates for changing these definitions stress that, aside from "paraphilias" with a criminal element, there is nothing inherently pathological about these practices; they are undeserving of the stigmatism associated with being "singled out" as such. Those who profess such a view hope that, much as with the removal of homosexuality from the DSM (see homosexuality and psychology), future psychiatric definitions will not include most of these practices.
List of paraphilias
- Also see article -philia for "-philias" in other fields
Note: This article needs some clean-up. Many terms have been represented incorrectly. Terms with the -philia suffix refer to conditions in which the person's primary sexual interest involves the stimulus or situation mentioned. Each term with the -lagnia suffix refers to any action involving the stimulus or situation. For example, someone who is consistently sexually excited by feces would have coprophilia; any sexual act involving feces, even by someone for whom that is not a primary interest, would be coprolagnia.
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- Balloon fetishism -- breast fetishism -- foot fetishism (podophilia) -- fur fetishism -- leather fetishism -- lipstick fetishism -- medical fetishism -- panty fetishism -- robot fetishism -- rubber fetishism -- shoe fetishism -- smoking fetishism -- spandex fetishism -- transvestic fetishism (see below)
- Forniphilia: love of making furniture from humans in bondage
- Frotteurism: sexual arousal from the recurrent urge or behavior of touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting person.
- Galactophilia: sexual attraction to human milk or lactating women
- Gerontophilia: sexual attraction towards the elderly
- Gynophilia: love of women
- Haemophilia: sexual attraction involving blood (either on a sex partner or attractive member of the opposite sex or the liquid itself)
- Harpaxophilia: sexual arousal from being the victim of a robbery or burglary
- Hematolagnia: sexual attraction to blood
- Hybristophilia: sexual arousal to people who have committed crimes, in particular cruel or outrageous crimes
- Infantilism: sexual pleasure from dressing, acting, or being treated as a baby
- Klismaphilia: sexual pleasure from enemas
- Lust murder: sexual arousal through committing murder
- Macrophilia: sexual attraction to larger people and large things (including larger body organs such as breasts and genitalia)
- Maiesiophilia: sexual attraction to childbirth or pregnant women
- Masochism: is the recurrent urge or behavior of wanting to be humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer.
- Microphilia: sexual attraction to small things and things of smaller size
- Mysophilia: sexual attraction to soiled, dirty, foul or decaying material
- Necrophilia: sexual attraction to corpses
- Necrozoophilia: sexual attraction to the corpses or killings of animals (also known as necrobestiality)
- Nepiophilia: the same as infantophilia sexual attraction to children between the age of 0 - 3 yrs.
- Pedophilia: sexual attraction to prepubescent children (also spelt paedophilia in some countries)
- Pictophilia: inability to become sexually aroused except through the use of pictorial pornography
- Plushophilia: sexual attraction to stuffed toys or people in animal costume, such as theme park characters
- Pyrophilia: sexual arousal through watching, setting, hearing/talking/fantasizing about fire.
- Sadism: is the recurrent urge or behavior involving acts in which the pain or humiliation of the victim is sexually exciting.
- Sitophilia: sexual arousal from food
- Telephone scatologia: being sexually aroused by making obscene telephone calls
- Teratophilia: sexual attraction to deformed or monstrous people
- Transformation fetish: sexual arousal from depictions of transformations of people into objects or other beings
- Transvestic fetishism: is a sexual attraction towards the clothing of the opposite gender (also known as transvestitism)
- Trichophilia: love (or sexual arousal) from hair
- Urolagnia: sexual attraction to urine
- Vorarephilia: sexual attraction to being eaten by, and/or eating, another person or creature
- Voyeurism: sexual arousal through watching others having sex (also includes the recurrent urge or behavior to observe an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobing or engaging in sexual activities, see peeping tom)
- Xenophilia: sexual attraction to foreigners (in science fiction, can also mean sexual attraction to aliens)
- Zoophilia: emotional or sexual attraction to animals
- Zoosadism: the sexual enjoyment of causing pain and suffering to animals.
Note:
- Sadism and masochism are often grouped together, under sadomasochism, or (as a lifestyle interest) BDSM. See also " bondage and discipline" and algolagnia.
Paraphilia in popular culture
- Pretty Baby (film) depicts a gentle pedophile who marries an abandoned and out of work 12 year old prostitute, but then loses her when her mother returns.
- Some paraphilias are sufficiently common in the general population to be regularly observed in mainstream literature, as well as being able to support entire sub-genres of mainstream commercial pornography.
See also
External links
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