Encyclopedia
In
psychology and sexology,
paraphilia is a term that describes a family of philias that reference sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity.
Paraphilia is also used to imply non-mainstream sexual practices without necessarily implying any dysfunction or moral deviance. Also, it may describe sexual feelings toward otherwise non-sexual objects. As the -philias within it have derived nouns, the noun derived which could be used to describe the collection of persons with paraphilias would be
paraphile. Psychologists generally use
parasexual however.
Definition
The word is used differently by different groups. As used in
psychology or sexology, it is simply an 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 .
;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 have in the past 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. '
;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:
- "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 are now regarded as variants of normal sexuality; so too, sexual behaviors currently considered normal were once culturally proscribed"
;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, leading some members of those religions to believe that all paraphilias must be sins. The field of
psychology has attempted to characterize paraphilias 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 some societies and religious/ethical traditions to view the paraphilias more positively. 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 , published by the American Psychiatric Association [i] ...
.
History of the term
Although its coinage is often attributed to sexologist John Money, the term was coined by Croatian Jewish sexologist Friedrich Salomon Krauss during the 19th century, first popularized by Viennese psychotherapist Wilhelm Stekel in 1925, from the Greek
para- +
philos , 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" in 1980. It was used by
Sigmund Freud as well.
Categorization of paraphilias
There is much debate about what should constitute a paraphilia, and how these should be clinically classified '.
Clinically recognized paraphilias
Clinical literature discusses eight major paraphilias individually. According to the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , published by the American Psychiatric Association [i] ...
, the activity must be the sole means of sexual gratification for a period of six months, and cause "marked distress or interpersonal difficulty" to be considered such. In the clinical sense, many professionals and lay people prefer the term "disorders of sexual preference".
Note that since the DSM is a set of guidelines constructed by a committee of experts, it only represents reliable diagnoses, not necessarily valid ones. Keeping this in mind, the DSM paraphilias 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.
- Chronophilias such as Infantophilia: the sexual attraction to infants, Pedophilia: the sexual attraction to prepubescent children, Ephebophilia/Hepephilia: the sexual attraction to pubescent children, Gerontophilia: the sexual attraction to the elderly, and teleiophilia the sexual attraction of children to adults.
- 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, but not transvestitism, 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 become sexualized, given the right circumstances, and that therefore paraphilias can encompass almost any imaginable subject.
Intensity and specificity
Clinicians distinguish between optional, preferred and exclusive paraphilias, though the terminology is not completely standardized. An "optional" paraphilia is an alternate route to sexual arousal. For example, a man with otherwise unremarkable sexual interests might sometimes seek or enhance sexual arousal by wearing women's underwear. In preferred paraphilias, a person prefers the paraphilia to conventional sexual activities, but also engages in conventional sexual activities. For example, a man might prefer to wear women's underwear during sexual activity, whenever possible. In exclusive paraphilias, a person is unable to become sexually aroused in the absence of the paraphilia.
Optional paraphilias are far more common than preferred paraphilias, which are, in turn, far more common than exclusive paraphilias.
Optional paraphilias sometimes disrupt stable relationships when discovered by an unsuspecting partner. Preferred paraphilias often disrupt otherwise stable relationships. Open communication and mutual support can minimize or prevent such disruption in both of these cases. Exclusive paraphilias often preclude normal courtship and committed romantic relationships, even when the person in question desires such a relationship. Loneliness or social isolation are common consequences. In extreme cases, preoccupation with a preferred or exclusive paraphilia completely displaces the more typical desire for loving human relationships.
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 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
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, mental illness, or simply harmless sexual variation. Another variable is whether it is the acting out, or just the desirous thought alone, which is critically viewed in such cases. In any event, several paraphilias, as with many "non-mainstream" behaviors, are viewed negatively by various religions.
Some religious traditions include forms of extreme
asceticism such as
scourging, when practiced as a sexual activity would usually be considered masochism and popularly viewed as paraphilias. When practiced for non-sexual reasons, they are usually valued by the religious groups concerned as a part of their religious observance and submission to
God.
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. '
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. '
The paraphilias listed below may carry a condition of illegality in some areas if acted out .
- pedophilia: sexual attraction to prepubescent children
- ephebophilia: sexual attraction to adolescents
- frotteurism: sexual arousal through rubbing one's self against a non-consenting stranger in public
- exhibitionism and voyeurism, if deliberate and non-consensual
- telephone scatologia: being sexually aroused by making obscene telephone calls
- zoophilia: emotional or sexual attraction to animals
- 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
- zoosadism: the sexual enjoyment of causing pain and suffering to animals.
Paraphilia in popular culture
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, previously censored or stigmatized images of many paraphilias became more prevalent in the popular culture of Western countries.
- Sadomasochism: In the independent 1974 Italian film The Night Porter is a highly controversial 1974 [i] film starring Dirk Bogarde [i] and Charlotte Rampling [i] ...
, Charlotte Rampling wore a hat from a Nazi uniform in a sadomasochistic sex scene. At the time, the image was startling and new, but over the following years the use of Nazi-tinged iconography in a sexual context became mainstream, appearing first in mass-marketed pornography like Playboy and Penthouse, and finally becoming so tame that teen queen Britney Spears wore a similar outfit to a primetime awards show in 2003.
- By 2006, sadomasochistic imagery had become mainstream enough for singer Justin Timberlake to have a hit song with the lyric "Just see these shackles baby, I'm your slave! / I'll let you whip me if I misbehave!"
- Pedophilia: Pedophiliac imagery famously burst into popular culture at the beginning of the 1980s with the success of Brooke Shields in such movies as Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon. Even at the time, however, the negative response to these movies was strong. Since then, popular culture has continued to simultaneously promote and censor pedophiliac imagery. In 1999 the fetishistic use of a school uniform helped make the video for "...Baby One More Time" a huge hit. But just two years earlier, the film Lolita is a novel [i] by Vladimir Nabokov [i], first published in 1955 [i]. ...
could not find a theatrical distributor despite the fame of its director and star, and was instead premiered on cable television.
- Zoophilia: Sex with animals has been a theme in a number of popular comedies, including Bachelor Party, Clerks II, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. All these movies present the paraphilia as funny rather than erotic, as something ordinary young men are curious about but in the end find disgusting. In all three movies the animal involved is an equine. In an episode of The Simpsons, Troy McClure acknowledges being sexually attracted to fish. His career had been damaged following an unspecified incident at an aquarium.
- Furries and webcomics both gained popularity on the Internet at roughly the same time, so it's natural that furries have been featured as characters or objects of satire in many webcomics, including Diesel Sweeties, Overcompensating , and Something Positive , among others.
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 , 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.The following terms represent combinations of greek words, but do not necessarily represent reality. Some of the following sexual interests are fairly common. For instance, problems with sexual abuse of children, associated with pedophilia, are well-known, and at least a few bars or clubs dedicated to bondage and discipline can be found in most large cities in the U.S. Others are vanishingly rare, if they exist at all and are not documented in any reliable source. Some items portray personal preferences that don't reasonably qualify as paraphilias. Finally, the following list might contain some dubious items.
- Abasiophilia: love of people who use leg braces or other orthopaedic appliances
- Acousticophilia: sexual arousal from certain sounds
- Acrotomophilia: love of amputees
- Agalmatophilia: sexual attraction to statues or mannequins or immobility
- Algolagnia: sexual pleasure from pain
- Amaurophilia: sexual arousal by a partner whom one is unable to see due to artificial means, such as being blindfolded or having sex in total darkness. '
- Andromimetophilia: love of women dressed as men
- Apodysophilia: desire to undress, see also nudism
- Apotemnophilia: desire to have a healthy appendage amputated
- Aquaphilia: arousal from water and/or in watery environments, including swimming pools
- Aretifism: sexual attraction to people who are without footwear, in contrast to retifism
- Asphyxiophilia: sexual attraction to asphyxia; also called breath control play; including autoerotic asphyxiation; see
- Autogynephilia: love of oneself as a woman
- Biastophilia: sexual pleasure from committing rape
- Celebriphillia: pathological desire to have sex with a celebrity.
- Coprophilia: sexual attraction to feces
- Crush fetish: sexual arousal from seeing small creatures being crushed by members of the opposite sex, or being crushed oneself
- Dacryphilia: sexual pleasure in eliciting tears from others or oneself
- Diaper fetishism: sexual arousal from diapers
- Emetophilia : sexual attraction to vomit
- Ephebophilia : sexual attraction towards adolescents
- Eproctophilia: sexual attraction to flatulence
- Exhibitionism: sexual arousal through sexual behavior in view of third parties
- Faunoiphilia: sexual arousal from watching animals mate
- Fetishism: is the use of non-sexual or nonliving objects or part of a person's body to gain sexual excitement. Examples include:
Balloon fetishism -- breast fetishism --
foot fetishism -- fur fetishism -- leather fetishism -- lipstick fetishism -- medical fetishism --
panty fetishism --
robot fetishism --
rubber fetishism -- shoe fetishism --
smoking fetishism -- spandex fetishism --
transvestic fetishism- 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
- Haematophilia: sexual attraction involving blood
- 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
- 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 smaller people 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
- Nepiophilia: the same as infantophilia sexual attraction to children between the age of 0 - 3 yrs.
- Pedophilia: sexual attraction to prepubescent children
- Pictophilia: sexual attraction to pictorial pornography/erotic art
- 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
- Retifism: sexual arousal from shoes
- Sadism: sexual arousal from giving pain
- Schediaphilia : love to cartoon characters/situations
- Sitophilia: sexual arousal from food
- Somnophilia: sexual arousal from sleeping or unconscious people
- Spectrophilia: sexual attraction to ghosts
- 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
- Trichophilia: love 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
- Xenophilia
...
: sexual attraction to foreigners
- 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 BDSM. See also " bondage and discipline" and algolagnia.
See also
External links
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