Sexual perversions

Encyclopedia of Medicine, Apr 06, 2001 by David James Doermann

Sexual perversions are conditions in which sexual excitement or orgasm is associated with acts or imagery that are considered unusual within the culture. To avoid problems associated with the stigmatization of labels, the neutral term "paraphilia," derived from Greek roots meaning "alongside of" and "love," is used to describe what used to be called sexual perversions. A paraphilia is a condition in which a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend on a fantasy theme of an unusual situation or object that becomes the principal focus of sexual behavior.

Paraphilias can revolve around a particular sexual object or a particular act. They are defined by DSM-IV as "sexual impulse disorders characterized by intensely arousing, recurrent sexual fantasies, urges and behaviors considered deviant with respect to cultural norms and that produce clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of psychosocial functioning." The nature of a paraphilia is generally specific and unchanging, and most of the paraphilias are far more common in men than in women.

Paraphilias differ from what some people might consider "normal" sexual activity in that these behaviors cause significant distress or impairment in areas of life functioning. They do not refer to the normal use of sexual fantasy, activity or objects to heighten sexual excitement where there is no distress or impairment. The most common signs of sexual activity that can be classified as paraphilia include: the inability to resist an impulse for the sexual act, the requirement of participation by non-consenting or under-aged individuals, legal consequences, resulting sexual dysfunction, and interference with normal social relationships.

Paraphilias include fantasies, behaviors, and/or urges which:

• Involve nonhuman sexual objects, such as shoes or undergarments
• Require the suffering or humiliation of oneself or partner
• Involve children or other non-consenting partners.

The most common paraphilias are:

• Exhibitionism, or exposure of the genitals
• Fetishism, or the use of nonliving objects
• Frotteurism, or touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person
• Pedophilia, or the focus on prepubescent children
• Sexual masochism, or the receiving of humiliation or suffering
• Sexual sadism, or the inflicting of humiliation or suffering
• Transvestic fetishism, or cross-dressing
• Voyeurism, or watching others engage in undressing or sexual activity.

A paraphiliac often has more than one paraphilia. Paraphilias often result in a variety of associated problems, such as guilt, depression, shame, isolation, and impairment in the capacity for normal social and sexual relationships. A paraphilia can, and often does, become highly idiosyncratic and ritualized.

There is very little certainty about what causes a paraphilia. Psychoanalysts generally theorize that these conditions represent a regression to or a fixation at an earlier level of psychosexual development resulting in a repetitive pattern of sexual behavior that is not mature in its application and expression. In other words, an individual repeats or reverts to a sexual habit arising early in life. Another psychoanalytic theory holds that these conditions are all expressions of hostility in which sexual fantasies or unusual sexual acts become a means of obtaining revenge for a childhood trauma. The persistent, repetitive nature of the paraphilia is caused by an inability to erase the underlying trauma completely. Indeed, a history of childhood sexual abuse is sometimes seen in individuals with paraphilias.

However, behaviorists suggest, instead, that the paraphilia begins via a process of conditioning. Nonsexual objects can become sexually arousing if they are frequently and repeatedly associated with a pleasurable sexual activity. The development of a paraphilia is not usually a matter of conditioning alone; there must usually be some predisposing factor, such as difficulty forming person to person sexual relationships or poor self-esteem.

The following are situations or causes that might lead someone in a paraphiliac direction:

• Parents who humiliate and punish a small boy for strutting around with an erect penis
• A young boy who is sexually abused
• An individual who is dressed in a woman's clothes as a form of parental punishment
• Fear of sexual performance or intimacy
• Inadequate counseling
• Excessive alcohol intake
• Physiological problems
• Sociocultural factors
• Psychosexual trauma.

Whatever the cause, paraphiliacs apparently rarely seek treatment unless they are induced into it by an arrest or discovery by a family member. This makes diagnosis before a confrontation very difficult.

Paraphiliacs may select an occupation, or develop a hobby or volunteer work, that puts them in contact with the desired erotic stimuli, for example, selling women's shoes or lingerie in fetishism, or working with children in pedophilia. Other coexistent problems may be alcohol or drug abuse, intimacy problems, and personality disturbances especially emotional immaturity. Additionally, there may be sexual dysfunctions. Erectile dysfunction and an inability to ejaculate may be common in attempts at sexual activity without the paraphiliac theme.