Sexual perversions
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 paraphiliais a condition in which a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend ona fantasy theme of an unusual situation or object that becomes the principalfocus 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 menthan in women.
Paraphilias differ from what some people might consider "normal" sexual activity in that these behaviors cause significant distress or impairment in areasof life functioning. They do not refer to the normal use of sexual fantasy,activity or objects to heighten sexual excitement where there is no distressor 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:
- Involvenonhuman sexual objects, such as shoes or undergarments
- Require thesuffering 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 inflictingof 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 ina 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(excessively (habitual).
There is very little certainty about what causes a paraphilia. Psychoanalystsgenerally 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 conditionsare all expressions of hostility in which sexual fantasies or unusual sexualacts 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 (when an act associated with one stimulus becomes associated with another). Nonsexual objects can become sexually arousing if they arefrequently and repeatedly associated with a pleasurable sexual activity. Thedevelopment of a paraphilia is not usually a matter of conditioning alone; there must usually be some predisposing (making susceptible) 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 parentalpunishment
- 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 theyare induced into it by an arrest or discovery by a family member. This makesdiagnosis 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 toejaculate may be common in attempts at sexual activity without the paraphiliac theme.
Paraphilias may be mild, moderate, or severe. An individual with mild paraphilia is markedly distressed by the recurrent paraphiliac urges but has never acted on them. The moderate has occasionally acted on the paraphilic urge. A severe paraphiliac has repeatedly acted on the urge.
- The literature describing treatment is fragmentary and incomplete. Traditional psychoanalysis has not been particularly effective with paraphilia andgenerally requires several years of treatment. Therapy with hypnosis has alsohad poor results. Current interests focus primarily on several behavioral techniques that include the following:
- Aversion imagery involves the pairingof a sexually arousing paraphilic stimulus with an unpleasant image, such asbeing arrested or having one's name appear in the newspaper.
- Desensitization procedures neutralize the anxiety-provoking aspects of nonparaphilic sexual situations and behavior by a process of gradual exposure. For example, a man afraid of having sexual contact with women his own age might be ledthrough a series of relaxation procedures aimed at reducing his anxiety.
- Social skills training is used with either of the other approaches and is aimed at improving a person's ability to form interpersonal relationships.
- Orgasmic reconditioning may instruct a person to masturbate using his paraphilia fantasy and to switch to a more appropriate fantasy just at themoment of orgasm.
In addition to these therapies, drugs are sometimes prescribed to treat paraphilic behaviors. Drugs that drastically lower testosterone temporarily (antiandrogens) have been used for the control of repetitive deviant sexual behaviors and have been prescribed for paraphilia-related disorders as well. Cyproterone acetate inhibits testosterone directly at androgen receptor sites. In its oral form, the usual prescribed dosage range is 50-200 mg per day.
Serotonergics (drugs that boost levels of the brain chemical serotonin) are prescribed for anxious and depressive symptoms. Of the serotonergic agents reported, fluoxetine has received the most attention, although lithium, clomipramine, buspirone, and sertraline are reported as effective in case reports andopen clinical trials with outpatients. Other alternative supplemental strategies that may be effective include adding a low dose of a secondary amine tricyclic antidepressant to the primary serotonergics, but these reports are only anecdotal (not scientifically proven).
Despite more than a decade of experience with psychotherapy treatment programs, most workers in the field are not convinced that they have a high degree of success. Furthermore, because some cases involve severe abuse, many in thegeneral public would prefer to "lock up" the sex offender than to have him out in the community in a treatment program or on parole after the treatment program has been completed.
Paraphilia and paraphilia-related disorders are more prevalent than most clinicians suspect. Since these disorders are cloaked in shame and guilt, the presence of these conditions may not be adequately revealed until a therapeuticrelationship is firmly established. Once a diagnosis is established, appropriate education about possible behavioral therapies and appropriate use of psychiatric medications can improve the outcome for these conditions.
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