The obscene telephone caller may boast of sexual acts he will perform on the vic­tim, may describe his masturbation in detail, may threaten the victim, or may try to en­tice the victim to reveal aspects of her sexual life or even perform sexual acts such as masturbating while he listens on the phone. Some callers […]

ollowing is a personal account written by Jillian G., a 21-year-old college student who became inter­ested in masochistic behavior when she was 6 years old. As an American, I enjoy my constitutional rights. As a child of the 80s, I really enjoy The Breakfast Club. As a human, I can’t help but love Oreos. I’m […]

Paraphilias have been grouped into a number of major categories by researchers and clin­icians. We will review some of the more common types of paraphilias, including: fetishism; sadism and masochism; exhibitionism and voyeurism; transvestic fetishism; and pedophilia. Fetishism A fetish is an inanimate object or a body part not usually associated with the sex act […]

Another way of looking at the causes of paraphilias is to examine the ways society en­courages certain behaviors. Feminists, for example, argue that in societies that treat women as sexual objects anyway, it is a natural development to replace the woman with another, inanimate sexual object. When men and their sexual organs are glorified, some […]

Behaviorists suggest that paraphilias develop because some behavior becomes associated with sexual pleasure through conditioning (G. D. Wilson, 1987). For example, imagine that a boy gets an enema. While receiving it, the boy has an erection, either by coinci­dence or because he finds the stimulus of the enema pleasurable (it becomes a rein­forcement). Later, remembering […]

Freud suggested that children are polymorphously perverse; that is, at birth we have a general erotic potential that can be attached to almost anything. We learn from an early age what sexual objects society deems appropriate for us to desire, but society’s messages can get off track. For example, advertising tries to “sexualize” its products—we […]

Psychoanalytic thought suggests that paraphilias can be traced back to the difficult time the infant has in negotiating his way through the Oedipal crisis and castration anxiety. This can explain why paraphilias are more common among men because both boys and girls identify strongly with their mothers, but girls can continue that identification, whereas boys […]

Many researchers have theorized as to why and how paraphilias develop, but very little consensus has been reached. Paraphilias are undoubtedly complex behavior patterns, which may have biological, psychological, or social origins—or aspects of all three. Biological Theories Biological researchers have found that a number of conditions can initiate paraphiliac behavior. Men without previous paraphilias […]

Ithough there has not been much research doc­umenting the incidence, expression, and treat­ment of paraphilias outside the United States, there have been limited studies. The majority of information available concerns pedophilia, transvestism, and transsexual­ism. A limited amount of research exists on other paraphilias, such as sadomasochism. Below, we explore what we do know about paraphilias […]

TABLE 16.1 Paraphilia Typology   Behaviors Limited number of exploratory paraphiliac behaviors; uses no force or threat Sexually isolated, unskilled; seeks self-aggrandizement and intimacy; behaviors are long-standing Has good social skills; often suffered abuse; has rationalized behaviors; feels little guilt or remorse; seeks sexual pleasure Angry and aggressive; wants to dominate and humiliate others; often […]