Paraphilia is the experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than conventional sexual intercourse with a consenting human partner.
The most common paraphilias are pedophilia (sexual focus on children), exhibitionism (exposure of genitals to strangers), voyeurism (observing private activities of unaware victims), and frotteurism (touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting person).
The chapter on paraphilic disorders includes eight conditions: exhibitionistic disorder, fetishistic disor- der, frotteuristic disorder, pedophilic disorder, sexual masochism disorder, sexual sadism disorder, transvestic disorder, and voyeuristic disorder.
Paraphilias are persistent and recurrent sexual interests, urges, fantasies, or behaviors of marked intensity involving objects, activities, or even situations that are atypical in nature.
According to DSM-V, there are ten disorders included in this category: voyeuristic disorder, exhibitionistic disorder, frotteuristic disorder, sexual masochism disorder, sexual sadism disorder, pedophilic disorder, fetishistic disorder, transvestic disorder, and other specified and unspecified paraphilic disorder.
Certain paraphilias – such as paedophilia, voyeurism and exhibitionism – are illegal if enacted, although it is not illegal to have fantasies or urges to enact.
Some paraphilias may interfere with the capacity for sexual activity with consenting adult partners. In the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), a paraphilia is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder unless it causes distress to the individual or harm to others.
Paraphilias are frequent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies or behaviors that involve inanimate objects, children or nonconsenting adults, or suffering or humiliation of the person or a partner.
The exact causes leading to the development of paraphilias or paraphilic disorders are not known, though some experts posit that childhood sexual trauma may play a role.
Some paraphilias (such as pedophilia, frottereurism, voyeurism, some forms of exhibitionism) are illegal and may result in imprisonment and lifelong registration as a sex offender. Some of these offenders also have significant personality disorders. Personality disorders... read more (eg, antisocial.
Once established, they tend to be chronic, although some research has indicated that the behaviors will reduce as the individual ages (Barbaree & Blanchard, 2008). Most individuals with paraphilias are men.
Paraphilias are fetishes that have escalated in ways that have resulted in negative life consequences. A kink, a fetish, and a paraphilia can involve the same behavior, but the role that behavior plays and the effects it has can be very different depending on the person.
It should be noted, however, that generally speaking, the paraphilias involve a disorder of sexual aim, involving the object of one's sexual interest, and the hypersexual disorders involve an increase in the strength of one's sexual drive towards otherwise conventional objects.
Table 1 lists these paraphilic disorders and the associated atypical sexual interest. In order to make a diagnosis of a paraphilic disorder, an individual must have a history of recurrent and intense sexual arousal to the atypical focus lasting at least 6 months that manifests as sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors.
It is also not clear from these views why many paraphilic interests, and especially many paraphilias and paraphilic disorders, are much more common in men than in women. One possible factor affecting male's higher rate of paraphilias is anxiety, because anxiety can potentiate sexual arousal in men.
Created with Sketch. Paraphilic disorders are not common, but individual behaviors, which would not constitute a paraphilic disorder on their own, and fantasies about paraphilias are fairly common.
In general, men seem to be more likely to report greater interest in paraphilic interests and behaviors than women17, even if recent evidence challenges this assumption11,12. However, paraphilias are perceived as typical male mental disorders, and are highly stigmatizing compared to other mental disorders28.
As such, individuals with OCD who experience intrusive sexual thoughts are very distressed by these thoughts both in the moment when these thoughts arise as well as after the thoughts have passed. Individuals with paraphilias or NPSDs, on the other hand, are not typically distressed by their thoughts in the moment.
Studies suggest that at least some people who identify as asexual might be best categorized as having a paraphilia. This makes sense when you consider that research has found that many self-identified asexuals masturbate and, further, that many of them have sexual fantasies, too.
They found that 52% of men had had at least one life- time “unconventional” sexual behavior (including non- paraphilic behaviors such as swinging, ménage à trois, and group sex). The two most frequently reported uncon- ventional behaviors were paraphilic: voyeurism (13%) and fetishism (13%).
Paraphilia can affect a person's ability to function in society and can lead to other problems such as substance use and mental health issues. Paraphilias can be diagnosed by a mental health professional using certain criteria.
Some paraphilias primarily concern the individual's erotic activities, and others primarily concern the individual's erotic targets. A paraphilia is considered a paraphilic disorder when it causes distress or impairment to the individual or has caused personal harm or risk to others.