Definition of paraphilia
The scientific term "paraphilia" (from the Greek παρά - beyond - φιλία - love) defines the set of sexual behaviors that have nothing to do with the sexual canonical act of reproduction: people with paraphilia who undergo psychotherapy to treat this disorder, they use expressions such as "fantasies", "impulses", "perversions" or "sexual deviations", a terminology that gives an immediate idea of the seriousness and abnormality of the disorder.
Features
Paraphilia sufferers are subjects who depend on a sexual impulse that is difficult to accept by "healthy" people; the puzzling fact is that paraphilia, often, is not tolerated even by the very person in which it manifests itself.
Paraphilia is an almost exclusively male disease, but some women have also experienced the same symptoms.
Individuals suffering from extreme paraphilia could also be involved in justice: as we will see later, paraphilias are often related to other psycho-sexual disorders, which can also damage other people (pedophilia is the most obvious example ).
Factors such as pleasure, sexual satisfaction and excitement, taken to the extreme, are found in all subjects suffering from paraphilia, despite each one manifesting the disease in personal, subjective, without following precise patterns. In the most severe cases of paraphilia, sexual pleasure seems to be the only reason why it is worth living.
Paraphiliac men (and some affected women) also use objects to satisfy sexual satisfaction, even in situations that are dangerous for themselves and others.
Paraphilia can also occur in other forms: in some cases, subjects with paraphilia have obsessive-compulsive disorders associated with loss of control and / or depression, regardless of sexual arousal / desire.
Classification
The various forms of paraphilia can be classified according to three parameters:- desired object / person: the sexual partner is only the instrument for reaching the peak of pleasure;
- action with which the disorder is manifested: the traditional sexual penetration is replaced with practices of another nature;
- sensory channel concerned: smell, sight, touch, hearing and taste are involved in paraphilia. In fact, sexual excitement is enhanced by the perception of (often unpleasant) smells, by exhibitionism and by the observation of other people involved in sexual acts (sight). The perversion is also given by the extreme accentuation of some "tactile" practices, which have nothing to do with delicacy and good taste; moreover, even the pronunciation or listening to vulgar terms could excite the patient with paraphilia (hearing). Last but not least, even swallowing bodily excretions (taste) can be a practice carried out by those affected by paraphilia, which is able to speed up the process that leads to the realization of the goal (orgasm).
Paraphilia-related diseases
Paraphilia is not a disorder that manifests itself unequivocally: paraphilias love to take every possible situation linked to sex to the extreme, to try new sensations . Given the multifactorial nature of paraphilia, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders has divided paraphilia into eight exaggerated behaviors that frequently occur in sick people: fetishism (use of extra-sexual objects), exhibitionism (exposure of sexual attributes to people who are not consenting), sadism (sexual excitement which consists in trying and / or causing pain to other people), frotteurism (a form of paraphilia which consists in "touching" a person compulsively), pedophilia (sexual excitement towards adolescents), scopophilia (sexual need to observe people engaged in sexual activities), disguise fetishism (desire and excitement in showing off clothes of the other sex) and masochism (a form of paraphilia in which excitement is reached through humiliation or pain).
Enigmatic remains the homosexuality which, until recently, was considered a paraphiliac practice; following the pressing opposition from Homosexual Associations, the tendency to love subjects of the same sex was excluded from the list of forms of paraphilia.
Reflections
Sigmund Freud called perversions " sexual activities aimed at non-genital regions of the body ". In our days, this definition has been re-evaluated, because if we still consider the Freudian "perversion", the sexual behaviors of the vast majority of the world population should be considered "sick". But it is not so: perhaps, a small part, in each of us, has a "perverse" nature, hidden that manifests itself in a more or less accentuated manner based on the person, the character and the environment. It certainly cannot be affirmed that the natural propensity to "physiological" perversion is linked to paraphilia: only when such impulses explode in an excessive, improper, sometimes violent manner, can one speak correctly of paraphilic disorder. Obsessive compulsive forms that last for long periods (over 6 months), associated with extreme (realized) fantasies about unsuspecting people, can portray a pathological picture, therefore considered "paraphilia".
As we have seen, paraphilia is a disease to all effects, which originates in the mind of the person and which could create serious consequences: in this regard, the psychologist must define a correct diagnostic framework in order to find the most suitable cure for healing the patient from paraphilia.
