Paraphilic Disorder: Definition, Contexts And Clinical Strategies

Abstract

The evolution of the definition of perverted or paraphilic sexual activity reveals how psychiatric nosography reflects the society that expresses it. In the context of a culture that considered sexuality in relatively narrow terms, Freud (1905) first, in a closed socio-cultural context but eager to open up, defined perverse sexual activity according to various criteria, such as: focusing of body regions not necessarily genitals (eg: neck, back, ...); the replacement of the usual sexual practice exclusively focused on genital contacts with a partner of the other sex, often for procreative purposes, according to the religious direction; the tendency to be the exclusive practice of the individual. From his first paper, however, cultural attitudes relating to sexuality have changed radically, thanks to globalization and the spread of telematics and social networks capable of connecting individuals separated by oceans and continents. Over the decades, from the first theorizations of the beginning of the last century, not surprisingly, couples (in their intimacy) have cleared a variety of sexual behaviours so to speak “bizarre”, up to the removal of perverse behaviours like anal penetration and homosexual orientation [1].