Paraphilia Research Paper

Paraphilias is a mental disease where the patient is sexually attracted to an object or lifeform that a normal human would not be attracted to. There are over 547 specific types of paraphilias, all of them can be put into categories of being aroused by non-human objects, the humiliation of a person or their partner, children, or a non-consenting person. Although this sounds like a terrible disease, many groups around the world are trying to research the acceptance of these patients sexual diversity. However, in today's version of the DSM paraphilias is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder, unless it causes discomfort or harm to an individual or others.

The DSM states that there are 547 different paraphilia, many people argue that there are more, because of the DSM's classification of normal and abnormal sexual arousals. All the Paraphilias have one thing in common down to their roots, they all are connected to what a "normal" human being would be attracted to; they are just exaggerations of these "normal" sexual attractions. One of these abnormal sexual
attractions was homosexuality, until 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM since it had become such a "normal" thing.

Due to the wide variety of paraphilia, there are only a few common ones, some of which are.
Exhibitionism, which is the reocurring urge to show ones genitals to an unsuspecting person, or to perform sexual acts so they can be seen by others. The use of inanimate objects to get sexually aroused is fetishism, however, the most common branch of fetishism is partialism, which is arousal by a non-sexual part of the body. Sexual Masochism is the urge to be beat and humiliated during sexual activites, while Sexual Sadism is the urge to beat and humiliate others during sexual activites. The well-known paraphilia is pedophilia, which is the sexual attraction to children that have not gone through puberty yet. Voyeurism is the obsession to observe others while partaking in undressing themselves or sexual activites. The arousal of clothing associated with the opposite sex is Transvestic
Fetishism. While cures have been hard to find for all these conditions, doctors have come very far from the original treatment, castration. Today, psychotherapy, self-help groups, and pharmacotherapy(which is chemical castration) have all been used and seemed to have helped very well. However, there are other hormal and psychoactive drugs which have worked as well. Forms of estrogen to reduce the male sex drive has been given, this method only works in 60 to 80 percent of men, andd it causes breast growth and bone density loss. Recently, there has been a discovery that amphetamines such as ritalin could help with paraphilias, further research is being conducted.