Telephone scatology: types, symptoms and characteristics of this paraphilia

These are the characteristics of the paraphilia known as telephone scatology.

The phone rings, we run for it. We pick it up, hold it to our ear and wait to be told who it is.

"Hello?" we say. "What are you wearing?" a sinister voice says. "I beg your pardon?" we reply. "What are you wearing, are you wearing panties?". We hang up the phone looking disgusted and with a little less faith in humanity.

Telephone eschatology is a paraphilic disorder in which the sufferer likes to call people and make comments that could not exactly be considered romantic, without prior agreement. Next we will see more in depth this paraphilic behavior.

Telephone scatology

Telephone scatology, also called telephone scatophilia and telephonophilia, is a paraphilia in which the person who has it feels the need to make sexual calls to a victim who has not given consent. the need to make calls of sexual content to a victim who has not given his consent, both with the private number and with the visible number.It is a behavior that seems to be very common in the private number as well as in the visible number. This behavior seems to be closely related to other paraphilic disorders, such as voyeurism and exhibitionism.

As with other paraphilias, it is not the act itself that is inappropriate, but the fact that he is doing it with someone who has not consented. Nt is not just a simple sexual gameRather, the caller has no real relationship with the person answering the phone and is making sexual comments that the caller has not asked for.

The call can become very uncomfortable and disturbing for the person who picks up the phone, since the telephone scatologist can make really unpleasant comments, with explicit sexual language and sexual moaning.The person who is the telephone scatologist may make really unpleasant comments to you, with explicit sexual language and sexual moaning. He may even threaten to tell her that he knows where she lives, even if he doesn't, and that he is going to rape her. This type of behavior is harassment and can therefore be considered a crime.

Normally, it is recommended that those who receive this type of call simply hang up and report it to the telephone company and/or the police, who will have an easier time recognizing where the call is being made from. In any case, many of those who make this type of call do so from payphones or prepaid cell phones, cases in which it is not possible to identify who has made the call with a simple trace.

Diagnostic classification

Currently, telephone eschatology is included in the category of other specific paraphilic disorders in the DSM-5.. Although it does not have an exclusive entry for it, unlike paraphilias such as exhibitionism, fetishism, frotteurism or sexual masochism, it is considered a more common paraphilic disorder than necrophilia, zoophilia and clismaphilia, paraphilias that are included in other paraphilic disorders.

However, the possibility that this paraphilic disorder is more common than originally thought has been considered, with the possibility of adding its own diagnostic category in future revisions of the DSM. Evidence for this is provided by surveys of women in which many surveys of women in which many of them report having received unwanted sexual phone calls at some time in their lives, telling of having in their lifetime, with cases numbering in the thousands.

In most cases, the victim is a woman and the stalker is a man. The stalker prefers a heterosexual relationship, although this does not mean that there are no homosexual stalkers or that there are no women stalking men, although it is quite uncommon.

Prevalence

The prevalence of telephone scatology is unknown. Although there have been investigations in which men were asked openly if they had practiced it, and the percentages were between 6 and 20%, it must be said that their "confession" is not synonymous with the presence of this paraphilia. In many cases the calls with sexual content were, in reality, jokes in bad taste or were made once, which is not a sufficient criterion to diagnose telephone scatology.

In the cases in which it has been possible to be sure that the patient presents this paraphilia, it has been seen that there is a high comorbidity with others such as compulsive masturbation, voyeurism, telephone sex dependence (calling hot lines) and exhibitionism. (calling hot lines) and exhibitionism. In fact, telephone scatologists would be the people with paraphilic disorders who are diagnosed with the most paraphilias.

It has been suggested that the link between this paraphilia and others, such as exhibitionism, demonstrate the person's attempts to express aggression, exhibit power and control, or gain recognition.. However, unlike classic exhibitionists, telephone scatologists prefer complete anonymity.

Types of telephone eschatologists

Since it is a paraphilia that is still undergoing further research and, as of today, does not have its own entry in the DSM-5, the typologies that have been proposed for telephone eschatology are tentative. Likewise, among all of them, Dr. B. T. Mead in 1975, which has been considered one of the referents for the disorder. In his original proposal Mead spoke of three types of telephone eschatologists.

Type 1

In this category would be the telephone eschatologists who, when calling, make indecent propositions from the very beginning, being mostly adolescents.The majority of them are teenagers. They can be considered cases that are not yet pathological, but rather sexually uncontrolled young people who make tasteless jokes and who in another context would not feel any need to do so in order to feel aroused.

Type 2

This group include scatologists who, when calling, start in a friendly and flattering way.They introduce themselves to the victim as having a friend in common. Gradually, the conversation degenerates and they start to become more offensive and sexually suggestive.

Type 3

This type includes scatologists who could be considered tricksters, ie, those who use some ruse at the beginning of the conversation to prevent the victim from hanging up or suspecting anything..

They start by saying that they are conducting a telephone survey or working on an opinion piece, with the clear intention of being able to discuss personal matters with the victim. As with Type 2, Type 3s make the conversation increasingly sexual, obscene and uncomfortable.

Type 4

While Mead's original typology has three typologies, Ord Matek includes a fourth. Type 4 telephone eschatologists include those men who call crisis hotlines, such as the suicide hotline or the hope line, with the intention of asking for help from female volunteers.. As with the other categories, they end up talking about sex while masturbating until the person on the other end of the line ends the call.

Theories

It has been argued that common characteristics among callers who make these types of calls are having low self-esteem and feeling anger towards women.. Telephone scatology has also been associated with brain injury, intellectual disability, substance intoxication and psychosis.

Likewise, more sophisticated theories have been proposed to explain why some people have such a sexually delinquent and slightly addictive way of behaving. Among the theories is the one proposed by Kurt Freund, a Czech-Canadian sexologist who wrote several articles explaining the behavior of this type of person. Freund asserted that telephone scatology can be related to courtship transtrons.

According to Freund, courtship in the human species occurs in four phases:

• Mate location
• Pretactile interactions
• Tactile interactions
• Genital union

It would be in the second phase, i.e., that of pretactile interactions, in which alterations would occur in people with this type of paraphilia, which would lead to the inappropriate sexual behavior that characterizes it.

Bibliographical references:

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