The 9 main sexual and psychosexual disorders

Exhibitionism, Voyeurism, Froteurism... today we name and define sexual disorders.

The sexual behavior is one of the areas of human behavior in which it is most difficult to establish the boundary between normal and pathological.

A classification of the main sexual disorders can give us an idea of how this aspect of our behavior is organized. Therefore, we are going to talk a little about each sexual behavior disorder in order to understand it better.

Sexual disorders: what are they and how do they manifest themselves?

The sexual disorders have been divided into three large groups such as the following paraphiliasparaphilias sexual dysfunctions and sexual identity disorders. This way of classifying them provides us with a basic outline of the types of sexual and psychosexual disorders.

We will now review each of these major groups to better understand the nature of each sexual disorder, as well as its most common manifestations.

1. Paraphilias

Paraphilias are characterized by intense and repeated sexual fantasies, sexual urges involving non-human objects, suffering or humiliation of self or children or nonconsensual people. or children or non-consenting persons, and are therefore considered maladaptive, as they damage the quality of life of the individual and/or the people who relate to him/her. Several of them are the following:

1.1. Exhibitionism

It is a behavior characterized by a high level of arousal through the spontaneous and successive exposure of the genitals to a person.. It tends to predominate in children and adolescents up to 20-30 years old. It occurs more frequently in men and in public places. These people have been described as shy, withdrawn and dependent.

Voyeurism

It is characterized by the arousal of a person when contemplating naked people or performing some kind of sexual activity, the risk of being discovered acts as an arousal enhancer.The risk of being discovered acts as an arousal enhancer. It begins in adolescence and can be temporary or chronic. They tend to be shy and have some difficulty initiating or maintaining relationships. Recently a practice has been reported in some cities that consists of people who frequent places where couples go to have sex. This practice derived from voyeurism has received the name of Dogging or canoodling.

1.3. Froteurism

It consists of erotic arousal through the rubbing of the genital organ with the body of another person without their consent.. These activities are usually performed in public places such as subways, discos or buses. Frolicking is accompanied by masturbation in front of the memory. It affects men between 15-20 years of age.

Fetishism

It is the person who is aroused by observing and manipulating inanimate objects such as women's underwear.. They usually masturbate while touching the garment in question. They are usually heterosexual men. Within this we can define the transvestite fetishism that consists of putting on underwear of the opposite sex when they are alone or when they perform the act with their partner. In another article we define the rarest and most curious fetishes.

1.5. Paedophilia

Also known as pedophilia. This is the name given to the disorder characterized by sexual arousal or pleasure through fantasies and behaviors involving sexual activity between an adult and a child between the ages of 8-12 years. between 8-12 years old.

1.6. Sadism

It is the need to inflict harm on another person in order to become sexually aroused.. It involves sexual impulses and behaviors involving actual acts with or without the consent of the victim. The person exercising sadism may or may not rape the victim, including masturbation or penetration with objects.

Masochism

Masochism implies the need to be humiliated, attacked or abused in order to obtain sexual pleasure.. It is one of the most clearly harmful paraphilias, since it limits people's freedom.

Sadomasochism, as a disorder and clinical category, should not be confused with the idea of sadomasochism related to certain types of sexual games based on mutual agreement and which do not limit the person's ability to find sexual pleasure in other tendencies.

2. Sexual dysfunctions

The sexual dysfunctions include all the alterations that occur during sexual intercourse, they can occur at the beginning of sexual life or even later. The causes may be physical, psychological or both. Within this we have several:

Sexual desire disorders 2.1.

The main disorders of sexual desire are the following:

• Inhibited sexual desireInhibited sexual desire: characterized by a deficit in sexual fantasies and lack of sexual desire. This apathy not only includes disinterest in sex but also in all sexual behavior such as masturbation. It tends to be much more frequent in women.
• Disorder by aversion to sexPeople with this disorder avoid all genital contact. They usually present a high level of anxiety and panic before the sexual act. It occurs more frequently in women.
• Sexual arousal disorderDisorder of arousal in women, failure to maintain the lubrication of sexual arousal until the completion of sexual activity. And the problem of erection in men, total or partial failure to obtain or maintain an erection until the end of sexual intercourse. The most frequent is impotence.
• Orgasm disordersOrgasm disorders: includes male and female sexual dysfunctions and premature ejaculation. Within this category we can also find Female orgasmic dysfunction (anorgasmia) is defined as an absence or delay of orgasm during normal sexual activity. Psychological factors usually predominate over organic factors. There is also Male orgasmic dysfunctionwhich is characterized by the absence or delay of orgasm in men after normal arousal.
• Pain disordersIn women, we find female dyspaurenia: 12% of women suffer from it. It is usually associated with vaginismus problems. The Pain may occur in all attempts at intercourse or in certain positions. Possible causes include disorders in the vagina or deformities. In men, ejaculation pain or urethral infections may occur.
• VaginismusVaginismus: may occur even when the woman responds adequately to sexual arousal. The problem comes at the time of intercourse, there is a reflex spasm that causes the muscles of the vagina to contract causing the vaginal opening to close.

3. Sexual identity disorders

Finally, we have the sexual identity disorderswhich refers to the discomfort that a person feels because of his or her sexual condition together with the desire to be of the other sex. Among these people it is frequent the desire to undergo a plastic surgery operation that can transform them into a person with a sexual visibility that responds to their identity.

In this area, there is a long debate as to whether sexual identity conflicts should be considered as disorders, or simply as sexual preferences, as would be the case of homosexuality.

In fact, although the DSM psychiatric diagnostic manual incorporated it in its first four editions, the DSM-V has taken the step of eliminating Gender Identity Disorder from the list of mental illnesses. However, the WHO continues to consider transsexuality as a disorder.

Bibliographic references:

• Balon R, Segraves RT, eds. (2005). Handbook of Sexual Dysfunction.. Taylor & Francis.
• Basson, Rosemary (March 2000). "Report of the International Consensus Development Conference on Female Sexual Dysfunction: Definitions and Classifications". The Journal of Urology (United States of America).
• Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan (2014). Abnormal Psychology.. 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121: McGraw-Hill. pp. 366-367.