Psychology 2075 Study Guide - Final Guide: Transvestic Fetishism, Paraphilia, Transvestism

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2075
• Professor: Corey Isaacs

Document Summary

Professionals used to use terms like sexual deviations and perversion. However, these terms are imprecise, are heavily value laden, and are part of our erotophobic western legacy. Recall that in north america much of our ethics and morality come from a combination of traditional judeo-christian thinking filtered through victorian sensibilities. Initially, theologians in the christian tradition created and reinforced the archetype that sex--stemming from original sin--is bad. In victorian times, sex was viewed not only as bad, but immature, indulgent, and generally just in bad taste. With this type of sex- negative heritage, it is easy to understand how anything that falls outside the mainstream of missionary position intercourse is going to be viewed as even that much more deviant and pathological. When we talk about atypical sexual behaviour today, we are typically talking about paraphilias. The editors of the recently revised dsm-5 use the term paraphilic disorder rather than paraphilia to describe problematic behaviour.