Unusual Paraphilias

Course overview

A paraphilia involves stimulating sexual arousal in someone by an object or fantasy that for most people is commonplace and not sexually related, either directly or symbolically. What you will learn in this course is that there is a clear continuum of unusualness for paraphilias. There are some familiar ones and there are also very many paraphilias reported in the clinical literature which are indeed extremely unusual. This course will include discussions of the eight standard Paraphilic Disorders included in the DSM-5: 1) Voyeuristic Disorder, 2) Exhibitionistic Disorder, 3) Frotteuristic Disorder, 4) Sexual Masochism Disorder, 5) Sexual Sadism Disorder, 6) Pedophilic Disorder, 7) Fetishistic Disorder, and 8) Transvestic Disorders, as well as a number of additional paraphilias and specific fetishes, which are generally quite rare.