Formerly known as Voyeurism in DSM-IV, this disorder refers to (for over a period of at least 6 months) having recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the act of observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity. Voyeurism also refers to the desire to spy on unsuspecting and non-consenting people during their private activities such as undressing, being naked or seeing people performing a sexual act, in order to bring sexual gratification.
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA)'s DSM-V, Voyeuristic Disorder belongs to a group of mental conditions under paraphilic disorders, which are also defined as sexual disorders in which
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Video : Characteristics of Voyeurism
.Etiology.
A voyeuristic person peeping through the keyhole.
The cause of voyeuristic disorder depends on different theoretical perspectives:
Freud initially discovered that voyeurism was a perversion - a regression to an earlier level of development and as a formation to avoid more threatening impulses for entering consciousness. He later claimed that the object of desire is a substitution for the mother, which in turn reenacts the struggles over separation and castration.
Stoller (1991), a psychodynamic clinician reported that voyeurism is a hostile act of revenge for being humiliated.
Social Learning Theorists contended that deviant sexual behavior was learned via observation and modeling. To support this notion, they stated that many voyeurs have experienced childhood sexual abuse.
Sociobiologists believe that staring at women helps to maximize the male reproductive opportunities.
Money (1984, 1989) claimed that voyeurism is a displacement paraphilia, one that "involves a segment of the preparatory phase for an erotic and sexual activity before genital intercourse begins. He hypothesized that a displacement paraphilia is a "love map that goes awry by the displacement of original elements". He also viewed that voyeurism is one of the showing or looking "allurative"
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Similarly, people with Voyeurism have a higher chance of having another mental disorder or paraphilia compared to the general population.
Case Study:
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute (the university that awards Nobel Prizes) surveyed a random sample of 2,450 (1279 men and 1171 women) Swedes age 18 to 60. They were asked a question related to voyeurism, not in terms of who had encountered such behavior, but who had enacted it: ‘Have you ever spied on what other people are doing sexually and become sexually aroused by this?’ (Langstrom & Seto 2006)
191 (7.7%) reported at least one incident of being sexually aroused by spying on others having sex. Men (11.5%) were more voyeuristic compared to women (3.9%). The audience for pornography is clearly voyeuristic, and according to porn industry estimates, 80% of pornography is viewed by men solo. In the study, the single best predictor of voyeurism was frequent use of