On the Classification of Paraphilias
(Room JW Grand Ballroom 9)
06 Jul 18
9:30 PM
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10:45 PM
(This is an adults-only program.) The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the standard text used by clinicians and researchers to diagnose and classify mental disorders. The latest version, the DSM-5, was released more than five years ago. Unfortunately, these classification efforts can often be marred by intentional or unintentional biases and moral judgements. For example, Rosman, Resnick, and Aggrawal deploy moral concepts in their treatments of one specific type of paraphilia – death fetishism. Rosman and Resnick refer to it as a “perversion” – a moral rather than a scientific term. Aggrawal, stating at the outset that necrophilia “is one of the most weird, bizarre, and revolting practices of abnormal and perverse sexuality.” This is truly a morass of moral (“revolting”), statistical (“abnormal”), and impressionistic (“weird”) concepts. The use of “weird” and “bizarre” duplicate the use of “abnormal,” but with an undefined pejorative implication thrown in. What place Aggrawal's impression of what counts as “weird” has in a scientific paper is unclear. We will discuss the adequate classification of paraphilias and its need to be multidimensional, because paraphilias are not unitary phenomena; they have discernible components. It is from these that classifications of paraphilias are best defined.