Introduction

Perversion is approached from such contrasting standpoints that its psychopathological significance is easily lost sight of. Perhaps the inconsistency of the various approaches stems from the fact that the symptom of "perversion" has so many different meanings that it calls for a variety of observational perspectives. As to the social field, in the last few decades perversion has emerged from the closet and become a group phenomenon in search of a seal of approval. Past phobic visions of sex, which relegated perverse sexuality to anonymity and secrecy, are no more, and seem to have now been superseded by a subtly ambiguous position that portrays a dose of "winking" transgression as the exercise of freedom. The sadomasochistic perversion thus emerges as a staging post on the way to a complex mental universe in which a certain type of pleasure is established as a single compulsive act.