ABSTRACT
The term ‘paraphilia’ is from the Ancient Greek for ‘irregular love’ – that is, an attraction or love (philia) of the irregular (para). It implies being outside the normal range in the sphere of sex. This is an emotive area; before its discussion, it is standard to issue the formal disclaimer, if not in the words of English actor Patricia Campbell in the first half of the twentieth century that ‘It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses’, then at least that any particular sexual behaviour done in private, and not causing harm to self or others, does not necessarily constitute a psychiatric disorder and a need for psychiatric treatment. What has constituted a paraphilia has varied through history. For instance, sexual orientation towards members of one’s own sex is not considered a paraphilia nowadays, but homosexuality was listed as a psychiatric disorder in the eighth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-8). A further consideration in this area is the difference between psychological theories of sexual development, such as those of Freud – who, of course, did have theories about, for instance, homosexuality, including that it was not appropriate for a psychoanalyst to be either homosexual or bisexual – and political arguments – for example, about non-discrimination towards individuals not causing harm to others.
