ABSTRACT
This chapter is more than a critique of the "paraphilia" construct. It is an attempt to unify several disparate sexological and psychiatric concepts. I will review the history of the concept of paraphilia, its use in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association (AP A), and the distinctive uses of the same term in both psychiatry and sexology. I also will present an alternative DSM classification and criteria.
