There are many sexual preferences and inclinations that are ‘peculiar’ or ‘non-traditional’ in the understanding of many. There is disagreement among health professionals, especially those in the fields of sexology and mental health, as to what is true mental illness and what is character trait, where the line is drawn, and how each case should be approached. In many cases, what is “normal” and what is not, is also a matter of social norms and cultural understandings… However, let’s highlight in a few words some of the more unconventional sexual preferences. 1. Exhibitionism According to the criteria of the American Psychiatric Association, these are the intense, recurrent (repeated) sexual urges, fantasies or behavior involving the exposure of one’s genitals in a public place or in front of an immediate observer. For the condition to be medically defined as exhibitionism, it must cause severe distress or impairment of social functioning at work, in the family, or in other settings. 2. Fetishism Represents sexual arousal from an inanimate object. For men, the object of fetishism is most often bras, tights, thongs, shoes, etc. Many clinicians claim that their patients masturbate by holding or smelling their fetish or forcing their sexual partner to wear it, and complain of erectile dysfunction in its absence. For the condition to be defined as a fetishism, according to the American Psychiatric Association criteria, it must last for more than six months and cause emotional distress or social dysfunction. 3. Sexual masochism For a period longer than six months, the individual experiences intense, repetitive fantasies or is physically subjected to humiliation or other types of suffering. NEWS_MORE_BOX 4. Sexual sadism It is the “reverse side of the coin” of sexual masochism – it is the experience of sexual pleasure and arousal from humiliating or causing suffering to a sexual partner. 5. Voyeurism Object of sexual fantasies or enjoyment is watching another person or people who are naked or having sex. All of these “dispositions” meet the Association’s requirements for duration, intensity, and social dysfunction to be classified as medical conditions. When the case is truly clinically significant, the patient should be referred to a psychotherapist, as psychotherapy is accepted as the standard of care for these conditions. Many people are afraid to share their psychological problems, which can often be intrusive or difficult to manage, fearing that they will be labeled crazy and rejected by society, or that they will be morally judged by the treating professional. What needs to be known is that psychotherapists and psychiatrists, as well as doctors of all other specialties, are bound by the Hippocratic Oath to respond and help in all suffering.They in no way blame or judge the patient for any of his shortcomings, real or self-imposed, but provide help and support, trying to get to the root of the problem, which is most often rooted in early childhood or adolescence, and remove. So, anyone who thinks they have a psychological problem should not be afraid or embarrassed to seek qualified help.
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