Sexual Sadism and Masochism

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Sexual sadism is characterized by persistent, powerful urges and sexual fantasies involving the inflicting of pain and suffering on others to achieve sexual excitement or gratification (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Moreover, the DSM-IV requires that the patient in question must have for at least six months intense sexual desires, fantasies or behaviours concerning real acts of causing physical or psychological torment or otherwise humiliating another. Additionally, this must cause clinically important distress or impair work, social or personal functioning, or if the patient has acted on these desires with a non consenting person (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Conversely, sexual masochism is characterized by persistent, powerful urges and sexual fantasies involving the desire to be bound, flogged, humiliated, or made to suffer in some way by a sexual partner so as to achieve sexual excitement (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Likewise, the DSM-IV also have prerequisites for masochism which are the occurrence of intense sexual desires, fantasies or behaviours concerning real acts of being beaten, bound, humiliated or otherwise made to suffer and which causes clinically important distress or impairs work, social or personal functioning for at least six months (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Although masochists do seek pain, they tend to avoid dangerous partners consequently extreme forms of pain, such as torture and severe beatings are rarely reported by sadomasochists. However, sexual masochism can range from benign to potentially lethal practices such as autassassinophilia, erotophonophilia, and asphyxiophilia. Autassassinophilia and erotophonophilia is a paraphilia of the sacrificial/expiatory type in which sexual arousal, facilitation, or attainment of orgasm is responsive to, and dependent upon stage-managing the possibility of one's own masochistic death by murder. The reciprocal paraphilic condition is erotophonophilia (Friedrich & Gerber 2004). Furthermore, asphyxiophilia consist of the practice of controlling or restricting oxygen to the brain by interfering with...