SEXUAL PARAPHILIAS AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE TO EMOTIONAL
INTIMACY
Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the California School of Professional Psychology Alliant International University Irvine In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Psychology by Eric Jones, M.A.
Approved by: Manijeh Daneshpour, Ph.D., Chairperson PREVIEWScott R. Woolley, Ph.D. Sesen Negash, Ph.D.
ProQuest Number: 10745188 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
ProQuest 10745188 Published by ProQuest LLC ( 2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. PREVIEW789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346
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©Eric Jones, 2018
SEXUAL PARAPHILIAS AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE iii
Dedication
To my wife, Jackelyn, and my daughter, Felicity, for all of your love and support.
And to my chair, Manijeh, for your continued patience and guidance despite all the delays and missed deadlines.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the administrators, moderators and members of the following websites for permitting advertisement of the study and taking part in it:
ADISC.org
Fetlife.com
Facebook.com
Imagefap.com
Reddit.com
Thestudentroom.co.uk
Uncommonforum.com
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Abstract
This study explores the relationship between intere st in several sexual paraphilias and the need for emotional intimacy. Participants identified their level of interest and engagement in 11 paraphilic behaviors and completed the Need to Belong Scale (NTBS). Participants who endorsed at least one paraphilic interest scored significantly higher on the Need to Belong Scale than those who endorsed none. Participants who reported that they had engaged in a particular paraphilic behavior of interest within the last month did not score significantly different from those who espoused an interest or had engaged in a paraphilic behavior in the past. It is important to note, however, that those who had engaged in a paraphilic behavior had lower scores than those who simply endorsed an interest. This finding suggests that there may be a relationship between the need for emotional intimacy and an interest in sexual paraphilias.
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Table of Contents
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract v List of Tables vii CHAPTER I. Introduction 1 Statement of the Problem 4
CHAPTER II. Literature Review 7 Introduction 7 Attachment 8 Intimacy 9 Paraphilias 11 Specific Paraphilias 12 Research on Sexual Offenders 14 Paraphilia Treatment 15 CHAPTER III. Methodology 18 Participants 18 Measures 18 Procedures 19 Analysis PREVIEW 19 CHAPTER IV. Results 21 CHAPTER V. Discussion 28 Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research 30
Clinical Implications 33 References 35 APPENDIX A. Demographic Questionnaire 40 APPENDIX B. Interest in Sexual Paraphilias Questionnaire 42 APPENDIX C. Intimacy Attitude Scale - Revised 45
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APPENDIX D. Informed Consent Agreement 46
APPENDIX E. Request for Permission to Advertise Study 48
APPENDIX F. Dissertation Proposal 49
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List of Tables
Table 1. Demographic Breakdown 22
Table 2. Test of Primary Hypothesis 23
Table 3. Paraphilia Response Groupings and NTBS Scores by Group 24
Table 4: Comparing Presence of a Paraphilic Interest and Religiosity 24
Table 5 . Individual Paraphilia Analyses 25
Table 6. Comparing NTBS Scores Based on Engagement 27
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Introduction
In the United States, we struggle with understanding traditional sexual behavior, let alone anything that deviates from the norm. The terms “deviant” and “perversion” are testament enough to this, originally neutral, clinical words that have come to label people and behaviors as worthy of contempt. To date, the research on sexual behavior has been fairly limited to dealing with sexual offenders, exploring traditional sexual behavior in relationships, and some limited research on specific paraphilic behaviors. Few theories exist that adequately explain the development and function of paraphilias, limiting our ability to productively examine such proclivities. Worse yet, it is entirely possible that the stigma created by that lack of understanding could augment the drive to pursue them, creating a potentially problematic circular causality. To this end, this study aims to identify the functions of paraphilias in a relational behavior, examining whether they serve as an alternative process to the formation of relational intimacy.
Paraphilias, long classified as mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994,
2000), encompass a wide range of interests and behaviors. They are broadly defined as “a pattern of recurring sexually arousing mental imagery or behavior that involves unusual and especially socially unacceptable sexualPREVIEW practices.” Depending on who is defining acceptable sexual behavior, they may consist of any sexual thought or behavior that leads to arousal outside of heterosexual vaginal intercourse.
Normalcy is an elusive construct and all too frequently sexuality is associated with shame
(Mollon, 2008), leading to a great deal of distress for those who deviate from what is considered to be the norm. While ostracizing those who engage in certain paraphilias may be useful from a
SEXUAL PARAPHILIAS AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE 2
societal standpoint, such as in the cases of pedophilia and rape, those who engage in paraphilias
consensually or alone are still subject to rejection for their interests.
With any behavior that causes people distress, either directly or indirectly, there is reason to consider what purpose that behavior serves that allows it to persist despite pressures to desist.
In therapeutic terms, having insight into the motivations for behaviors can help therapists validate patient experiences or engage in several therapeutic techniques, such as functional analysis. Knowing how behaviors meet our needs can help us identify alternative behaviors that might meet the same need with fewer consequences. In other cases where people struggle with intransigent behavioral patterns, such as addiction, ample evidence has shown that we cannot expect people to simply abstain from the behavior without sufficient mitigation of the motivating factors (APA, 2012). Furthermore, lack of knowledge about underlying motivations leaves room for the propagation of stigmas and for the participants in the behavior to create negative self- concepts that can be damaging, e.g. “I can’t stop doing this dirty thing, so I must be bad”.
Many different theories exist that attempt to explain why people engage in paraphilic behaviors. Various biological theories exist that identify the neurological roots of fetishistic and paraphilic interests (Epstein, 1961; Mitchell, Falconer, & Hill, 1954; Waismann, Fenwick, Wilson, Hewett, & Lumsden,PREVIEW 2003). While Freud’s (1961) interest in sexuality and sexual deviancy is well known (McConaghy,1974; Rachman & Hodgson, 1968), several other scholars have attempted to define paraphilias as being tied to attachment deficits, with mixed results
(Abracen, Looman, Di Fazio, Kelly & Stirpe1, 2006; Burk & Burkhart; 2003; Ward, Hudson,
Marshall & Siegert, 1995). Behaviorists are more likely to describe paraphilic behaviors as self- reinforcing due to associations made between sexual gratification and the subject of the paraphilic interest.
SEXUAL PARAPHILIAS AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE 3
Any or all of these theories may be true in part, though this researcher argues that each
represents an incomplete perspective. Neurobiology ostensibly has a role in all human actions, though there are few cases where the causal relatio nship it has with behaviors can be ascertained.
Attachment deficits drive the way we navigate intimate relationships, though they neither uniformly predict intimate interactions, nor do they reliably correlate with differences in sexual functioning (Péloquin, Brassard, Lafontaine & Shaver, 2013). Reinforcement may well play a significant role in the development of paraphilic interests, though it fails to adequately explain the persistence and pervasiveness that many of these interests for many those who espouse them.
When direct relationships cannot be found, we must examine mediating variables, and in the case of sexual paraphilias, the proposed mediating variable is intimacy.
The drive for intimacy is one of the major motivators of social interaction. It is well understood that humans seek to be close to other humans, and there are many ways of going about pursuing intimacy (Mashek & Aron, 2004). Sexual intimacy is one of the more complex of these, and as such is prone to some amount of confusion. In the United States, “intimacy” or
“being intimate” are often employed euphemistically to refer to sexual intercourse. Men in many parts of the world are viewed as preferring sexual intimacy over romantic connection, as well as preferring the practical overPREVIEW the emotional. For some, sex may fully supplant other social interactions as a means of building intimacy in relationships.
Stimuli for arousal vary significantly from person to person without necessarily entering the realm of paraphilia (Hoffmann, Janssen & Turner, 2004). What it is that causes a person to develop a preference for certain stimuli is a matter of some debate, and generally regarded as poorly understood (Balon, 2012; Långström & Hanson, 2006). Several case studies examining the development of a paraphilia with specific individuals often describe a progression of
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fascination following an initial contact with the paraphilic behavior or focus (Griffiths, 2015;
London & Caprio; 1950). Many of these studies fail to gather contextual information that may inform why those early experiences were catalytic, such as emotional turmoil, familial distress, social isolation, or whatever else may be instrumental in laying the foundation for the development of such an interest.
Research into the attachment and intimacy mechanisms within sexual offending already exists that shows some connection between attachment style, intimacy needs, and deviant sexual behavior (Ward, Hudson, Marshall, & Siegert, 1995). However, the scope of this research has been limited specifically to sexual offenders and fails to examine the similar processes at work within the non-offending population. In this way, the research could be said to be failing to understand a necessary and otherwise inadequately explored domain of the human experience by limiting its scope to a small fraction of the population. Very little, if any, research exists on certain non-offending paraphilias, such as exhibitionism/voyeurism, transvestism, and fetishism.
Statement of the Problem
The lack of understanding about the psychological mechanisms that drive paraphilic behaviors creates an environment in which people who are interested in them feel ostracized or ashamed, feelings that are potentiallyPREVIEW harmful to their overall psychological well-being. If such behaviors function as an alternative method to meeting intimacy needs, as is hypothesized in this study, the isolation a person may feel for sustaining an interest in sexual paraphilias may create a vicious cycle, further entrenching both the feelings of isolation and the interest in the behavior.
By identifying the need that paraphilias exist to meet, we can both begin to reduce the stigma of paraphilic interests in society and develop more effective interventions to reduce the fixation individuals who are distressed by their interests have on engaging them. To that end, this study
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aimed to explore how intimacy needs relate to paraphilic interests by comparing participants’
responses on an assessment of intimacy needs and their professed interest in various paraphilic interests.
To explore this issue, users of various websites were asked to complete questionnaires indicating their interest and engagement in paraphilic behaviors as well as the Need to Belong
Scale (NTBS). The questionnaire on interest and engagement asked participants to identify whether or not they find each of the listed paraphilias sexually exciting and whether or not they have engaged in it recently. The NTBS is a 10 Likert-scale item inventory intended to assess the degree to which the respondents feel a sense of belonging in social relationships and serves as a measure of present perception of social intimacy. The mean scores on the NTBS were compared through t-tests to determine if there were any significant differences in attitudes toward intimacy related to different indications of paraphilic interest and engagement for each of the identified paraphilias.
This study explored two hypotheses:
1. Participants who reported interest in any paraphilic behavior will have higher
scores on the intimacy scale as compared to participants identifying no interest in any identifiedPREVIEW paraphilia. 2. Participants who report presently engaging in a paraphilic behavior will have
lower scores on the NTBS than those who have never or have only previously
engaged in the behavior.
The paraphilias explored in the study are defined as follows:
• Voyeurism: sexual arousal from watching others while they are nude or engaging in
sexual activity.
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• Exhibitionism: sexual arousal from exposing one’s body to others.
• BDSM: sexual arousal from bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.
• Transvestism: sexual arousal from cross dressing.
• ABDL: sexual arousal from adult baby and/or diaper play.
• Troilism: sexual arousal from cuckolding or letting one’s partner have sex with
someone else.
• Sexual fetishism: sexual arousal from specifically related to any body part,
object/material, or trait.
• Urolagnia: sexual arousal from urine or urine-play.
• Eproctophilia: sexual arousal from flatulence or fart-play.
• Cropophilia: sexual arousal from scat or scat-play.
• Emetophilia: sexual arousal from vomit or vomit-play.
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CHAPTER II
Literature Review
Freud is well known for looking at human behavior in terms of psychosexual development. Classic Freudian theory regards most paraphilic behaviors as developing out of unresolved issues occurring in different phases of psychosexual development (Freud, 1938).
Given the relative emphasis placed on sexuality by psychoanalytic theory and lack of emphasis placed on sexuality by many other theories, the psychoanalytic perspective effectively established the primary understanding of the etiology of paraphilic behaviors. The issue with relying on the classical psychoanalytic perspective is that it does not provide much hope for modulating paraphilic behaviors when they become problematic beyond the unpredictable process of attempting to work through unresolved conflicts. It also serves to pathologize otherwise inconsequential behaviors by viewing them as spawning from flawed maturation. Over time, however, divergences from classical understandings of psychosexual paraphilic development emerged.
Russell (1992) describes one such differing understanding and explores how societal gender norms and psychosexual development intermingle to create alternating forms of “perversions” depending onPREVIEW gender. Men, Russell argues, are socialized to understand that they are disgusting, and many male forms of perversion “take some aspect of oneself that the pervert himself regards as liable to be found repellant, as repulsive, and flaunts this as if daring the other person, the container, to accept that repelled part of oneself.” (p. 99) Females are conversely, in acknowledgment of the expectation of desirability and beauty, perverse in ways that incite the beholder to be attracted but disdain them for doing so. This theory serves as one possible explanation as to why paraphilic behaviors are more commonly diagnosed amongst men than