Paraphilias

In the field of psychiatry, the term "paraphilia" (from Greek "Παρά" = "beside, abnormal" and "Φιλία" = "love") covers a wide and diverse gamut of sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviors. Generally speaking, the term encompasses abnormal sexual interests whose intensity and persistence reach levels that compromise an individual's functioning to a clinically significant degree. The DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) describes paraphilias as "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors generally involving nonhuman objects, the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner, or children or other nonconsenting persons that occur over a period of six months".

By way of example, here's a handful of specific paraphilias: acrotomophilia (a strong sexual interest in amputees), apotemnophilia (desire to be an amputee or otherwise disabled), coprophilia (involving sexual arousal and pleasure from feces, also known as "scat"), attraction to disability (sexualized interest in the appearance, sensation and experience of disability), emetophilia (sexual arousal related to vomit/vomiting), sexual fetishism (sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part), frotteurism (interest in rubbing against a non-consenting person), gerontophilia (primary sexual attraction to the elderly), necrophilia (sexual attraction towards or sexual act involving corpses), zoophilia (sexual fixation on non-human animals), and the list goes on and on...

A distinction introduced in the DSM-5 (2013) emphasizes individuals' frame of mind towards their condition. While a "paraphilia" would be egosyntonic in nature, a "paraphilic disorder" would instead cause "distress or impairment" to the individual, being seen as a harmful compulsion. At any rate, although the generally categorical perspective typical of manuals definitely favors didactic clarity, the DSM still struggles to account for the complexities of real-life situations (clinical practice favors the dimensional approach). The field of paraphilias has always been difficult to investigate, particularly because of a general reluctance to openly and honestly discuss such personal matters (resulting in a scarcity of information and statistical data). The issue is further complicated by the fact that what's considered "abnormal" in a given sociocultural context might not be seen that way elsewhere.

When it comes to the silver screen, the risqué nature of paraphilias - widely regarded as a taboo subject - helped fuel something of a boom in films depicting them, especially among independent filmmakers (sexploitation, underground, Brazilian "pornochanchada" sex comedies, etc.).