BDSM MEDIA NEWS!!!!
March 15, 2013
Kinky in the bedroom? You're not crazy! People with 'abnormal' sexual interests no longer classified as mentally ill - but only if you're happy
Source: Dailymail.co.uk. - The Daily Mail - UK
UK - Like spanking your partner in the bedroom? Turns out you're not crazy.
Sexual masochism, fetishism, transvestism, and sadism are no longer classified as mental disorders of 'abnormal or unnatural attraction,' according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
A new edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has renamed these kinky sexual interests with the word 'disorder' tacked onto the end; a distinction that means a person must 'feel personal distress about their interest' in order for it to be classified as a mental disorder.
The fifth addition of the manual (DSM-5), which will be released in May this year and used by clinicians to diagnose and classify mental disorders, will state that happy people with kinky interests do not have a mental disorder - but those who are unhappy, do.
In 1968, masochism, sadism, transvestism, and fetishism were labeled as mental disorders and 'sexual deviations' alongside homosexuality and criminal pedophilia.
American psychiatric consensus has continued to lump noncriminal paraphilias (sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not considered normative) together with criminal paraphilias as mental disorders.
The APA eventually removed general homosexuality from the seventh printing of DSM-2 in 1973, but instead introduced a new condition called 'sexual orientation disturbance' (SOD) for people 'in conflict with' their homosexuality.
The 1980 DSM-3 replaced SOD with 'ego-dystonic homosexuality,' but the basic principle remained the same: happy homosexuals did not have a mental disorder, while unhappy ones did.
After a lengthy struggle, all forms of homosexuality, including ego-dystonic homosexuality, were finally removed from the revised DSM-3 in 1987.
Although kinky sexual interests that are considered 'unusual' by society are no longer defined as medically unsound by the APA (for those who are comfortable with their sexuality), some argue that those 'distressed' by their sexual interests are not mentally ill, either.
Jillian Keenan, who has a self-identified fetish for spanking, wrote for
Slate, magazine: 'Despite its best efforts, the DSM still allows existing sexual stigmas and social norms to define whether a sexual practice is "healthy."
'People who are stigmatized and misunderstood, such as sexual minorities, might be unhappy-but the unhappiness itself is the problem that should be treated, not the person’s sexual identity or practice.'
Ms Keenan also pointed out that 'kinksters' may face 'nothing more' than internal turmoil, awkward conversations with new partners, and cultural mockery. But, 'social stigma is no joke, either,' she said.
A 2006 study, which interviewed 1,017 self-identified BDSM practitioners and was published in the Journal of Homosexuality, found that 36per cent had experienced violence or harassment because of their sexuality, and 30per cent had been the victim of job discrimination.
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www.dailymail.co.uk.
