Biastophilia (from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''biastes'', "
rapist
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, Abusive power and control, ...
" + ''-philia'') and its
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
-derived synonym raptophilia (from Latin ''rapere'', "to seize"), also paraphilic rape,
[ is a ]paraphilia
Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...
in which sexual arousal
Sexual arousal (also known as sexual excitement) describes the physiological and psychological responses in preparation for sexual intercourse or when exposed to sexual stimuli. A number of physiological responses occur in the body and mind as ...
is dependent on, or is responsive to, the act of assaulting an unconsenting person, especially a stranger. Some dictionaries consider the terms synonymous, while others distinguish raptophilia as the paraphilia in which sexual arousal is responsive to actually raping the victim.
The source of the arousal in these paraphilias is the victim's terrified resistance to the assault, and in this respect it is considered to be a form of sexual sadism
Sexual sadism disorder is the condition of experiencing sexual arousal in response to the extreme pain, suffering or humiliation of others. Several other terms have been used to describe the condition, and the condition may overlap with other co ...
.[Ronald Blackburn, "The Psychology of Criminal Conduct: Theory, Research and Practice" (1993),]
p. 87
/ref>
Under the name paraphilic coercive disorder, this diagnosis was proposed for inclusion in DSM-5
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition'' (DSM-5), is the 2013 update to the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'', the taxonomic and diagnostic tool published by the American Psychiatric ...
. This diagnosis, under the name paraphilic rapism, was proposed and rejected in the DSM-III-R
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a common langua ...
. It has been criticized because of the impossibility of reliably distinguishing between paraphilic rapists and non-paraphilic rapists, and because this diagnosis, under the term ''Paraphilia NOS Other specified paraphilic disorder is the term used by the fifth edition of the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM-5) to refer to any of the many other paraphilic disorders that are not explicitly named in the manual. Al ...
'' (not otherwise specified), non-consent had been used in Sexually Violent Person/Predator commitment.
A standard concept in Czechoslovakian sexology is pathologic sexual aggressivity instead. This term is strongly distinguished from sadism. This disorder is understood as a coordination anomaly of the sexual motivation system (SMS), a "courtship disorder Courtship disorder is a theoretical construct in sexology developed by Kurt Freund in which a certain set of paraphilias are seen as specific instances of anomalous courtship instincts in humans. The specific paraphilias are biastophilia (paraphilic ...
" according to Kurt Freund
Kurt Freund (17 January 1914 – 23 October 1996) was a Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist best known for developing the penile plethysmograph (a measurement of sexual arousal in males), research studies in pedophilia, and for the "courtsh ...
or displacement paraphilia by John Money
John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand psychologist, sexologist and author known for his research into sexual identity and Sex determination and differentiation (human), biology of gender. He was one of the first ...
, or a missing segment of SMS.[Aleš Kolářský: ''Jak porozumět sexuálním deviacím : Teoretická východiska sexodiagnostiky – cesta k tvorbě náhledu a k realizaci esxuality v mezích zákona'', Galén, Praha, 2008, ]
See also
* Penile plethysmograph#Biastophilia
* Rape fantasy
A rape fantasy (sometimes referred to as rapeplay) or a ravishment is a sexual fantasy involving imagining or pretending being coerced or coercing another into sexual activity. In sexual roleplay, it involves acting out roles of coercive sex. R ...
* Serial rape
A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms ''sexual predator'', ''repeat rape'' and ''multiple offending ...
References
{{paraphilia
Paraphilias
Sex crimes
Rape