What causes perversion and how can it be avoided?

Answer 1

These two merged questions both use the word "PERVERSION" and it is first necessary to make clear that - what is and what is not a perversion can be an emotive issue with what some may call a sexual perversion being described by others as a perfectly normal condition. Opinions have varied over the years and still do today between different countries. But basically the word perversion means "unusual sexual behaviour" clinically called "paraphillia" in US English or Sexual Deviancy in UK English.

All these expressions basically mean a person having some condition whereby their libidinous arousal and/or orgasm is associated with acts or imagery that society may view not only as weird and abnormal but also in some cases extremely harmful and a designated criminal offence if actively practiced, while other kinds of paraphillia are just a harmless idiosyncrasy.

Designated Paraphillia include :-

Paedophilia meaning sexual activity with a child.

Exhibitionismmeaning exposure of human genitals to strangers.

Voyeurism meaning observing others enjoying normal sex without them knowing,

Frottage meaning arousal from touching or, rubbing against a non-consenting person,

Fetishism meaning arousal from inanimate objects),

Bestiality involving sex with animals

Masochism and BDSM meaning pleasure from suffering physical pain, being tied up or being humiliated or made to suffer punishment,

Sadism meaning enjoying sexual arousal from inflicting pain, humiliation or suffering on another person

Transvestisminvolving cross-dressing as opposite gender to yourself

Necrophiliainvolving arousal from activity with dead bodies

Homosexuality or Lesbianism, (being gay) is regarded as a perversion today in some jurisdictions particularly in Islamic nations, in Russia and in many nations in Africa, but officially today it is no longer considered a perversion in most western nations although that issue remains extremely controversial within populations.

So you ask what causes somebody to be perverted? Although there is no general agreement among psychology experts about this, it has generally been accepted the factors that can cause somebody to become perverted are parents who humiliate and punish children for their normal sexual urges which they consider wrong, sexual abuse as a child, fear in adolescence or young adulthood of unsatisfactory performance or intimacy with a partner, sociocultural factors or various other forms of psycho sexual trauma being experienced by the subject in childhood or adolescence.

So you ask how can an individual stop themselves from being perverted? Many people simply do not want to change. But when somebody really wants to get rid of any such perversion, he or she may in some cases be able to do it alone just by own mind power and determination to change. But others may need to seek professional help by seeing their doctor and getting referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist for help.

Traditional psychoanalysis does work well with some people often in combination with with hypnosis but not in other cases. Other treatment techniques can include aversion imagery envisaging the pairing of a sexually arousing paraphilic stimulus with very unpleasant image, desensitization procedures by behaviour therapy, social skills training to try to improve or modify the person's ability to form interpersonal relationships with opposite gender and orgasmic reconditioning. All these are very complex issues that can not be dealt with in a single wiki answers question. In some cases drug treatment in conjunction with therapy can be helpful such as prescribing Antiandrogens or Cyproterone Acetate to inhibit Testosterone or treatment of anxiety through Serotonergics agents.