A Family Systems Approach to Working with Sexually Open Gay Male Couples
Fred P. Piercy, Katherine M. Hertlein, Joseph L. Wetchler in Handbook of the Clinical Treatment of Infidelity, 2013
The Medical Model. The medical model suggests that certain behaviors be seen as indicative of mental illness. The medical model is also problematic for several reasons. First, it appears to have influenced by the moral model concerning sexuality. Second, it attempts to see sexual behavior as either evidence, or the lack thereof, of a mental disease process. While some aspects of human behavior clearly has organic roots, most aspects of human behavior is much more complex. Those believing in a medical model have now backtracked from their formerly and firmly held belief that homosexuality is a mental illness. But other aspects of human sexual behavior, such as sexual fetishes, paraphilias, and consensual sadomasochism are still sometimes considered to be indicative of mental illness (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The medical model is the dominant model regarding mental health in America, and most psychotherapeutic theoretical orientations are based in the medical model.
LGBTQIA+ and Co-occurring Disorders
Tricia L. Chandler, Fredrick Dombrowski, Tara G. Matthews in Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders, 2022
In an attempt to destigmatize the experiences of this population, the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) changed the diagnosis from gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria. The changes in this diagnosis were meant to highlight the belief that having a gender identity outside one’s assigned birth sex in itself is not the disorder, but rather the dysphoria and disconnected feelings that the individual experiences as consequences of this identity. The attempt to destigmatize the experience of transgender, gender-fluid, and gender-nonconforming individuals also provides the benefit of an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria, making treatments such as hormone replacement therapy and some surgeries coverable by insurance carriers. The actual term ‘gender dysphoria’ may have been changed to end stigmatization, but common inaccurate beliefs about transgender individuals and the assumptions that an individual will transition to a different sex based solely on sexual fetishism persist (Alegria & Ballard-Reish, 2013).
Internet and Murder
R. Barri Flowers in The Dynamics of Murder, 2012
On October 16, 1996, 45-year-old Robert Glass strangled to death Sharon Lopatka, 35, in his mobile home in Collettsville, North Carolina, in what was believed to be a case of consensual homicide. Lopatka, who advertised pornography on the Internet as part of her sexual fetishes, apparently looked for someone to torture and kill her. She had established an e-mail connection with Glass before they met. He killed Lopatka with a nylon cord after torturing her for days. In January 2000, Glass pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other charges related to child pornography on his computer. He was given a sentence for the manslaughter of 36 to 53 months behind bars. On February 20, 2002, he died of a heart attack while still incarcerated.15
Infusing Human Sexuality Content and Counseling in Counselor Education Curriculum
Published in American Journal of Sexuality Education, 2018
Samuel Sanabria, Thomas L. Murray
Historically, the social and cultural diversity class introduces students to theories of identity development in the area of race and ethnicity, religion, gender, and affectional and sexual orientation. It is in this course that students develop an in-depth understanding of multicultural counseling competencies and theories; however, this course is unable to expose students to the broad spectrum of cultural groups and subgroups they will encounter during their practice. While this course provides some exposure to sexuality-related issues, they represent a relatively narrow slice of the various sexual cultures. For example, sexual and affectional orientation includes several subcultures with varied sexual values, identities, and expressions (e.g., sexual fetishes, polyamorous relationships). Students could benefit from learning more about how individuals in these subcultures are impacted by oppressive systems of beliefs and practices by inviting members of the polyamory or kink communities to class to share their experiences in class. Students will not only learn how society views members of these communities, but they will also have an opportunity to explore how their own cultural attitudes, beliefs, and values inform their views on these subjects. This experience would address CACREP standard 2.f.2.d., “the impact of heritage, attitudes, beliefs, understandings, and acculturative experiences on an individual's views of others.”
Toward a historiography of the lesbian transsexual, or the TERF’s nightmare
Published in Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2022
Jules Gill-Peterson
What remains glaring in the archive of Lawrence’s life is the rather loud case to be made that she was, in a way that we cannot precisely elucidate because of that archive’s limitations, a lesbian. Or, perhaps it is better to say that transvestites like Lawrence, who did not take hormones, did not seek gender confirmation surgery, did not always live full time as women, and were often content going by their birth names and male pronouns, are excessively heterosexualized in the historical imaginary. No doubt much of this has to do with the enduring impact of the sexological pathologization of cross-dressing and transvestism as sexual fetishes (as in Cauldwell & Haldeman-Julius, 1947). Yet the published sexological and psychiatric discourses that enveloped lives like hers were pallid in comparison to the sheer lesbianic richness of their circumstances. In her unpublished autobiography, Lawrence (1951) recalls first wearing her sister’s clothing as child, for something approximating erotic gratification, and that her first sexual experience at age fourteen was with a man. But explicitly sexual events occupy no especial significance in the narrative, which makes much more of her obsessive “collecting clippings from magazines, newspapers, etc., that dealt with the subjects of female impersonation” (p. 11), and how “masquerading” led to her being arrested and sent to a Juvenile Hall (p. 19). From there, Lawrence had a girlfriend in high school and married an ostensibly straight woman in the early 1930s who later died from pneumonia (p. 52), before remarrying in 1941 to a woman named Montez, who divorced her in 1944 when she decided to transition (p. 61).
Narratives of the Origins of Kinky Sexual Desire Held by Users of a Kink-Oriented Social Networking Website
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2022
Sam D. Hughes, Phillip L. Hammack
Since the dawn of the scientific study of sexuality, kinky sexual desires have often been framed as forms of psychopathology (e.g., Krafft-Ebing, 1886 [1959]). As other forms of sexual diversity such as homosexuality eventually became declassified as forms of psychopathology, kink and sexual fetishism have also gradually become considered legitimate forms of diverse sexual expression (e.g., Lin, 2017; Ortmann & Sprott, 2013), and cultural visibility of kink has increased dramatically in the twenty-first century (e.g., James, 2012). While research has documented the nature and meaning of kink and sexual fetishism for its practitioners, virtually no research has examined the way that kinky individuals understand the origins of their desires.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Fixation
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