Historical Terminology
Michael Farrell in Psychosis Under Discussion, 2017
The expression ‘mania’ has been linked to many prefixes to describe the form that the frenzied interest or activity takes. ‘Monomania’ concerns a driving obsession for one subject, ‘mono’ being Greek for ‘single’. ‘Nymphomania’, deriving from the Greek ‘nymph’ meaning ‘bride’, refers to morbid and uncontrollable female sexual desire. From the Greek ‘dypsa’, meaning ‘thirst’, comes the expression ‘dypsomaniac’, someone craving alcohol. ‘Megalomania’ refers to delusions of grandeur. ‘Erotomania’ signifies a morbid feeling of desperate love. In ‘micromania’ (the Greek ‘micros’ means ‘small’), the individual is convinced that he or she, or part of him- or herself, is reduced in size. ‘Pyromania’, from ‘pyro’ meaning ‘fire’, refers to manic fire setting.
Catalog of Herbs
James A. Duke in Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Mostly considered a noxious weed, stramonium has few legitimate uses outside the drug trade. The seeds are so toxic as to have been used in suicides and homicides; the victim experiences dry throat, giddiness, hallucination, staggering; his voice becomes unrecognizable and the vision is affected; he lapses into coma which may be terminal. Still, gamblers are said to have nibbled on the seeds for clairvoyance. Sexual functions are said to be excited, more especially in women, in whom it may cause nymphomania.19 Perhaps this led Rose to publish her recipe for a stramonium douche adding “it could be dangerous.”47 Atropine, a strategic drug in the U.S., can be obtained from jimsonweed. It is mydriatic, antisialogogue, and depresses the muscles of the bladder, thereby controlling urination. It is also used (in China) for flatulence, hyperacidity, and nightsweats of tuberculosis.16
Author's Justification
Bernat-N. Tiffon in Atlas of Forensic and Criminal Psychology, 2022
Delving further into the pages of this fascinating and unusual book, I found references to an author named Hufeland6 who “said that he saw a 70-year-old woman with nymphomania” and that the cause of her erotic illness “was a scirrhous tumor situated near one of the ovaries, discovered during the autopsy”. The author deemed that nymphomania presented a series of symptoms, characterized by “violent burning, piercing, itching pain on the clitoris and vagina, vesical spasms, strangury, ischury, discharge of mucus, frequent fits of fainting and hysterical spasms… . in the highest degree of nymphomania, and when it is incurable by the usual means, we resort to cauterizing the clitoris and nymphae by lapis infernalis, or extirpation of the organ if necessary”.
”It’s My Responsibility, But…” A Qualitative Study of Perpetrators’ Understanding of Child Sexual Abuse
Published in Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 2019
Anita Stokka Kåven, Jana Kristin Maack, Anna Margrete Flåm, Mary Nivison
Many of the participants believed that they had a greater sexual desire than normal in the times before and during the CSA. Some the participants described an obsession with sex and one participant viewed himself as a nymphomaniac. The degree to which the participants felt they had control over their sexual desire varied. Some participants described their sexual urges as compulsive and having a negative impact on their daily life, e.g., interfering with their daily chores. For those participants, sex (including, but not exclusively abuse) felt addictive, with being around young children comparable to “being like a little boy in a candy store” or “an alcoholic swimming around in whiskey”. Others felt that they were in charge of their sexual desires, but nevertheless had a great need to experience satisfaction and dissipation of these urges. Participants who felt they had control over their sexual desires also tended to generally feel in control of their life. Participants who felt a lack of control over their sexual urges also tended to experience their life more chaotic and uncontrollable. One of the participants felt so out of control that he did his CSA increasingly obvious for the surroundings as a cry for help.
What’s in a Name? A Phenomenological Exploration of Hypersexuality Narratives
Published in International Journal of Sexual Health, 2022
Natasha Knack, Dave Holmes, Chad Hammond, J. Paul Fedoroff
While hypersexuality is often used to describe any sexual thoughts or behaviors deemed excessive or difficult to control, Hypersexual Disorder refers to a formal diagnosis, characterized by “typically a normophilic (but sometimes paraphilic) response in which normal sexual interest and behavior are exaggerated, ritualized, or disinhibited” (Walters et al., 2011, p. 1310); this diagnosis was proposed but ultimately rejected for inclusion in the DSM-5. Kafka’s (2010) proposed diagnostic criteria for Hypersexual Disorder have been criticized as being over-inclusive, which may cause normal variations in sexual behavior to be misdiagnosed as sexual disorders (Samenow, 2011). Moser (2011) argued that a lack of empirical evidence exists to support Hypersexual Disorder as a distinct psychiatric disorder and suggested that the symptoms associated with this proposed disorder may be better explained by other pathologies. He noted that, “If the nosology of mental disorders is to be useful, a symptom of another disorder should not be identified as its own disorder” (Moser, 2013, p. 52). See Appendix A in supplemental materials for Kafka’s proposed criteria and Moser’s related criticisms.
The Psychometric Properties of the Hypersexual Behavior Inventory Using a Large-Scale Nonclinical Sample
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2019
Beáta Bőthe, Márton Kovács, István Tóth-Király, Rory C. Reid, Mark D. Griffiths, Gábor Orosz, Zsolt Demetrovics
Hypersexuality is becoming a widely studied behavior (e.g., Montgomery-Graham, 2016; Schultz, Hook, Davis, Penberthy, & Reid, 2014; Womack, Hook, Ramos, Davis, & Penberthy, 2013). Furthermore, the conceptualization of hypersexuality has started to converge as a result of the proposed diagnostic criteria by Kafka (2010) and subsequent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), field trial of the proposed criteria (Reid, Carpenter, et al., 2012). Hypersexuality refers to excessive and uncontrollable sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors accompanied by significant personal distress and adverse consequences. Individuals with hypersexuality use sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors to cope with stress or negative emotions, such as anxiety or depression. The excessive time spent with these sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors leads to conflicts in other important aspects of the individual’s life (e.g., obligations or goals) and can cause physical and/or emotional harm to the individual with hypersexual behavior or others. In some extreme cases it could lead to suicidal behavior (Chatzittofis et al., 2017). Although individuals with hypersexuality try to control or reduce their sexual fantasies, urges, and behavior, they experience multiple unsuccessful efforts, often returning to previous behavioral patterns (Kafka, 2010).
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