De-pathologising Non-normative Bodies and Minds of Persons with Dominance-Oriented Sexualities – the Role of Narratives about and in BDSM

What is it about?

The article traces some genealogies to understand the historical reasons behind the fact that sexual preferences which empirically are not unusual and not generally associated with impairment are perceived of as rare mental disorders in the most important psychiatric manuals as well as in colloquial language use. A special attention is given to “sadism” and “masochism, which as “clinical” terms are constituted from the names of literary authors. The article shows how deeply affected the conceptions of the real world preferences are by the events and characters in the fiction of these authors.

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Why is it important?

The article provides conceptual genealogies of so-called paraphilias while also tracing the historical roots in religion and psychiatry for considering them sinful and pathological. It then compares to recent surveys of self-perceptions for persons with such preferences, thus creating a new understanding of the stigmatization as well as of the power exchange involved in several sexual preferences.