Sadism
is the act of deriving pleasure, often sexual, from mistreating
others and therefore these people find others whom they victimize
with their behavior. Some of the severe activities involved in
sexual sadism include burning, beating, stabbing, raping, and
killing. Usually the thoughts and/or behaviors of sexual sadism
begin in adolescence or early adulthood. The behaviors are not
only chronic, but they usually increase in severity with time.
Disorder characteristic are:
Repeatedly for at
least 6 months, the patient experiences intense sexual desires,
fantasies or behaviors concerning real acts of causing physical
or psychological torment or otherwise humiliating another.
This causes clinically important distress or impairs work, social
or personal functioning. The sadism may take the form of restraining,
beating, torturing, mutilating or even killing another (especially
when associated with anti-social
personality disorder).
Some disorders
have similar or even the same symptoms. The clinician, therefore,
in his/her diagnostic attempt has to differentiate against the
following disorders which need to be ruled out to establish
a precise diagnosis.
There
is no identified cause but the age of onset is commonly by early
adulthood. Most paraphilic fantasies begin in late childhood or
adolescence and continue throughout adult life. Intensity and
occurrence of the fantasies are variable, and they usually decrease
as people get older.
The course
of paraphilia is usually chronic in nature and may require both
the application of psychotherapeutic techniques and drug therapy.
Counseling
and Psychotherapy [ See
Therapy Section ]:
Cognitive, behavior, and psychoanalytic therapies are used to
treat individuals with paraphilia's.
Hormones
are prescribed occasionally for individuals who experience intrusive
sexual thoughts, urges, or abnormally frequent sexual behaviors.
Almost always the treatment must be long-term if it is to be effective.
