Room 517-D | French Speaking Podium Session Monday, July 11, 2005 Time: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM |
Microperversions / Les microperversions.
Pasini, Willy *,1, 1 Professor of Psychiatry, Genève, cedex, Switzerland
ABSTRACT- Although today the term ′′paraphilia′′ is the one most commonly preferred, due to the fact that the word ′′perversion′′ carries moral connotations, by using the old term, a distinction can be made between ′′hardcore perversion′′ and a new category of ′′soft′′ perversion. It is not always easy to recognise a pervert at first sight. But the types of paraphilia are very different for men and women. Women are more masochistic, but moral masochism in this case rather than sexual masochism. This type of masochism is based on sacrifice: they are accepting to suffer for their partner. Exhibitionism is as common in women as in men, but the psychological origin is different. For women, it is caused by doubts about their own sexual identity, whereas men who show off their penis are doing it to shock the other person. All other forms of paraphilia pertain to men only. One of the explanations is that women have a lesser need to act out their fantasies. In addition, their perversions are feeling-based rather than sex-based: these are women who love excessively, or manipulative women. Paraphilia is generally male because of the man′s need to permanently overcome a subconscious fear of castration, where he diverts the fear by means of the perversion. But today a distinction can be made between the classical pervert and those with ′′microperversions′′ (soft perversion). A ′′hardcore′′ pervert is totally bound to his perversion, enslaved by it, expressing his sexuality according to an imposed scenario. The central element of ′′hardcore′′ perversion is not extreme sex, but a lack of freedom, a prison in which the pervert takes refuge, whatever the danger he is fleeing, making him totally different from those suffering from ′′soft′′ perversions. Soft perverts act out fantasies which they have kept within the confines of their imagination until then. Some perverts love their partners in their own way: they can be totally destroyed when he or she leaves them. It is a regressive form of love, described by the Hungarian psychoanalyst Imre Hermann. Some women are initially seduced and find after a few months that they are in love with a pervert who likes to humiliate, exploit, and abuse them, and not only sexually. But they remain attached to their tormentor because, in such cases, there is a form of sentimental masochism related to their childhood. Therapy can help understand that energy and feelings belong to us alone, and are not linked to anyone else.
Key words: microperversion, paraphilia, hardcore perversion, soft perversion, love