Is there a professional
term for one who derives sexual pleasure from watching himself masturbate in
the mirror? I assume I’m not the only one who sees cases like this
(albeit only 2 over the last 5 years—both with totally different personality
disorders and sex crimes). Does anyone have a reference for literature on the
phenomenon?
Thanks, David
I know many cases of people
who have engaged in such behavior, but they all had an additional quality to
them. Although these folks were looking into a mirror overtly, they
were also doing something else covertly: They were envisioning themselves in
some other form. Most commonly, these were men picturing themselves
as women or as having female anatomy (vulvas or breasts or both), but there are
also other people who picture themselves as infants, and the literature
mentions still others, such as being an amputee or an animal. Often
times, such people include in their masturbation habits “props” to enhance
their experience, such as panties, diapers, or other articles that help them to
evoke the imagery they enjoy.
There is, of course, little
if any harm to any of these activities in themselves, but men who were
motivated by a paraphilia to commit a sexual offense will sometimes also have
other paraphilias that are harmless (albeit stigmatized). It would
be an error to generalize from paraphilic sexual offenders to all people with
atypical sexual interests. Indeed, the Internet contains many
community forums of, by, and for people who enjoy their interests and
prosocially integrate them into their lives. One such forum, understanding.infantilism.org, attributed
to B. Terrance Grey, provides an insightful insider’s look into people who are
sexually aroused from envisioning themselves as infants.
Other than “autoeroticism”
or “erotic target location error,” the scientific names for these situations
follow—not from the overt behavior—but from the content of the covert
fantasies:autogynephilia for men fantasizing that they are
women, apotemnophilia for people fantasizing that they are
amputees, etc.
For more on this, I’d
recommend Anne Lawrence’s recent article:
Lawrence, A. A. (2009). Erotic target location errors: An
underappreciated paraphilic dimension. Journal of Sex Research,
46, 194–215.
Ray Blanchard, Howard
Barbaree, and I also include some relevant discussion in:
Cantor, J. M., Blanchard, R., & Barbaree, H. E. (2009). Sexual
disorders. In P. H. Blaney & T. Millon (Eds.), Oxford textbook
of psychopathology (2nd ed.) (pp. 527–548). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Finally, you might be
interested in the classic description by:
Freund, K., & Blanhard, R. (1993). Erotic target location errors in
male gender dysphorics, paedophiles, and fetishists. British Journal of
Psychiatry, 162, 558–563.
