What is a Paraphilia?
Paraphilia is a medical or behavioral science term for what is also referred to as: sexual deviation, sexual anomaly, sexual perversion or a disorder of sexual preference. It is the repeated, intense sexual arousal to unconventional (socially deviant) stimuli.
Richard Von Krafft-Ebing, a German psychiatrist credited with formally introducing the study of Sexology as a psychiatric phenomenon, identified paraphilias first in his 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis (Sexual Psychopathy). This highly influential psychiatric text laid the groundwork for the development of research and treatment in this area that has taken place over the last century.
Paraphilias are currently recognized as one of the categories of Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders in the DSM-IV-TR
List of Paraphilias
Abasiophilia: love of (or sexual attraction to) people who use leg braces or other orthopaedic appliances
Acousticophilia: sexual arousal from certain sounds
Acrotomophilia: love of (or sexual attraction to) amputees
Agalmatophilia: sexual attraction to statues or mannequins or immobility
Algolagnia: sexual pleasure from pain
Amaurophilia: sexual arousal by a partner whom one is unable to see due to artificial means, such as being blindfolded or having sex in total darkness. (See: sensory deprivation)
Andromimetophilia: love of women dressed as men
Apodysophilia: desire to undress, see also nudism
Apotemnophilia: desire to have (or sexual arousal from having) a healthy appendage (limb, digit, or male genitals) amputated
Aquaphilia: arousal from water and/or in watery environments, including bathtubs or swimming pools
Aretifism: sexual attraction to people who are without footwear, in contrast to retifism
Asphyxiophilia: sexual attraction to asphyxia; also called breath control play; including autoerotic asphyxiation; see medical warnings
Autogynephilia: love of oneself as a woman (also see Blanchard, Bailey, and Lawrence theory for discussion on controversy)
Biastophilia: sexual pleasure from committing rape
Celebriphilia: pathological desire to have sex with a celebrity.
Coprophilia: sexual attraction to (or pleasure from) feces
Crush fetish: sexual arousal from seeing small creatures being crushed by members of the opposite sex, or being crushed oneself
Dacryphilia: sexual pleasure in eliciting tears from others or oneself
Dendrophilia: sexual attraction to trees and other large plants, popularized by the movie “Superstar” with Molly Shannon
Diaper fetishism: sexual arousal from diapers
Emetophilia (a.k.a. vomerophilia): sexual attraction to vomit
Ephebophilia (a.k.a. hebephilia): sexual attraction towards adolescents
Eproctophilia: sexual attraction to flatulence
Exhibitionism: sexual arousal through sexual behavior in view of third parties (also includes the recurrent urge or behavior to expose one’s genitals to an unsuspecting person, known as indecent exposure)
Faunoiphilia: sexual arousal from watching animals mate
Fetishism: is the use of non-sexual or nonliving objects or part of a person’s body to gain sexual excitement. Examples include:
Balloon fetishism — breast fetishism — foot fetishism (podophilia) — fur fetishism — leather fetishism — lipstick fetishism — medical fetishism — panty fetishism — robot fetishism — rubber fetishism — shoe fetishism — smoking fetishism — spandex fetishism — dental braces fetishism — transvestic fetishism
Frotteurism: sexual arousal from the recurrent urge or behavior of touching or rubbing against a nonconsenting person
Galactophilia: sexual attraction to human milk or lactating women (incorrect term)
Gerontophilia: sexual attraction towards the elderly
Haematophilia: sexual attraction involving blood (either on a sex partner/attractive person or the liquid itself; not to be confused with haemophilia, a genetic disorder of the blood)
Harpaxophilia: sexual arousal from being the victim of a robbery or burglary
Hematolagnia: sexual attraction to blood
Hybristophilia: sexual arousal to people who have committed crimes, in particular cruel or outrageous crimes
Infantilism: sexual pleasure from dressing, acting, or being treated as a baby
Katoptronophilia: sexual arousal from having sex in front of mirrors.
Klismaphilia: sexual pleasure from enemas
Lust murder: sexual arousal through committing murder
Macrophilia: sexual attraction to larger people and large things (including larger body organs such as breasts and genitalia)
Maiesiophilia: sexual attraction to childbirth or pregnant women
Masochism: is the recurrent urge or behavior of wanting to be humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer
Microphilia: sexual attraction to smaller people and things of smaller size
Mysophilia: sexual attraction to soiled, dirty, foul or decaying material
Necrophilia: sexual attraction to corpses
Necrozoophilia: sexual attraction to the corpses or killings of animals (also known as necrobestiality)
Nepiophilia: the same as infantophilia sexual attraction to children between the age of 0 - 3 yrs.
Pedophilia: sexual attraction to prepubescent children (British spelling: paedophilia)
Phalloorchoalgolagnia: sexual arousal by the experiencing of painful stimuli being administered to the male genitals.
Pictophilia: sexual attraction to pictorial pornography/erotic art
Plushophilia: sexual attraction to stuffed toys or people in animal costume, such as theme park characters
Pyrophilia: sexual arousal through watching, setting, hearing/talking/fantasizing about fire
Retifism: sexual arousal from shoes
Sadism: sexual arousal from giving pain
Schediaphilia (aka Toonophilia): love (or sexual arousal) to cartoon characters/situations
Sitophilia: sexual arousal from food
Somnophilia: sexual arousal from sleeping or unconscious people
Spectrophilia: sexual attraction to ghosts
Telephone scatologia: being sexually aroused by making obscene telephone calls
Teratophilia: sexual attraction to deformed or monstrous people
Transformation fetish: sexual arousal from depictions of transformations of people into objects or other beings
Transvestic fetishism: is a sexual attraction towards the clothing of the opposite gender (also known as transvestitism)
Trichophilia: love (or sexual arousal) from hair
Urolagnia: sexual attraction to urine
Vorarephilia: sexual attraction to being eaten by, and/or eating, another person or creature
Voyeurism: sexual arousal through watching others having sex (also includes the recurrent urge or behavior to observe an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobing or engaging in sexual activities, see peeping tom)
Xenophilia: sexual attraction to foreigners (in science fiction, can also mean sexual attraction to aliens)
Zoophilia: emotional or sexual attraction to animals
Zoosadism: the sexual enjoyment of causing pain and suffering to animals
Note: Sadism and masochism are often grouped together, under sadomasochism, or (as a lifestyle interest) BDSM.

Some crime scenes are surreal. At a quick glance, this woman dressed in her slip appears to be casually sitting on a toilet seat with her leg crossed. What is soon apparent is that she has no head, at least no head on her neck; it is on her lap. The scene may seem to be one of a crime of passion because it is so horrific and posed. However, this woman, who lived in Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway, blew her own head off with a powerful rifle. The blood spatter on the walls and on her crossed legs indicate she was sitting in this position when the gun went off.
Gertrude Baniszewski and Richard Hobbs in court.
Baniszewski and Hobbs were both charged with the torture murder of sixteen year old Sylvia Likens. Likens was boarding at the Baniszewski house because her parents were traveling carnival workers. While under the care of Baniszewski Likens became the target of unimaginable cruelty. Baniszewski persuaded her own children and other neighborhood children, including Richard Hobbs to participate in tormenting her. Likens died on a dirty mattress after being beaten unconscious. When her body was examined by a physician and a pathologist they discovered over 100 small round sores all over her body. One was a hole almost to the bone on her right wrist. There was a large bruise on the left side of her head and a tooth was missing. Her body was covered in cuts burns and scald marks, and the entire left side of her face was discolored where the skin had eroded. Her vagina was swollen and puffy from being forced to masterbate with a coca cola bottle, and there were multiple patches of eroded skin where she had been burned with scalding hot water. All of her finger nails had been broken backwards, and the words “I’m a prostitute and proud of it” had been freshly carved into her stomach. Examination of the internal organs revealed that her liver was fatty and yellow indicating malnutrition. Likens Died of head trauma, shock, malnutrition and excessive injuries.
Police Lieutenant Dan Nolan stands beside a display of the Green River Killers victims. Many of them were left in the woods and picked clean by animals.

Theresa Knorr was pathologically jealous of her two oldest daughters. Suesan and Sheila Knorr were growing into beautiful young women, while Theresa was growing older and losing her looks. Theresa hated her daughters for being thinner and prettier than her. With the help of two of her sons, Theresa transported Suesan to a remote spot in Squaw Vally Ca, where she instructed her sons to douse their sister with gasoline and burn her alive. Less than a year later, after months of hideous abuse and torture, Theresa locked sheila in a cramped and sweltering hot closet until she dehydrated and starved to death. Theresa asked her two sons to remove the corpse and help dispose of the remains. Her youngest daughter Terry had to scrub down the closet, and hold back the urge to vomit because of the overwhelming stench of decay. Terry says she will always be haunted by the memory of seeing her sisters rotting and twisted corpse crumpled up in that tiny closet.






