Do you have normal sexual tastes? A new study suggests sexual fantasies, urges and behaviours that are often considered abnormal are actually quite common among the general population, raising questions about how psychiatrists and psychologists define what is sexually normal or not.
The study, published online in The Journal of Sex Research, examined the prevalence of paraphilic, or anomalous, sexual interests, as identified in the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), among residents of Quebec. It found that participants’ experiences and their desire to experience certain paraphilic behaviours, including fetishism and masochism, are neither rare nor unusual.
The study, published online in The Journal of Sex Research, examined the prevalence of paraphilic, or anomalous, sexual interests, as identified in the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), among residents of Quebec. It found that participants’ experiences and their desire to experience certain paraphilic behaviours, including fetishism and masochism, are neither rare nor unusual.
