Sexual fantasies, organic disoders, sexual violence

Abstract

The study takes a look at the theme of sexual fantasies and the role it plays in the realm of sexuality, looking at both the more usual manifestations, which can be considered as being within the boundaries of normality, and at those which are considered more extreme and pathological, often at the origins of heinous serial crimes. The literature taken into consideration highlights how it is, above all, the content which characterises pathological fantasies and provides their ability to separate paraphilic sexual behaviour from behaviour which can be deemed as being normal. Among the pathological sexual fantasies the more frequent are those of violence, sadism and power, fantasies which are found precociously as pertaining to absolute control in the sexual offenders, often existing as a form of compensation for profound feelings of personal inadequacy and not uncommon to fears of physical shortcomings or to a self perception of being so. The study includes experiential data, arising from expert studies on various types of sexual offenders, which suggests how the fear of physical inadequacy represents an important factor in the manifestation and perpetuation of paraphilic behaviour.