Describe treatment approaches for paraphilias discussed in the textbook

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

- Incorporation therapy is, in a way, a compromise in that the frequency of the paraphilic behavior will be decreased or modified but not completely abolished. This approach is often successful when the partner of the paraphiliac is distressed and unwilling to accept the intensity of the paraphilic behaviors but can learn to endure a milder form of them.
- Psychotherapy. The most successful approach appears to be cognitive-behavioral therapy, which combines techniques designed to modify unwanted behaviors with altering the client's thinking patterns that lead to the unwanted behaviors.
- Orgasmic reconditioning. Sexual arousal and orgasm are very powerful reinforcements for whatever behavior becomes associated with them. If a person who desires to modify his paraphilic behavior could be conditioned to become aroused and have orgasms in settings that bear no resemblance to the paraphilia, his maladaptive associations and behaviors might be altered.
- Drug therapy. If an imbalance in brain and glandular chemicals is leading to unwanted, inappropriate sexual behavior, it makes sense that it might be treated with medications that alter, in some way, the production or effects of those chemicals.