Identify the clinical criteria of paraphilias.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The reason these new criteria of a distinction between paraphilias that do not cause personal distress or impairment or harm to others and those that do are important and helpful is that for the first time, clinicians would be able to make a clear distinction between a healthy person with a nonnormative sexual behavior, such as a sexual urge associated with an object, and a person whose nonnormative sexual urges cause distress, impair daily functioning, or harm others.
These changes reflect societal recognition that sexual behaviors and their meanings have changed in cultural context. In short, the diagnosis "paraphilic disorder" requires a lot more than people straying from the cultural norm in their sexual behavior, even if they manifest extreme sexual behaviors that might look like a paraphilia but are not. People's ability to function must be impaired; then there may be symptoms of distress and possible harm to others.
This diagnosis of paraphilia involves four key traits as established as:

1. An intense, recurring sexual fantasy, sexual urge, or behavior
2. Involvement with nonhuman objects, children, or nonconsenting adults, as well as pain, suffering, or humiliation to the self or to others
3. Behavior that has typically lasted for at least 6 months
4. Significant distress or impairment associated with the sexual urges as manifested in the person's social, occupational, or other areas of life