Paraphilia
experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, or individuals
A paraphilia is an uncommon, intense, and persistent sexual arousal or attraction to anything not sexual by nature, though preference is favored for specific designations. Paraphilia has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human partner. Paraphilias are contrasted with normophilic ("normal") sexual interests, although the definition of what makes a sexual interest normal or atypical remains controversial.
The exact number and taxonomy of paraphilia is under debate; Anil Aggrawal has listed as many as 549 types of paraphilias. Several sub-classifications of paraphilia have been proposed; some argue that a fully dimensional, spectrum, or complaint-oriented approach would better reflect the evident diversity of human sexuality. Although paraphilias were believed in the 20th century to be rare among the general population, subsequent research has indicated that some level of paraphilic interest is relatively common.
Etymology
Coinage of the term paraphilia (paraphilie) has been credited to Friedrich Salomon Krauss in 1903, and it was used with some regularity by Wilhelm Stekel in the 1920s. The term comes from the Greek παρά (para), meaning 'other' or 'outside of', and φιλία (-philia), meaning 'loving'. The word was popularized by John Money in the 1980s as a non-pejorative designation for unusual sexual interests. It was first included in the DSM in its 1980 edition.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q178059. The Library of Congress control number is sh85120724. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1903 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paraphilia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.