Portraits of Sadism and Masochism Since he was a teenager, Carl has thought about being restrained, humiliated, or abused in a sexual way.  Jenny was reading the personals section of the classifieds when she came across an ad from a person requesting a “sex slave.” She immediately ignored the ad, but then found herself excited by it and drawn back in. Definitions and Key Thoughts for Sadism and Masochism Sexual sadism and sexual masochism are two separate psychological disorders and each are categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) as a paraphilia, which is a sexual disorder characterized by socially unacceptable preoccupations or behaviors (other paraphilias include voyeurism, exhibitionism, and fetishism). Sadism and masochism are characterized by feelings of sexual pleasure or gratification when inflicting suffering on another person, or having it inflicted upon one’s self, respectively. The official DSM-IV criteria for sexual … [Read more...]