Zille Defeu’s Fetish Fantasies

Posts Tagged ‘DSM’

Today two smart and eloquent people in my daily rss feed posted the following two posts, which for me showed up back-to-back, in this perfect symmetry. Enjoy!

From Pandora’s wonderful blog, a discussion of proposed revision to the DSM, “the official diagnostic list of mental disorders for medical practitioners in the US”…

The proposed revisions risk stigmatizing countless sane individuals with erotic tastes outside a strictly-sanctioned norm. They would lend credibility to those who wish to condemn or discriminate people on these grounds. They would also risk adversely affecting people who are happy in their alternative sexuality but seeking treatment for other mental health problems, by giving judgmental medical practitioners authority to mis-diagnose their sexual practices as being the source of the problem. Labelling any form of gender or sexual expression as a “mental disorder” has the potential to be hugely damaging, and ignores the vast spectrum of natural sexual and gender variation that exists in the world.

The Madhouse, 1812-15, Goya, Francisco…
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Then, Fyre has a wonderful post about “Transcending the Norm,”

After all, the ingredients in good S&M play–communication, respect and trust–are the same ingredients in good traditional sex. The outcome is the same, a feeling of connection to the body and the self. Practitioners’ of BDSM thus need to achieve, out of their dynamic, a relationship that produces coherence, which deeply affects each participant through a sense of shared experience within their system of beliefs.

Although people report that they have better-than-usual sex immediately after a scene, the primary goal of S&M itself is not intercourse: “A good scene doesn’t end in orgasm, it ends in catharsis.” It is in our acceptance of the sadistic or masochistic aspects of human nature and their expression rather than repression that provides the cathartic catalyst.

Inherent in our nature is the desire to improve and better ourselves. The process of exceeding our current limitations may be referred to as “self-transcendence.” Self-transcendence embodies the human spirit’s capacity to go beyond our previous achievements, it can apply to any aspect of our being; the physical self-transcendence of running faster; the mental self-transcendence of going beyond self imposed limitations. Anyone who strives for greater perfection and a higher perspective is practicing a form of self-transcendence.

I think Fyre’s quote from Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth dude):

I think we are seeking the experience of being alive, so that our life’s experience on a purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it is all finally about, and that’s what these clues help us find within ourselves.

and his final thoughts:

The deeper the understanding we have of the dynamics of this complex and beautiful form of human expression, the more our ceremonies, rituals and celebrations will reflect the deepest wisdom and understanding our unique culture has to offer, and the more our shared moments will reflect us, in all our differences.

really should be read by the people working on the DSM, before they make hasty decisions that could effect the lives of so many people!