Voyeurism

Definition

Voyeurism is a psychosexual disorder in which a person derives sexual pleasure and gratification from looking at the naked bodies and genital organs or observing the sexual acts of others. The voyeur is usually hidden from view of others. Voyeurism is a form of paraphilia.

A variant form of voyeurism involves listening to erotic conversations. This is commonly referred to as telephone sex, although it is usually considered voyeurism primarily in the instance of listening to unsuspecting persons.

Description

The object of voyeurism is to observe unsuspecting individuals who are naked, in the process of undressing or engaging in sexual acts. The person being observed is usually a stranger to the observer. The act of looking or peeping is undertaken for the purpose of achieving sexual excitement. The observer generally does not seek to have sexual contact or activity with the person being observed.

If orgasm is sought, it is usually achieved through masturbation. This may occur during the act of observation or later, relying on the memory of the act that was observed.

Frequently, a voyeur may have a fantasy of engaging in sexual activity with the person being observed. In reality, this fantasy is rarely consummated.

A number of states have statutes that render voyeurism a crime. Such statutes vary widely regarding definitions of voyeurism. Most states specifically prohibit anyone from photographing or videotaping another person, without consent, while observing that person in the privacy of his home or some other private place.

Causes and symptoms

Causes

There is no scientific consensus concerning the basis for voyeurism. Most experts attribute the behavior to an initially random or accidental observation of an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity. Successive repetitions of the act tend to reinforce and perpetuate the voyeuristic behavior.

Symptoms

The act of voyeurism is the observation of an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity that provides sexual arousal. To be clinically diagnosed, the symptoms must include the following elements:

• recurrent, intense or sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors
• fantasies, urges, or behaviors that cause significant distress to an individual or are disruptive of his or her everyday functioning.

Demographics

Voyeurism is apparently more common in men, but does occasionally occur in women. However, the prevalence of voyeurism is not known. Contemporary U.S. society is increasingly voyeuristic (as in the example of "real" television); however diagnosis is made only when this is a preferred or exclusive means of sexual gratification.

The onset of voyeuristic activity is usually prior to the age of 15 years. There are no reliable statistics pertaining to the incidence of voyeurism in adulthood.

Diagnosis

According to the mental health professional's handbook, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , two criteria are required to make a diagnosis of voyeurism:

• Over a period of at least six months, an individual must experience recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors that involve the act of observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity.
• The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

In order for a condition to be labeled "voyeurism," the fantasies, urges, or behaviors to watch other persons must cause significant distress in the individual or be disruptive to his or her everyday functioning.

Treatments

For treatment to be successful, a voyeur must want to modify existing patterns of behavior. This initial step is difficult for most voyeurs to admit and then take. Most must be compelled to accept treatment. This may often be the result of a court order.

Behavioral therapy is commonly used to try to treat voyeurism. The voyeur must learn to control the impulse to watch non-consenting victims, and just as importanly to acquire more acceptable means of sexual gratification. Outcomes of behavioral therapy are not known. There are no direct drug treatments for voyeurism.

Voyeurism is a criminal act in many jurisdictions. It is usually classified as a misdemeanor. As a result, legal penalties are often minor. The possibility of exposure and embarrassment may deter some voyeurs. It is also not easy to prosecute voyeurs as intent to watch is difficult to prove. In their defense statements, they usually claim that the observation was accidental.

Prognosis

Once voyeuristic activity is undertaken, it commonly does not stop. Over time, it may become the main form of sexual gratification for the voyeur. Its course tends to be chronic.

The prognosis for eliminating voyeurism is poor because most voyeurs have no desire to change their pattern of behavior. Since voyeurism involves non-consenting partners and is against the law in many jurisdictions, the possibility of embarrassment may deter some individuals.

Prevention

Most experts agree that providing guidance regarding behavior that is culturally acceptable will prevent the development of a paraphilia such as voyeurism. The origin of some instances of voyeurism may be accidental observation with subsequent sexual gratification. There is no way to predict when such an event and association will occur.

Members of society at large can reduce the incidence of voyeurism by drawing curtains, dropping blinds or closing window curtains. Reducing opportunities for voyeurism may reduce the practice.

See also Paraphilia; Exhibitionism

Resources

BOOKS

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fourth edition, text revised. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.

Gelder, Michael, Richard Mayou, and Philip Cowen. Shorter Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Kohut, John J., Roland Sweet. Real Sex: Titillating but True Tales of Bizarre Fetishes, Strange Compulsions, and Just Plain Weird Stuff. New York: Plume, 2000.

Wilson, Josephine F. Biological Foundations of Human Behavior. New York: Harcourt, 2002.

PERIODICALS

Abouesh, A., and A. Clayton. "Compulsive voyeurism and exhibitionism: a clinical response to paroxetine." Archives of Sexual Behavior 28, no. 1 (1999): 23–30.

Furnham, A., and E. Haraldsen. "Lay theories of etiology and 'cure' for four types of paraphilia: fetishism; pedophilia; sexual sadism; and voyeurism." Journal of Clinical Psychology 54, no. 5 (1998): 689–700.

Rosler, A., and E. Witztum. "Pharmacotherapy of paraphilias in the next millennium." Behavioral Science Law 18, no. 1 (2000): 43–56.

Simon, R. I. "Video voyeurs and the covert videotaping of unsuspecting victims: psychological and legal consequences." Journal of Forensic Science 42, no. 5 (1997): 884-889.

ORGANIZATIONS

American Medical Association. 515 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60610. Telephone: (312) 464-5000. Web site: <http://www.ama-assn.org/>.

American Psychiatric Association. 1400 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005. Telephone: (888) 357-7924. Fax:(202) 682-6850. Web site: <http://www.psych.org/>.

American Psychological Association. 750 First Street NW, Washington, DC, 20002-4242. Telephone: (800) 374-2721 or (202) 336-5500. Web site: <http://www.apa.org/>.

L. Fleming Fallon, Jr., M.D., Dr.P.H.

VOYEURISM

Voyeurism is a deviant manifestation of sexuality that involves looking without being seen in order to obtain sexual pleasure. In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905d), Freud examines sexual perversion and indicates the circumstances under which "the pleasure of looking [scopophilia] becomes a perversion (a) if it is restricted exclusively to the genitals, or (b) if it is connected with the overriding of disgust (as in the case of voyeurs or people who look on at excretory functions), or (c) if, instead of being preparatory to the normal sexual aim, it supplants it."

Later, in "Instincts and Their Vicissitudes" (1915c), he provided a metapsychological explanation for the instinct of looking, which involved the voyeur-exhibitionist pair and the reversal of activity into passivity in connection with a precise object: "the sexual member." The different instinctual currents of seeing are inflected by the voyeur, who tries to see the other's genitals while hiding his own, but who also tries to be seen looking, in order to respond to what he believes is the other's desire to see. Jacques Lacan would later say that the voyeur wants to be seen as a seer.

Freud continued to emphasize the visual component of the perversions, but for him the specificity of voyeurism is important because of the vicissitude of the instinct of looking rather than its role in perversions. Rather than allowing the evolution of the instinct (component) of looking to develop in different directions, the voyeur reduces the sexual and the visual in sex to a narrow, stereotypical sexual situation. He appears to do away with the sexual, the multiplicity of objects and choices, by wrapping them in a rigid fantasy. He tries to block the aggression in the instinct in order to obtain pleasure, to the detriment of the other. By splitting the ego, he uses sex for the purpose of discharging instinctual violence. By appropriating the other as image, the voyeur makes it an object of pleasure, while remaining uninvolved in the other's intimacy. The voyeur does not seek any form of exchange or relationship, but obtains pleasure by seizing the other's image against its will. The goal is not only the sight of parts of the body that are concealed out of modesty or cultural opprobrium, but also to dismember the body of the other. The voyeur watches what is forbidden in order to destroy the physical integrity of the person by substituting a dismembered body for the unified image.

Several circumstances can lead to the occurrence of voyeurism. The instinct to see is used through disavowal and fetish formation to deny castration. The fantasy of the phallic mother and the split of awareness of the lack of a penis leads to rage and need for revenge towards her. For Masud Khan, the pervert does not succeed in creating a transitional object when reacting against the encroachment of the maternal unconscious, but manages to fabricate an "internal collage-object," which he then tries to discover in external reality. The voyeur engages in this type of theatricalization of the sexual relation by manipulation, submission, and humiliation of the object.

Robert Stoller has insisted on the cultural necessity of the perversion "forged by society and the family so that they are not harmed further" by instinctual cruelty. Because voyeurism turns the other into an image, an object of envy and covetousness, it appears to also bear witness to the visual focus of Western society. Seeing at any cost is an imperative that is often confused with science's objective of mastery. In an "omnivisual world," according to Jacques Lacan's expression, the voyeur becomes the one who does not allow himself to be blinded by sexual difference but cannot support the truth. He knows exactly what his mother is like, but tries to save his phallic image through some visual sleight-of-hand. More than anyone, he denies what he sees: the rift between the sexes, the fracture of bodies.

Jean-Michel Hirt

See also: Activity/passivity; Exhibitionism; Face-to-face situation; Infantile sexual curiosity; "Instincts and Their Vicissitudes"; Libidinal development; Prohibition; Scoptophilia/scopophilia; Turning around upon the subject's own self; Visual.

Bibliography

Bonnet, Gérard. (1996). La violence du voir. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Freud, Sigmund. (1905d). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. SE, 7: 123-243.

——. (1915c). Instincts and their vicissitudes. SE, 14: 109-140.

Khan, Masud. (1981). Alienation in perversions. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.

Stoller, Robert. (1975). Perversion: The erotic form of hatred. New York: Pantheon.

684. Voyeurism (See also Eavesdropping.)

1. Actaeon turned into stag for watching Artemis bathe. [Gk. Myth.: Leach, 8]
2. elders of Babylon watch Susanna bathe. [Apocrypha: Susanna; Art: Daniel, 217]
3. Gyges king’s bodyguard requested secretly to view queen undressing. [Gk. Lit.: Avery, 507–508]
4. Peeping Tom illicitly glanced at the naked Godiva. [Br. Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 815]
5. Roberts, Mr. takes advantage of unshaded hospital window to watch nurses taking baths. [Am. Lit.: Heggen Mister Roberts in Sobel, 479]

vo·yeur / voiˈyər; vwä-/ • n. a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity. ∎  a person who enjoys seeing the pain or distress of others. DERIVATIVES: vo·yeur·ism / ˈvoiyəˌrizəm; voiˈyərˌizəm; vwäˈyər-/ n.voy·eur·is·tic / ˌvoiyəˈristik; ˌvwäyə-/ adj.voy·eur·is·ti·cal·ly adv.

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