Teneisha Johnson
50 Shades of Play: Happy Valentines Day!
The Epicureans focused on the question: What is the good life?
Their answer was, “The good life was a life of happiness.
Happiness was the presence of pleasure, and the absence of pain.
However, their psychology of pleasures and pains were unique.
They divided pleasures into static pleasures and kinetic pleasures.
Enjoying a kinetic pleasure involved having a desire, satisfying that desire, and then experiencing the lack of that desire.
For example, the desire for any food( especially Caribbean cook food) is considered a kinetic pleasure as one becomes hungry, then eats, and is then satisfied.
Enjoying a static pleasure however, would be considered engaging in a philosophical or intellectual discussion.
The more you philosophize, the more you want to continue to discuss and go more in depth.
The word “epicurean” has now come to mean “devoted to the pursuit of sensual pleasure, especially to the enjoyment of good food and comfort”.
Speaking of sensual pleasures, paraphilia is the clinical term for a sexual deviation or sexual perversion that deviates from the standard “normal”.
Some of these sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviors may cause distress and sometimes lead to criminal behavior.
Please note however that what constitutes as “normal” behavior varies dramatically depending on cultural and religious beliefs.
Also, what may be “normal” enough if restricted to sexual fantasy may be considered deviant or even criminal if acted out.
Some paraphilias may involve degrading oneself or inflicting suffering on one’s sexual partner.
In sexual sadism, the person is sexually aroused by causing psychological or physical pain in another person.
When thoughts or sexual fantasies become preoccupations that overwhelm behavior constrains, serious consequences can occur.
· Exhibitionism is the exposure of one’s genitals to a stranger
· Fetishism is the use of objects to gain sexual satisfaction
· Frotteurism is touching or rubbing against a non-consenting person
· Pedophilia is sexual activity with a prepubescent child
· Sexual masochism is enjoying or craving sexual activity that causes one’s self humiliation or pain
· Sexual sadism is sexual excitement through activity that causes another person pain or humiliation
· Transvestic fetishism is sexual activity by heterosexual males involved in cross-dressing
· Voyeurism is the observing of unsuspecting persons who are nude, disrobing, or involved in sexual activity
While any one of these paraphilias can be a serious mental disorder, it is not uncommon for several of them to occur together.
It’s hard to state the prevalence of paraphilias in the general population because of the very private nature of most of these types of activities.
Most often, it is only after an incident or crime has taken place, that we are able to record information taken from the offenders’ or victims’ memories.
Unfortunately, studies show that approximately 90% of paraphilic activities go undetected and unreported
Call: 911 for any emergency or
Cayman Crime Stoppers: http://www.crimestoppers.ky/home/ and their number to call is: 1-345-949-8090
However, the most dangerous type of Paraphilia is Pedophilia, which involves any kind of sexual behavior with children.
According to my research, some pedophiles rationalize their behavior by saying that they are providing a form of “sex education” for the child and they are doing it in the child’s best interest.
No! Sex with children is and will always be criminal, exploitative and takes unfair and selfish advantage of the child’s innocence and powerlessness.
Child sexual abuse is a complex and serious problem.
Last year I attended a Darkness to Light training session at the Red Cross Cayman Islands and was also informed that the training could also be completed online at www.D2L.org
At Darkness to Light, their vision is to have a world free of child sexual abuse.
A world in which all children are loved, protected, and nurtured, able to grow up healthy, with their sexual boundaries intact.
I now feel more confident and competent in preventing sexual abuse amongst children and will continue to seek out similar training courses.
There have also been many cults known to practice such behaviors and many other distorted rituals.
A glaring example is the Jim Jones followers, who willingly drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid under the influence of a dominant charismatic leader called Jim Jones.
James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American religious leader, who initiated and was responsible for a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
See link below for further details:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana_Tragedy:_The_Story_of_Jim_Jones
Jim Jones achieved notoriety as the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple cult.
Can you imagine what else he might have been able to persuade his followers to do?
Wow!
I’ve learnt that apparently most people with paraphilias experience them as being a fundamental and necessary part of their makeup.
Further research states that it is very hard to give up a passion, however peculiar and from the perspective of the person with the Paraphilia, often the only “problem” in their view is the restriction imposed by legal criticisms, lack of available cooperative partners, or the public forbidding their standard of unusual sexual desires.
Continuing Medical Education- Sexual Disorders
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/sexual-disorders/
This Sexual Disorders topic center contains information about paraphilias (more commonly known as sexual perversions or deviancies) and list many questions asked about sexual disorders and the answers from experts.
Sexual Offense Recovery Online
http://www.sexualoffenserecovery.com/ is an on-line service providing information and consultation assistance to victims of sexual abuse.
