| Disorder | Specific Sexual Thoughts (Fantasies, or Urges) or Activities to Enhance Sexual Arousal | Digest of DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria |
|---|
| Exhibitionistic disorder | Exposing genitals to an nonconsenting stranger | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to showing one’s private parts to a nonconsenting person. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The person has either acted on these thoughts or these thoughts impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Voyeuristic disorder | Watching someone who is taking their clothes off or having sex | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to watching a person who is unclothed, in the process of removing clothing, or having sex; the person being observed is unaware of this fact. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The person with this arousal pattern is 18 or older. The person has either acted on these thoughts or these thoughts impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Frotteuristic disorder | Non-violent physical contact with a nonconsenting person | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to non-violent physical contact with a nonconsenting person. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The person has either acted on these thoughts or these thoughts impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Pedophilic disorder | Sexual activity with a child who has not reached puberty | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to sexual activity involving a child who has not yet reached puberty (typically under age 13). Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The person has either acted on these thoughts or these thoughts impair normal functioning in some area of life. The person is at least 5 years older than the object of the sexual fantasy or activity and is at least 16. |
| Sexual Sadism Disorder | Sexual arousal from giving psychological or physical pain | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to the physical or emotional suffering of another person. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The person has either acted on these thoughts or these thoughts impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Sexual Masochism Disorder | Sexual arousal from being made to suffer | Repeated sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to being hurt, humiliated, or suffering in some other way. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. These thoughts or activities impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Fetishistic Disorder | Sexual arousal from an object (shoes, underwear) | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from an object(s) or a specific nongenital body part. Can be demonstrated either in imagination, desire or action. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. The fetish items are not limited to objects used in cross-dressing or self-stimulation (such as vibrators). These thoughts or activities impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Transvestic Disorder | Sexual arousal from dressing in the clothes of the opposite gender | Repeated and significant sexual arousal from thoughts or deeds related to cross-dressing. Must have occurred over at least 6 months. These thoughts or activities impair normal functioning in some area of life. |
| Paraphilic disorders include unusual sexual fantasies, urges, and activities that can be classified into three types: Those that involve nonconsenting partners or children (in blue); those that involve suffering or humiliating oneself or a partner (in red); and those that involve nonhuman animals or objects (in green). Note that sexual sadism involves nonconsenting people; nevertheless, DSM-5 groups sexual sadism disorder with sexual masochism disorder, rather than with the other paraphilic disorders that involve nonconsenting people. Note also that the specifics of the criterion related to distress, impaired functioning, or acting on the sexual thoughts vary across the paraphilic disorders, depending in part on whether the disorder involves nonconsenting individuals. |
| Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013. |