Paraphilia vs Fantasy

Can someone define the differences between a Paraphilia and a Fantasy for me please

For example if I have a fantasy about being dominated by a woman (S&M) but don't want it in real life, is that a fantasy or a paraphilia?

Sorry if I sound ignorant but I'm not sure where one starts and the other finishes

cheers

I am no experst but fantasy to me something you have not acted upon which seperates from anything else. You may go on to live out a fantasy then it becomes something you are acting upon and is subject to legal issues and depending what it is can effect people around you.
I guess between the two there is a grey area, until you act upon them.

I can't really find out where one starts and the other ends either to tell you the truth. I have fantasies about all kinds of things that I would never want to do in real life. I'm not sure if a paraphilia is including the fantasy only turn ons or the ones that want to enact something in real life? It probably depends on the person I would think.

This is something that is still a matter of debate even among psychologists.

The current diagnostic criteria for paraphilias are here: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/291419-clinical

If you read those diagnoses, you'll notice that most of them require that you be "significantly distressed or impaired" by your sexual fantasy, or having acted on it illegal, before you are considered to have the disorder. So in your case your fantasy to be dominated would not be considered a true paraphilia unless it's causing you major problems in other areas of your life.

From what I have read, most psychologists now consider S&M to be a normal variation of human sexuality, especially when it is just fantasy.

Likewise, I think what you are referring to is paraphilias that are considered psychiatric disorders.

Although I am no expert, I believe you can have paraphilias that do not cause you distress. I believe there is overlap between fantasies and paraphilias. In fact, if you have a paraphilia, I would practically expect you would have related fantasies.

Wikipedia - Paraphilia wrote:American Journal of Psychiatry describes paraphilia as "recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors generally involving:

1.Non-human objects
2.The suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner
3.Children
4.Non-consenting persons

So I assume for a fantasy to be non-paraphilic, it would have to fail to meet the above criteria.

Wikipedia - Paraphilia wrote:In the current version of the DSM (DSM-IV-TR), a paraphilia is not diagnosable as a psychiatric disorder unless it causes distress to the individual or harm to others. The DSM-5 draft adds a terminology distinction between the two cases, stating that "paraphilias are not ipso facto psychiatric disorders", and defining paraphilic disorder as "a paraphilia that causes distress or impairment to the individual or harm to others". This will make a clear distinction between a healthy person with a non-normative sexual behavior and a person with a psychopathological non-normative sexual behavior.

likewise wrote:From what I have read, most psychologists now consider S&M to be a normal variation of human sexuality, especially when it is just fantasy.

I believe sexual sadomasochism is no longer considered a psychiatric disorder. However it may still constitute a paraphilia.

But as I said, I'm no expert, so am happy to be corrected.

Platypus wrote:Although I am no expert, I believe you can have paraphilias that do not cause you distress.

Good catch, Platy! The term is ambiguous due to fact that the DSM currently refers to the disorders themselves as simply "paraphilias." This makes it difficult for psychologists to talk about paraphilias that do not constitute disorders. Therefore, the DSM-5 is proposing to modify the language to call them "paraphilic disorders" (as opposed to "paraphilias") when they interfere with a person's well-being. That way, somebody can be said to have a paraphilia such as "sexual masochism" without having the psychiatric diagnosis of "sexual masochism disorder." Here's a longer explanation of the change:

DSM-5 Proposed Revision - Rationale wrote:This approach leaves intact the distinction between normative and non-normative sexual behavior, which could be important to researchers, but without automatically labeling non-normative sexual behavior as psychopathological. It also eliminates certain logical absurdities in the DSM-IV-TR. In that version, for example, a man cannot be classified as a transvestite—however much he cross-dresses and however sexually exciting that is to him—unless he is unhappy about this activity or impaired by it. This change in viewpoint would be reflected in the diagnostic criteria sets by the addition of the word “Disorder” to all the paraphilias. Thus, Sexual Sadism would become Sexual Sadism Disorder; Sexual Masochism would become Sexual Masochism Disorder, and so on.

Platyptus wrote:I believe sexual sadomasochism is no longer considered a psychiatric disorder. However it may still constitute a paraphilia.

Sexual Sadism and Sexual Masochism are still considered disorders under certain circumstances (see the link in my previous post and the above quotation).

Platypus wrote:But as I said, I'm no expert, so am happy to be corrected.

And I'm happy to do so.

likewise wrote:And I'm happy to do so.

Thanks! That's useful info.