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Exhibitionism: A Clinical Conundrum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Philip Snaith
Philip Snaith*
Affiliation:
University of Leeds, Clinical Sciences Building, Level 5, St James's University Hospital, Leeds LS9 7TF
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Extract

Genital exhibitionism is a disorder without a satisfactory explanation; many views have been put forward as to its nature but although fragments of some of these theories appear to be relevant to the problems of some individuals, for others they are incongruent with the clinical data. At the present time we must conclude that the behavioural act does not signify a homogeneous population and that in every parameter so far studied, be it personality structure, attitude to women, erotic gratification from the act, other deviant behaviour or whatever, there is no single unifying characteristic which is always to be found. The intention in this paper is not to make a broad survey of the disorder for that has been undertaken within the last fifteen years by, inter alia, Evans (1970) and Rooth (1971, 1980); the purpose is to draw attention to some of the more recent studies in order to dispel stereotyped views and thereby to avoid the pitfalls in deriving the formulation of each individual case.

Type
Symposium on Sexual Deviation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 143 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 231 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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