Abstract
Although exhibitionists are arousable sexually by normal female erotic behavior (courtship, sexual passion), they avoid a considerable portion of courtship with the victim of their sexual offense. Human sexuality is not viewed as a unitary drive but as a system of partial sexual motivational states (SMS). The hypothesis was formulated that exhibitionists suffer from a difficulty in the transition from introductory (preexposure) SMS to more advanced (exposure) ones. Accordingly, offensive exposure (toward strange women) serves the purpose of separating the advanced sexual act from the evocation of the exhibitionist's own more introductory SMS by the object of exposure. Three phallometric studies, using film sequences as stimuli, confirmed predictions derived from the hypothesis: (1) Exhibitionists (N = 22) were found not to be arousable by female fear and anger behavior, but by female genital exposure, especially by a female pointing at her exposed genital. (2) This behavior aroused controls (N =41) only when erotic prestimulation immediately preceded. With no prestimulation, this behavior weakened the effect. (3) The arousal of exhibitionists (N =40) was superior to that of normals when this was shown after no prestimulation (“abnormal” arousal), but was inferior when it was shown immediately after “coy” erotic prestimulation. Thus, it is suspected that the problem lies in the transference from the “coy” phases to those when partners look at the other's genital. It may be useful to shape erotic partnership of exhibitionists along lines different from those traditionally prevalent in our cultures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Apfelberg, B., Sugar, C., and Pfeffer, A. Z. (1944). A psychiatric study of 250 sex offenders.Amer. J. Psychiat. 100: 762–769.
Arieff, A. J., and Rotman, D. B. (1942). One hundred cases of indecent exposure.J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 96: 523–528.
Ellis, H. (1937).Pohlavni psychologie (The psychology of sex, 1933). Orbis, Praha.
Freud, S. (1971).Vybrané spisy III (Selected works III). Avicenum, Praha.
Freund, K. (1962).Homosexualita u muže (Male homosexuality). Státní zdrav. nakl., Praha.
Freund, K. (1976). Diagnosis and treatment of forensically significant anomalous erotic preferences.Can. J. Criminol. Correct. 18: 181–189.
Freund, K., and Kolářský, A. (1965). Grundzüge eines einfachen Bezugsystems für die Analyse sexueller Deviationen.Psychiat. Neurol. Med. Psychol. 17: 221–225.
Freund, K., Sedlacek, F., and Knob, K. (1965). A simple transducer for mechanical plethysmography of the male genital.J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 8: 169–170.
Freund, K., Seeley, H. R., and Marshall, W. E. (1972). Sexual offenders needing special assessment and/or therapy.Can. J. Criminol. Correct. 14: 345–365.
Gebhard, P. H., Gagnon, J. H., Pomeroy, W. B., and Christenson, C. V. (1965).Sex Offenders. An analysis of types. Harper and Row, New York.
Hirning, L. C. (1947). Genital exhibitionism. An interpretive study.J. Clin. Psychopathol. 8: 557–564.
Hirschfeld, M. (1948).Sexual Anomalies and Perversions. Francis Alder, London.
Jones, I. H., and Frei, B. (1977). Provoked anxiety as a treatment of exhibitionism.Brit. J. Psychiat. 131: 295–300.
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E., and Gebhard, P. H. (1953).Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Saunders, Philadelphia.
Kolářský, A. (1968). Zaměřovani verbální explorace při zjištovani sexálni deviace u muže (Centering verbal exploration during the estimation of male sexual deviation).Česk. Psychiat. 64: 167–171.
Kolářský, A., and Madlafousek, J. (1972). Female behavior and sexual arousal in heterosexual male deviant offenders: An experimental study.J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 155: 110–118.
Kolářský, A., and Madlafousek, J. (1974). On the mechanism of offensive behavior in heterosexual male deviates. International Conference on Psychopathology, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
Kolářský, A., and Madlafousek, J. (1977). Variability of stimulus effect in the course of phallometric testing.Arch. Sex. Behav. 6: 135–141.
Kolářský, A., and Madlafousek, J. (1980). Vzrusuje exhibicionisty strach či hněv ženy (Are exhibitionists excited by female fear or anger?).Cas. Lék. Ces. 119: 497–500.
Kolářský, A., Madlafousek, J., Hliňák, Z., and Novotná, V. (1975). Neznámá žena jako objekt deviantního muže a biologie fází sexuálního chováni (Strange woman as object of deviant male and biology of phases of sexual behavior).Cesk. Psychiat. 71: 291–294.
Kolářský, A., Madlafousek, J., and Novotná, V. (1978). Stimuli eliciting sexual arousal in males who offend adult women: An experimental study.Arch. Sex. Behav. 7: 79–87.
Langevin, R., Paitich, D., Ramsay, G., Anderson, C., Kamrad, J., Pope, E., Geller, G., Pearl, L., and Newman, S. (1979). Experimental studies of the etiology of genital exhibitionism.Arch. Sex. Behav. 8: 307–331.
Lasègue, C. (1877). Les exhibitionistes.L'Union Medicale 23: 709–714.
Lewis, D. (1960).Quantitative Methods in Psychology. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Madlafousek, J., Žantovský, M., Hliňák, Z., and Kolářský, A. (1981). Sexuální chování jako komunikační process, jimž se realizuje sytém dilčich motivačnich stavů (Sexual behavior as a communicative process by which the system of partial motivational states is executed).Cesk. Psychiat. 77: 377–384.
Mohr, J., Turner, R., and Jerry, M. (1964).Pedophilia and Exhibitionism. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Schnabl, S. (1974). Abnorme sexualität. In Hesse, G., and Tembrock, G. (eds.),Sexuologie (Band I), Hirzel Verlag, Leipzig.
Zechnic, B. (1976). Exhibitionism—genesis, dynamics and treatment.Trans. Anal. J. 6: 307–310.
Zuckerman, M. (1971). Physiological measures of sexual arousal in the human.Psychol. Bull. 75: 297–329.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kolářský, A., Madlafousek, J. The inverse role of preparatory erotic stimulation in exhibitionists: Phallometric studies. Arch Sex Behav 12, 123–148 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541557
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541557