Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Devotism, defined as sexual attraction toward disabilities, has not undergone extensive study. To verify whether devotees have characteristics suggestive of a paraphilic behavior, an ad hoc internet questionnaire was developed to study a population of 209 subjects enrolled from online devotee communities. With respect to the sexual preference, we observe a first population comprising subjects sexually attracted by disability per se and considers it as an erotic object. In the absence of disability, this group is also unable to become sexually aroused and experiences discomfort due to their condition. The second subpopulation comprises subjects attracted by specific characteristics of people with disabilities such as adaptability, fortitude, courage and ability to overcome obstacles. This group experiences low levels of discomfort for their sexual preference. Further studies will be necessary to confirm these data.
Introduction
Physical or mental disability may alter the way individuals express their sexuality and may profoundly change feelings about sex. However, disabilities do not necessarily destroy interest in sexual activity, and people with disabilities can frequently both experience and provide sexual pleasure. If on the one hand people affected by disabilities experience their sexuality, then on the other hand they can also be the object of desire for some people sexually aroused by the disability itself.
Sexual attraction to disability (minor, such as missing fingers, or severe, such as blindness, limb amputation or quadriplegia) is known as devotism, and subjects who are specifically interested in and sexually aroused by people with disabilities call themselves devotees. They have two additional subgroups, including people who want to become amputees and refer to themselves as wannabes and able-bodied people who act as if they have a disability by using assistive devices (pretenders).
Historically, the term 'devotism' has undergone some modifications: in the nineties, attraction toward disability was defined as acrotomophilia, although this term included only sexual interest in amputees. Later, a case-report analysis suggested that this attraction was the expression of a factitious disability disorder or it was interpreted as an identity disorder. Devotism may share conceptual convergences with fetishism or sadism. For the latter condition, sexual acts with disabled person may configure as exciting because of the psychological or physical suffering produced during the act. However, this sexual preference could thus not be considered a unified phenomenon but rather a broad spectrum of phenomena, with 'conventional' sexual behavior at one end and anomalous sexual behavior, up to paraphilic behavior, at the other. This perspective incorporates the idea that some paraphilias could be unusual but not disordered sexual variations.
Devotism has not undergone extensive study, with just a few sporadic case series reported in the literature. Greater attention has been paid to another group of subjects, who are sexually aroused by amputees only. The earliest survey in this area was conducted by a company producing stories about and pictures of amputees. A sample of 52 wannabes who had expressed a wish to become an amputee or had succeeded in doing so was later described.
Our preliminary hypothesis is that the sexual attraction toward disability might configure as a paraphilic behavior. Thus, we try to verify whether all devotees have characteristics suggestive of a paraphilic behavior.