What does sexually disturbed mean?

Answer 1

This is difficult to answer and depends on who you ask. Here are some points to consider:

1. Most traditional religions would say that any sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is sexually disturbed. However, their view is not the only one, nor shared by most of society nor the psychological community.

2. Early sexologists considered it a disturbance to have more of a sexual attraction for things other than heterosexual sex to the exclusion of it. So in that school of thought, if someone prefers masturbation over actual sex with another person, the psychiatrists of that day may have considered them as sexually disordered. Sexual liberation, the removal of homosexuality from the list of sexual disorders, and contemporary attitudes have changed such thoughts. However, it is considered sexually disturbed these days to require severe harm to oneself, severe harm to others or illegal acts (sex with children or animals) to reach arousal or climax.

3. Most in contemporary society would consider the label sexually disturbed to mean sexual thoughts or actions centered around harming people or animals. They may also consider sexual repression to be a sexual disturbance. A need to have so much sex to the extent it damages your life or you feel compelled to commit criminal acts would also fit here.

4. Harm here is relative. For instance, many who practice BDSM incorporate what some may consider violence into their sexual activities. However, it is consensual and mutually agreed upon. Sexual thoughts involving rape, other serious bodily harm, or murder would certainly suggest sexually disturbance.