Post by Joanna on Jul 12, 2015 18:59:06 GMT -5
What is Somnophilia?
A lawyer for one of the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault has raised the possibility that his client might be suffering from little-known condition called somnophilia.
What is somnophilia? Also creepily known as the "sleeping princess syndrome," somnophilia defines those who are sexually aroused by someone who is unconscious. It's one of the 250 recognized paraphilias – abnormal or uncommon sexual conditions. Unlike pedophilia (sexual attraction to children) and necrophilia (attraction to dead bodies), somnophilia is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the primary guidebook psychiatrists use. But researchers say it could evolve to necrophilia.
Who has it? There are no hard numbers available, but it's not a common disorder. This said, Cosby's case is the not first time somnophilia has been raised in pop culture. Apart from its nickname, derived from Sleeping Beauty's kiss to awaken her, the movie Who Killed Bambi? explores the darker side of somnophilia, through a surgeon who drugs his female patients and has sex with them. Porn channels are also dedicated to the theme of beginning sex with a sleeping partner.
Why would a man be turned on by knocked-out partners? A perversion to one person is normal to another. Dr. Michael First, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, says there has been little study on this particular condition, but believes "it's possibly that what the person might find arousing is the idea you have full control over this person." Or it could be the lack of consent, the sense of getting away with something, or even just the attraction of seeing the person asleep, he adds.
Who thinks Cosby might be a somnophiliac? The term came up Wednesday in a motion filed by a lawyer for Andrea Constand, the first woman to accuse the actor-comedian of sexual assault, seeking to force disclosure of additional records in her previously settled case. Cosby acknowledged in a 2005 deposition in the case that was unsealed this week that he obtained Quaaludes to sedate women with whom he wanted to have sex. "Although some of the women engaged in consensual relations with Cosby, their accounts substantiated defendant's alleged predilection for somnophilia," Constand's lawyer, Dolores Troiani, wrote in the motion.
Is it treatable? Doctors treat cases with psychotherapy and programs like those for other sexual addictions, including types of medical castration drugs – the same as pedophiles are treated.
Source: The Whig, July 10, 2015.
