TMA03
Produce a presentation for documentary makers
In this TMA you will produce a brief (15-minute, 8–14-slide) presentation for documentary film-makers about how counselling and forensic psychology can inform us about ‘paraphilias’
Relevant material
Whichever topic you choose for the TMA, in your presentation you will want to cover the key points you think the film-makers need to include in a documentary on this subject which is informed by psychological work in the area. This might well include:
What psychology can tell us about this area (e.g. (a) how psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy have constructed – and treated – sexual dysfunctions and paraphilias and the issues with this
The importance of listening to relevant groups (people who practise BDSM) themselves in psychological research and media representations.
Any contested areas, or areas of dilemma and debate in this area. This will help you to demonstrate criticality whether ‘paraphilic disorders’ should even be included in the DSM
How the treatment of relevant groups could be improved in counselling and forensic contexts (e.g. (a) thinking critically about what counts as ‘normal’, ‘functional’ sex
This topic in relation to mental health and crime (e.g. (a) the extent and meaning of ‘paraphilic’ behaviours and how paraphilic forms of sex have been seen as ‘mental disorders’, or crimes, in the past and present
Narratives
Chronological context
and social norms
Paraphilias & Paraphilic disorder
everchanging notion of "normal and acceptable"
DSM and the criteria for a disorder
Overview of both
counter argument: evidence that similar symptoms on different activities are considered "normal and acceptable"
Mention the problems that people face
p.12 & 13
More about the past
fetishes
click to edit
LGBTQ+
This, unfortunately, is not the end of the story. There were similar diagnoses in the DSM some years after, such as ‘ego-dystonic homosexuality’, which described homosexual individuals who wanted to pursue heterosexuality (APA, 1980). This diagnosis was also widely criticised and removed from the nomenclature. Some therapists who try to change someone’s sexual orientation still practise, mostly within religious contexts (i.e. reparative therapists), despite it being condemned by many professional organisations and, in some cases, illegal (e.g. Fang, 2015; Ferguson, 2015). Some of this criticism prompted the development of the gender and sexual diversity affirmative therapy approaches that you read about in Chapter 10.
Slide Header
Criminalisation and pathologisation
BDSM
moral standards
and values
LGBTQ+
Week 14
Section 3
Week 14
Section 4