Exhibitionism in Mental Health

Mental Health Training

What is exhibitionism?

Exhibitionism occurs when a man gives way to an urge to expose his genitals to a female stranger or a person with whom he is not in a close relationship. It is an almost solely male disorder and is one of the most familiar forms of sexual deviation.

In a sexual context, exhibitionism is a sexual kink in which the person feels sexual arousal at the idea or reality of being seen naked or engaged in sexual activities by others,” says clinical sexologist Sarah Melancon, in the Cosmopolitan

Merriam-Webster: definition of exhibitionism

1: A perversion in which sexual gratification is obtained from the indecent exposure of one’s genitals (as to a stranger)

2: The act or practice of behaving to attract attention to oneself

What is exhibitionism?

The mental health condition is known as an exhibitionist disorder, which involves deriving, "recurrent and intense sexual arousal" from the exposure of one's genitals to an unsuspecting person.

Anticipation of the exposure usually causes sexual excitement, followed by masturbation, performed during or after the event. Usually, a reac­tion of shock, fright or disgust is needed for the attempt to succeed, and exposure is likely to fail in its objective if the woman shows indifference, amuse­ment or contempt.

About 30% of male sex offenders who are arrested are exhibitionists. They tend to persist in their behaviour. About 20 to 50% are re-arrested.

Female exhibitionism is relatively rare and is allowed outlets in society. It rarely takes a deviant form.

What causes exhibitionism?

Men who practice exhibi­tionism tend not to have a normal sex life and feel the need to assert their masculinity by displaying their manhood, preferably erect, and then eliciting an emotional reaction from the victim.

Some men turn to exhibitionism due to severe psychological trauma or grief, but this is rare. Persistent exhibitionists nearly always have a personality disorder arising from some form of inadequacy.

It is said that most exhibitionists are married, but their marriage is often troubled. They looked on their wives as mother substitutes and remained abnormally attached to their mothers in child­hood.

Exhibitionism usually starts during adolescence. The exhibitionist, although sexually infan­tile, may in other respects be a remarkably normal, capable, well-educated and presentable person, often with ostensibly high moral standards.

Such men usually severely lacking in sexual self-confidence and find difficulty achieving sexual satisfaction in the usual acceptable ways.

In some cases, the disor­der arises from brain damage, substance abuse and older men with senile or alcoholic dementia. Some have severe epilepsy; or abnormal patterns of electrical activity in the brain as measured on an EEG (electroencephalogram), but without seizures.

Some have abnormal hormone levels, and a few are mentally retarded. The great majority, however, do not suffer from any organic disorder. Most exhibitionists adopt a set pattern of exposure, occurring at a particular type of place and often at a specific time of day or night.

Cine­mas and theatre seats are popular, as are parked cars or secluded areas that provide them with cover before the act of exposure. Exhibitionists will frequently choose a particular site, such as one close to a girls’ school.

Exhibitionism is closely related to the other sexual deviations of voyeurism (peeping) and of making obscene phone calls. The same person may practice all three, and all share the features of anticipatory tension and arousal, and all are accompanied by masturbation. In the case of obscene telephone call­ing, masturbation is often completed after the victim has ended the call.

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