What Is Nymphomania? The Evolution Of This Concept In Mental Health
Although historically there has been an attempt to stigmatize the nature of the human being, it is clear that almost all of us like sex. According to studies provided by the Statista portal, in 2020, 2% of Spaniards had sex every day, while almost 40% of the general population had sex 1 to 4 times a week. Only 4% of the inhabitants of this country claim to have not had intimate relationships at any time in their lives.
Sexual relationships are part of our existence in all areas, from anodyne conversation to movies, television, news and almost all entertainment media. At a biological level, reproduction allows us to leave offspring and a genetic imprint on subsequent generations, which according to Darwin, is the ultimate goal of every living being that is governed by natural selection.
For all these reasons, establishing a boundary between desire, instinct, symptom and pathology is an enormously complex task. The term “nymphomania” (or better designated, hypersexuality) is one that has created controversy and debate in the community of psychologists around the world., since it is still not clear whether it falls within the pathological field or not. If you want to know more about the topic, keep reading.
Nymphomania (also described according to sources as hypersexuality or, alternatively, sex addiction) is defined as a compulsive sexual behavior that interferes with the patient’s daily tasks, causing serious stress in the person, their family, friends and social groups. Nymphomania has various names, from sexual dependence to sexual compulsivity, to sex addiction or hypersexuality, among others.
By definition, It is a compulsive behavior that completely dominates the addict’s life in every sense.. This extremely frequent and sudden increase in libido is considered both a symptom and a pathology in itself, but as we will see below, there is no established consensus regarding this issue.
First of all, we want to highlight that we are going to use the term nymphomaniac to designate both men and women, since the concept only towards the female gender does not make any sense. The correct word is hypersexuality, since “nymphomania”, as a word articulated towards womendoes nothing more than perpetuate certain behaviors and beliefs with ideological roots.
Hypersexuality disorder was proposed as a pathology in 2010 by the organization Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Workgroup. Their goal was for this condition to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (MDE or DSM, for its acronym in English). This book, written and edited by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), clearly establishes the cutoff points between what is considered pathological and what is not.
Fortunately or unfortunately, after much debate and research, this disorder was not included in the DSM-5, the current version that was published in May 2013. Sexual addiction as a concept has also been rejected in the past by the APA , since professionals in the field rule that There is not enough evidence to link hypersexual behavior with an addictive disorder.. However, this does not mean that problems with the management and regulation of sexual behavior linked to lack of impulse control cannot be a reason for consultation, although intervention will not be carried out as is done with addictions, but rather adapting to the person’s specific problem.
In any case, the scientific article Sexual addiction: independent entity or comorbid symptom? argues the following: the DSM-V has dismissed hypersexual disorder (HSD), but Patients continue to visit psychiatric clinics due to increases in fantasies, arousal, impulses and sexual thoughts that cause significant physical and psychological discomfort..
The prevalence of hypersexual behaviors is calculated in a range of 1.4 to 19.3% of the general population, although the studies that postulate these figures are very variable, since there is not even an ironclad criterion to diagnose the supposed condition. In any case, it has been calculated that only 1% of inhabitants, at any given time and place, request help for their sexual tendencies.
With these data in hand, it is more than clear that there must be some underlying pattern in the behavior of the typical nymphomaniac patient. The diagnostic criteria for THS proposed by the DSM-5 working group, despite having been rejected, are the following. During a period of at least 6 months, the patient shows fantasies, impulses and behaviors whose severity is quantified based on 4 clinical criteria:
As you can see, we are facing a relatively clear diagnosis. A person must present these traits for at least 6 months and be of legal age to be considered a nymphomaniac, but again, it should be noted that depending on the source, this diagnosis may be completely dismissed. We repeat that the pathological state of this condition has not been accepted and, therefore, there is no standardized treatment for it.
Nymphomania and gender
Making a final stop about gender dynamics was essential in this topic. According to the scientific article Hypersexuality Addiction and Withdrawal: Phenomenology, Neurogenetics and Epigenetics, there is a clear gender bias when it comes to nymphomania, since men are more likely to masturbate, show sexual tendencies, consume visual material of a sexual nature and conceive sex as something more casual and lax. Therefore, we are not surprised to learn that the prevalence of this “disorder” is estimated at 3% in men and 1.2% in women.
On the other hand, it is clear that In the female gender, not only is sex not so present, but it is condemned when sexual desire is manifested in the general culture by women.. You only need to see the rejection generated by certain audiovisual materials created by women in relation to this topic: when a man does it it is expected, but in the female gender, it is an act of obscenity.
Summary
With all these studies and scientific data, we wanted to show that the term “nymphomania” implies little or nothing on a psychological level, much less if it is only applied to women. The correct word in both genders is hypersexuality and, even so, this is not even considered a pathology by the APA today, although various problems and sources of dissatisfaction can be grouped under this term that do require attending therapy.
For all these reasons, we want to emphasize that, Unfortunately, certain terms are used more to cause harm on a social level than to help a sick person. We cannot help but think that calling a woman a nymphomaniac, without argument or cause, is a way of expressing that the female gender should not show its sexuality. Sex is for everyone and for everyone, so shaming a person for enjoying it is violating individual rights.
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