The new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists sexual bondage – which includes BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) – as a mental disorder.
Yet research says that most practitioners of the fetish are better off psychologically than are most of those who do not engage in unusual sex acts.
The unusual sexual fixation, or paraphilia, is a controversial new diagnosis in the DSM-5 and has caused some stir in the fetish community. Even psychiatric professionals are mixed on this issue, with some questioning whether sexual preferences belong in the DSM at all, given that the research is unclear as to whether they are entirely social and not genetically predetermined. The inclusion of transsexualism as a mental disorder, for example, ignited a lot of argument.
BDSM practitioners mentally healthier than others
Nearly all psychiatrists agree that if a fixation or fetish does not negatively affect a person in serious ways, it's probably not a mental illness regardless. By and large, practitioners of BDSM are not negatively impacted by their chosen sexual proclivity and thus do not have a mental illness.
This view is bolstered by recent research, which shows that in a variety of psychological tests for mental health, those who practice bondage are generally more psychologically healthy than their "vanilla" counterparts who have no fetish. The study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, also noted that there is a general failure in the literature to show evidence that pain associated with sex acts is linked to psychological problems.
The study looked at 902 BDSM practitioners and 424 non-BDSM people with normal sex lives. It gave questionnaires on personality using a variety of psychological test methods and found that the BDSM group was generally more psychologically stable than were the controls. Other findings included the fact that the bondage fetishists were generally more extroverted, more open and more conscientious of others.
