Transcript Female Hypersexuality: A Qualitative Study

Manpreet K Dhuffar
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Professor Mark Griffiths – PhD Supervisor
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Dr. Rory Reid – Associate
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PhD – Female Hypersexuality
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What is Hypersexuality?
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Rationale for using Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
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Study aims, Methods, Results & Conclusion
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The diagnosis of sexual addiction depends on
the function of the behaviour and the
behaviour it entails:
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Proposed DSM-5 criteria for Hypersexual
Disorder
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Hypersexual Disorder is conceptualised as primarily a non-paraphilic sexual desire
disorder with an impulsivity component (Kafka 2010). Proposed diagnostic criteria for
Hypersexual Disorder (American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Development 2010)
include:
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A. Over a period of at least six months, recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, sexual
urges, and sexual behaviour in association with four or more of the following five
criteria:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Excessive time is consumed by sexual fantasies and urges, and by planning for and
engaging in sexual behaviour.
Repetitively engaging in these sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviour in response to
dysphoric mood states (e.g., anxiety, depression, boredom, irritability).
Repetitively engaging in sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviour in response to
stressful life events.
Repetitive but unsuccessful efforts to control or significantly reduce these sexual
fantasies, urges, and behaviour.
Repetitively engaging in sexual behaviour while disregarding the risk for physical or
emotional harm to self or others.
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B. There is clinically significant personal distress or
impairment in social, occupational or other important areas
of functioning associated with the frequency and intensity
of these sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviour.
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C. These sexual fantasies, urges, and behaviour are not due
to direct physiological effects of exogenous substances (e.g.
drugs of abuse or medications) or to Manic Episodes.
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D. The person is at least 18 years of age.
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Specify if: Masturbation, Pornography, Sexual Behaviour
with Consenting Adults, Cybersex, Telephone Sex, Strip
Clubs, Other.
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Feree (2001) – female sex addiction can be
categorised into four groups:
Relationship Addict
Pornography or Cybersex Addict
Stereotypical Sex Addict
Sexual Anorexic
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Research into Female Hypersexuality in the
UK very limited (Hall, 2012).
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Sex addiction in women has largely been
ignored (Feree, 2001).
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Prevalence unknown at this point.
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Focus on theoretical speculations of how a
woman may become sexually addicted.
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Though there is clinical need for sex
addiction, women are less likely than men to
seek help for their problem sexual behaviour
(Weiss, 2012).
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To gain an in-depth understanding of the
experience, perceptions and self accounts of
women who identify as hypersexual or
sexually addicted, using an Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith &
Osborn; Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009).
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Examination of how participants make sense
of their major life experiences (Smith et al,
2009)
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Focuses on ‘exploring experience in its own
terms’ rather than attempting to reduce it to
‘predefined or overly abstract categories’
(Smith et al, 2009, pg. 1).
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Employs a double hermeneutic in which the
researcher is trying to make sense of the
participant trying to make sense of their
experiences (Smith & Osborn, 2003; Smith et al,
2009).
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Committed to understanding how particular
experiential phenomena have been understood
from the perspective of particular people, in a
particular context
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How do the participants describe their
experiences of sexual addiction and recovery?
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In what contexts do their experiences occur?
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How do the participants understand and make
sense of their experiences of sexual addiction?
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How are individual differences reflected in the
participants' accounts of their experiences
with sexual addiction?
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Can you tell me if you think sexual addiction is a mental
disorder?
Prompts: if so, why do you think it is?
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What do you think the causes of sexual addiction are?
Prompts: Emotional? Psychological?
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How many people do you think someone would need to
sleep with in order to be a sex addict?
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For you, is a difference between a sex addict and a cheater?
Prompts: What does a cheater look like?
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Please could you tell me if you could easily identify a sex
addict? If so, how?
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Sila – 29 year old, White-British female, self
employed, recovering sex addict part of the
12 step program. Formally worked as a
stripper which fed her addiction. First sought
help in 2004 but found herself resistant to
therapy.
Early experiences: Mother clinically
depressed, father emotionally cold. Sex
became her route to looking for love.
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Emerging Themes (main):
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Desire
Unique to Sex Addiction
Influences of Media
Social comparison processes
Advancements of Technology
Shame
SLAA as an affiliation
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“I have started off not being attracted at all to
a man at all but as soon as I found out they
sexually desired me that further fuelled my
addiction…”
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the overwhelming desire aspects and I am
literally sometimes crippled
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I think I am a bit of an anomaly as I haven’t experienced the norm
of the onset of sex addiction in comparison to any other woman.
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because there is a physiological difference in me.
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differences with me as a lot of female sex addicts in the program
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Even in the SLAA network, I find myself identifying much (much)
more with the men
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people among the network become disbelieving or shocked by as
my behavioural patterns were quite masculine
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I am very much a sex addict and for me it is the sexual drive
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“I became more aware of it when the term started
popping up in the media, you know celebrities like Russell
Brand and Michael Douglas, those kind of guys and that’s
when that term came around, it was almost like “that
makes sense to me”.
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“Probably a combination of an oversexualised nation, you
only have to look at advertisements on the TV, everything,
everywhere you look has a subliminal message of sex…”
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Problem is, with films and television its shown us that sex
has to be you know fireworks, your heart has to be
pounding a thousand, million times a minute
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“For me definitely, yeah I could. It’s not
something I think “normal” people could
see….”
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“I have always known I have had a high sex
drive than other girls.”
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“I felt like my life was controlled by sex much
more than it seemed my friends were.”
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“…in my worst times, I have cruised Facebook
and the internet for hook-ups.”
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“Cybersex is great because I have this interaction
of this person telling me how much they want
me….”
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“I can have video sex, telephone sex and take
pictures of myself, you know, it is all readily
available and it just makes it so easy to get
addicted…”
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“I think there is so much stigma and so much
shame, unwillingness to accept as a
behavioural problem…”
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“I was very, very shameful of my behaviour
before I entered the program because it was
so secretive and the nature of addiction is
that the more secretive it stays, the more
distressing it is…”
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“A lot of the women in SLA say the same thing, for a man,
masturbation is the end, it’s a release, desire goes and get
on with the rest of their day and for women it just fuels it.”
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“…recently I had a what we call “a slip” in the program”
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“12 step program which for me is where the effect and
change happened…”
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what we call that “trauma into triumph”
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Even in the SLAA network, I find myself identifying much
(much) more with the men
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Preliminary findings of making sense of what
participant makes sense of.
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First study of its kind.
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Contribution to the limited empirical research
in female sex addiction.