The medicalisation of rape: A discursive analysis of ‘Paraphilic Coercive Disorder’ and the psychiatrisation of sexuality

Abstract

In 2010 the American Psychiatric Association (APA) proposed revisions for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). These revisions included criteria for ‘Paraphilic Coercive Disorder’ (PCD), which state that the individual ‘…has sought sexual stimulation from forcing sex on three or more non-consenting persons on separate occasions’ (APA, 2010a). This proposed revision represents current attempts of psychiatry to medicalise ‘sadistic’ rape and normalise what the APA calls ‘opportunistic’ rape (APA, 2010b). Rape has always been a feature of the DSM nomenclature in various forms, however, this particular diagnosis has continually been proposed since the 1980s and the DSM-III. Despite vigorous protests from feminists, LGBTQ communities and forensic psychologists from the 1980s onwards, the DSM Work Group continues to push for its inclusion. This calls into question those positioned on the DSM Task Force, the lack of transparency in their selection (e.g. Zucker, 2009) and their own controversial work and ‘treatments’ (e.g. Zucker, 2006). This paper uses discourse analysis (Parker, 1992) to critically interrogate the construction of rape as a mental disorder using online texts. The APA encouraged comments on the proposed revisions on its website, but these were not accessible and the DSM Task Force criticised negative comments made outside of the APA (e.g. Zucker, 2010c; Aboraya, 2010). Therefore, data was collected from online blogs and the DSM-5 website regarding this proposed disorder and then analysed.