Effective Treatment of Exhibitionism

Exhibitionism is an addictive behavioral disorder in which the sufferer experiences an overpowering desire to expose his or her genitals in public environments. The disorder has very complex psychological dynamics, yet can be effectively treated by appropriate psychotherapy. Here, I will quickly outline a simple treatment that I have applied with great success. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has little to no effectiveness concerning this disorder. Yet the treatment of exhibitionism is very simple, once you learn how to do it correctly. Like any other psychological disorder, exhibitionism is misunderstood by the general public, but in particular, even the vast majority of professionals in the sex offender treatment industry and sex therapy industry have a very poor understanding as to how exhibitionism can be treated. One dynamic that makes exhibitionism difficult to treat is that therapists have a tendency to view the behavior through a victim's eyes (normed perception), but this prevents the therapist from coming to a professional understanding of the exhibitionist. The social effect which is actually achieved by such behavior (being offended or shocked in some way), is only very rarely the intent of the true exhibitionist. Violent offenders that have been involved in exhibitionism, I do not consider true exhibitionists, but rather are what I would call tourist exhibitionists, whom seem to be the type that want to shock the victim, rather than seduce a viewee. Operatively, the essential difference between the two groups is whether or not a confusion exists between intent and effect. It is true to an extent that exhibitionism is a courtship disorder, but not entirely so since exhibitionists will often expose themselves to those they would not find attractive romantically. Though the victim of the behavior may perceive the act as degrading, an exhibitionist desires approval from his viewee, usually a female. Thus, the behavior cannot be viewed as intentionally degrading, rather incidental. Exhibitionists have notoriously low self-esteem, and in my clinical experience, this is nearly always a result of years of abuse endured during formative years. An exhibitionist often had a physically abusive father, and an emotionally-indifferent mother that did little to defend the child against the abuse. Other contributing factors are: having a low status or priority in the family unit, sibling abuse, and a family unit that sabotages the child social development in various ways.

A common theme in exhibitionist's development is repeated violation of trust during childhood years if it could go wrong, it did. And this is what led me to my discovery as to how exhibitionism can be treated. Exhibitionism, above all other things, is a trust disorder. I understand that many will find this difficult to understand, but what an exhibitionist actually seeks is a female that will not harm him in some way. A female that will accept him in his vulnerability, and not do something to harm him. This of course, is never the case and the exhibitionist's hopes are dashed after the victim calls the police. This is the key An exhibitionist must be convinced that the general public is untrustworthy, and will gladly do him harm if he reveals himself to them. In my practice, this technique is so effective that I actually have cured my exhibitionist patients with 100% success rate. The biggest mistake a therapist can make in the treatment of exhibtionism is to think that they can cure the desire to expose. Yet such is the dynamic, it is not the desire to expose which is a problem, it is the desire to expose publically. And this behavior can be stopped in its tracks by convincing the exhibitionist that people, in general, cannot be trusted with his welfare, and they probably will have something very bad happen to him, such as being arrested, jailed, and so forth. What an exhibitionist is actually doing, whether they realize it or not, is searching for a trustable female figure. But a violation of this trust, such as calling the police on him, further exacerbates the underlying dynamics of the disorder. The psychology of well, its not about you, its about the victims often applied to exhibitionists by probation officers and many treatment providers in correctional settings plays right into the experiences the exhibitionist had during his childhood, i.e., low status in the family and a mother who thought of herself before the safety of her child, and sets up the sufferer for further problems. True exhibitionists are typically very bright and creative people, often liberal in their thinking and passive. It is a true shame that so many of them cannot find competent treatment. I feel our society has further victimized a group of mentally ill people because our society is ever so eager to lay blame on offenders. But we must all look within ourselves and at the coldness and heartlessness we have ourselves perpetrated against others, and reexamine how we treat these patients.