By the way, there's no mention of "sadism" in the DSM-IV. There are, however categoric designations for various types of abuse, physical, sexual and emotional of adults and children.
The DSM-IV is hardly the last word in definition of mental disorders. It's value these days is mostly as a way of providing documentation for health-insurance purposes. Often therapists will consult with their clients as to how they want to be described, so that the insurance money will flow.
Mike Ferro
on 9/20/04 8:24 AM, ravi at gadfly at exitleft.org wrote:
> Brian Charles Dauth wrote:
>> Chris Doss writes:
>>
>>> Being a sadist means being turned on by causing pain, i.e., sick in the
>> head.
>>
>> Have they re-written the DSM-IV or is it just that you have your own
>> personal edition calibrated to match your hatred, ignorance, and peculiar
>> notions of reality?
>>
>
>
> brian,
>
> i do not know what the DSM-IV is, but since you quoted dictionary
> definitions in response to joanna, here's the definition of sadism from
> dictionary.com: