Is a submissive personality a pathological disorder?
Angelique wrote in a recent post about a diagnostic test that her submissive husband received after answering a battery of questions:
seeing submission as a personality disorder is something wrong with the diagnostic tool, the mental health system, and society in general
I’m-Hers commented:
we are all damaged goods. We all have faults, querks, insecurities and who knows what else
On the other hand, subservient-husband commented:
The BDSM community has recently turned a corner in acceptance of the lifestyle. There are many PhDs who gladly testify in courtrooms as to the D/s relationship dynamic being a healthy expression of interpersonal sexuality
(I think he meant “The psychiatric community…”)
As I’m not familiar with the test or do not know what the questions were, I can’t take a position. Many tests of the pop-psychology variety are based on a statistical norm of a class of participants. Test results that are significantly outside of the “normal” might indicate a need for therapy but are generally not conclusive by themselves.
But to the larger question that I think the author is making. Would a lifestyle submissive (such as what her husband appears to be) have a personality disorder? Are BDSM relationships a kind of psychological disorder?
For now, I’ll leave the question open for comment.
dave94015 