|
變異的性行為
|
|
歷史背景：從罪過到疾病
|
|
 |
|
君士坦丁一世
（Constantine
I）
在臨終受洗禮時，就是第一位（支持）基督教的古羅馬皇帝，在他的帝國東部，當他移都到拜占庭時，創建了“新羅馬”，被他改稱為君士坦丁堡（君士坦丁市）。在他的繼任者的支持下，基督教成為這個東羅馬帝國的國教，並把東羅馬帝國的性觀念強行推行到了東歐和西歐。 |
|
Constantine I,
baptized on his deathbed, was the first Christian Roman emperor. In the Eastern part of his empire, he created a “new Rome” when he moved the capital to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople (city of Constantine). Under his successors, Christianity became the empire’s state religion and imposed its view of human sexuality on both Eastern and Western Europe. |
|
|
西元4世紀，君士坦丁一世（“大帝”）成為第一位（支持）基督教的羅馬皇帝，在他的繼任者支持下，基督教成為羅馬帝國的國家宗教。其結果是，歐洲逐漸接納了基督教關於人類的性的觀念。基於較悠久的猶太教的傳統，並在一些古代禁欲修行的哲學家們的影響下，這種觀念甚至盛行到古羅馬帝國的末期之後，然後主導了西方世界的性觀念，而且其衍生出的文化傳統深刻地流傳至當今時代。按照基督教的教義，性活動只有為了生殖的目的才是正當的。那些對這一目的不起作用的所有形式的性交都是有罪的。甚至，一些性交行為，像口交和肛交、與動物的性接觸或男性之間的性交等等，都是如此令人憎惡，以至於數個世紀以來，它們都得要受到犯罪的嚴厲指控和懲罰。直到200年之前，一些歐洲國家開始從它們的刑法法典裏消除這種宗教影響，並終止懲罰性的“可憎惡的事物”。如果對他人沒有具體的傷害發生，法律對這種行為則不予理睬。
但是，在法律撤銷對這些行為指控的地方，醫學不久卻插手干預了。嶄露頭角的精神病治療專業把對這種行為的陳舊的罪過說轉變成現在所稱的精神病，因而，這種“可憎惡的事物”作為“性病態（sexual
psychopathology）”而死灰復燃。精神病學家甚至使用陳舊的神學術語“倒錯（perversion）”、“失常（aberration）”和“偏離（deviation）”來描述這些疾病的特徵。在中世紀，這些術語就已經是指異教，即“錯誤的”宗教信仰，現在它們意指“錯誤的”性行為，因而，從前的異教徒和罪犯就變成了醫學上的病人。病人就不必受到懲罰，但必須接受治療。只有到了20世紀晚期，醫學專業人員最終才步法理學家的後塵，終於把這些神學遺痕從精神病診斷手冊中抹去了（參見：“性學研究大事年表”1973年）。現在，再度“開明的”醫生們發覺，他們對宗教觀念和術語不加批判的採納，已經成為道德說教，而且是科學啟蒙之前的見識。因此，他們就設法去找到判斷性行為的客觀標準。他們不再願意談及什麼“倒錯”等等的術語，並尋求一種更新的、純粹出於描述性的和道德中立的術語體系。 |
|
Variations in Sexual Behavior |
|
Historical Background: From Sin to Sickness |
In the 4th century A.D.,
Constantine I
(“the Great”) became the first Christian Roman emperor, and under his successors Christianity became the empire’s state religion. As a result, Europe gradually adopted a Christian view of human sexuality. Based on an older Jewish tradition and influenced by certain ascetic ancient philosophies, this view prevailed even after the fall of the Roman Empire and then dominated the Western world and its colonies well into the modern age.
According to the Christian doctrine, sexual activity was justified only for the purpose of procreation. All forms of sexual intercourse that could not serve this purpose were sinful. Indeed, some of them, like oral and anal intercourse, or sexual contact with animals or between males, were so abominable that, for many centuries, they were severely punished as crimes. It was not until about 200 years ago that some European countries began to remove religious influences from their penal codes and ceased to punish sexual “abominations”: If no concrete harm had been done to another person, the law simply ignored the behavior.
However, where the law retreated, medicine soon stepped in. The emerging specialty of
psychiatry turned the old sins into new mental illnesses, and thus the “abominations” were reborn as “sexual psychopathologies”. The psychiatrists even used the old theological terms
"perversion", "aberration",
and "deviation" to characterize these illnesses. In the Middle Ages, the terms had referred to heresies, i.e. “false” religious beliefs, now they meant “false” sexual behaviors, and thus the former heretics and criminals turned into medical patients. These did not need punishment, but therapy. It was only in the late 20th century that the medical profession finally followed the example of the jurists and removed the theological vestiges from their diagnostic handbooks.
(see:"
Chronology of Sex Research", in 1973) The newly “enlightened” doctors now discovered that their uncritical adoption of religious ideas and terms had been moralistic and prescientific. Therefore, they tried to find objective criteria for judging sexual behavior. They also no longer wanted to speak of “perversions” etc. and looked for new, purely descriptive, morally neutral terms Chronology
of Sex Research. |
