Portnoy's Complaint

Portnoy´s Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )]A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: "Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fitishism, autoeroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient´s "morality", however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration." It is believed by Spiegel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.