You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Telephone scatologia, obscene phone calling, an atypical paraphilia as described in DSM III, has received minimal attention in the clinical psychiatric literature (1). The few previous reports describe obscene phone calls from men to women (2, 3, 4). Although the psychodynamic issues and etiologies of this disorder have been suggested, there are no detailed reports of psychodynamic treatment. In this paper, the authors describe the successful psychiatric treatment of a man who made obscene phone calls of a homosexual nature. The account of such a treatment may be helpful in future efforts with similar atypical paraphilics.
Mr. N was a 25-year-old white married businessman who was seen in evaluation and subsequent psychotherapy following his arrest for multiple obscene phone calls. About 6 months prior to evaluation, Mr. N began to feel depressed around several life crises. At work, Mr. N had hopes of a quick rise to prominence which were dashed by a change of employers. Also, Mr. N was in constant phone contact with his father, a fiscally irresponsible man, in order to secure funds which were to be given to a valued maternal aunt whom the father had promised to support after Mr. N's mother's death from breast cancer, about 3 years earlier. Mr. N attempted to confront his father but quickly backed off. “I was scared he'd cut off contact with me and my brothers; I didn't even tell my wife about these stresses-1 guess I wanted to protect her or be paternal.” Mr. N's depression consisted of fatigue, lethargy, difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, decreased appetite with minimal weight loss. He denied any suicidal or homicidal ideation. Past psychiatric history revealed one brief contact, in college, for counseling on “how to deal with my family.” There was no history