ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic theories have struggled with understanding the dynamics of sexual perversion. The nature of arousal in perversions may be understood by Bion’s idea of a “reversal in function” found in his concept of hallucinosis. This idea gives flexibility to the analytic theory of sexual arousal closing the gap between theory and observation. The reversal of function results in the distorted perceptions of the observing self: rather than taking in sensation, projective identification on a part object (protomental) level does violence to the true perception of objects in reality. It is in this mental realm that early traumatic situations are retained as unformulated experience and impart significance to experience/perceptions that exerts disturbances and distortions in psychic life.
