GERONTOPHILIA: CHARACTERISTICS, CAUSES, DO YOU NEED TREATMENT? - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The gerontofilia is a sexual desire unusual that leads people to be attracted to individuals of an age far superior to yours. Like all filias, it is only considered problematic if it creates some kind of harm for the person who suffers it, for others, or if it prevents the person from enjoying traditional sexual relations.

Throughout history, many cultures have welcomed relationships between people of very different ages. However, gerontophilia would take this phenomenon a step further, leading young people to feel attracted to the elderly, both in heterosexual and homosexual relationships.

In general, two types of gerontophilia are distinguished: "alphamegamy", or attraction to extremely old men; and "matronolagnia", or romantic - sexual interest in elderly women. In this article we will see what each of them consists of in greater detail.

characteristics

Gerontofilia belongs to a classification of unusual sexual behaviors known as paraphilias. These involve fantasies, desires and ways of acting that are out of the ordinary by most of society, and that can sometimes become a problem.

In the case of gerontophilia, this can translate into several different behaviors. Here we will see some of the most important.

Sexual fantasies about older people

One of the first symptoms of gerontophilia would be the use by young people of sexual fantasies with the elderly. These could appear during masturbation, or at times when they are not appropriate, in the form of intrusive thoughts.

The most extreme case of this symptom would appear when the person who suffers from gerontophilia was only able to fantasize or masturbate thinking of members of the elderly.

In this case, the individual would be considered to have a psychological disorder, which would require intervention.

Relations with the elderly

One step further would be those young men and women who get to have real sex with people much older than them. In some cases, even from these erotic encounters a romantic or couple relationship could develop.

Again, the key to considering it a symptom of a mental disorder would be the inability to form romantic or sexual bonds with people of the same or similar age.

Excitement with elements reminiscent of age

Another less common symptom of gerontophilia would be sexual arousal caused by vision or contact with elements that remind older people.

Thus, in some people affected by this phylum, canes, wrinkled skin or white hair could become keys that would provoke desire.

This symptom would be the least common of the three described, being much more common for the person to only get excited in the presence of elderly people or thinking about them.

Causes

Relationships between people of very different ages have been common in different cultures over time. Thus, for example, in Ancient Greece, young people were paired with very old adults to learn from them and be more protected.

However, in today's Western culture, these relationships tend to be frowned upon as unusual. Still, it cannot be ruled out that there is a genetic component that leads some people to be attracted to people much older than them.

In the case of a complete sexual disorder, in which some type of suffering related to this preference appears, nowadays there are several explanations about why it could be caused. We will see some of them below.

Need for protection

For some psychological currents, people affected by gerontophilia would associate the figure of the oldest with elements such as protection, security or well-being.

In some extreme cases, this could lead to sexual arousal, leading to paraphilia as such.

Trauma of a sexual nature

According to studies, when a child is sexually abused by an adult, their subconscious may mistakenly associate sex with the presence of a much older person.

In these specific cases, gerontofilia usually brings all kinds of psychological and social problems.

Search for extreme situations

For some people, sex can become an addiction. In these cases, the gerontophile would have come to feel this attraction by needing to experiment with situations that are increasingly remote from the usual in order to feel some kind of pleasure.

Thus, the individual who has developed gerontophilia in this way could no longer be excited with people of the same age, so we would find ourselves facing a case of complete psychological disorder.

Do you need treatment?

Relationships between people of extremely different ages cause surprise and even rejection in most modern societies.

We are used to couples being made up of two individuals of approximately the same age, so gerontophilia can be very shocking.

However, attraction to seniors need not be problematic. Beyond being an unusual practice (with the discrimination problems that this can entail), if it is framed within a healthy sexual life it would not require the intervention of any mental health professional.

Even so, there are times when gerontophilia could be considered a disorder. For example, in the event that the affected person was only able to enjoy sex or relationships with the elderly.

This is because, for the development of a healthy sexual life, it is important to be able to enjoy different types of stimuli and not condition ourselves to just one.

On the other hand, gerontofilia could also pose a problem and require treatment in the event of causing harm to the affected person or others.

An example of this would be if, in their pursuit of pleasure, a gerontophilic sexually harassed someone much older.

References

1. "Do older people turn you on?" in: Salud 180. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Salud 180: salud180.com.
2. "Gerontofilia: sexual attraction for older people" in: Bekia Pareja. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from Bekia Pareja: bekiapareja.com.
3. "Gerontofilia, attraction to older people" in: It's Amazing. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from It's Amazing: eresombroso.com.
4. "Gerontofilia" in: CCM Salud. Retrieved on: June 22, 2018 from CCM Salud: salud.ccm.net.
5. "Gerontofilia" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved: June 22, 2018 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.