His sister first rang us, and asked to make an appointment. When I asked what problem her brother has, she was a bit unsure whether this is the right place for him. Her brother has some unusual habits, he collects stuff, and not like others who collect toys, stamps, … he collects women’s inner wears.

He is in his 40s, grows up in a family of five siblings being the only son. He is now in his second marriage. His current wife has a 17 years old daughter from her previous marriage. This is where it really tests his self-discipline ability.

He spies others, compulsively. He can’t help it and is very frustrated by his urges  and obsession to do so. It isn’t easy for him to make the decision and have the courage to come to seek help.

More commonly people call them Peeping Tom. Here is the definition of Voyeurism in ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases).

He also suffers when he started to take medicine, and didn’t understand the reason of taking it. The sister questioned how the medicine can help him and wondered he would ever recover. In fact, voyeurism can just be like any other Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD, see my previous post), some people wash hands compulsively, some spends hours reading, some tell lies compulsively, some spy others… So then it can be treated like OCD!

For me all voyeurism is pathological, but I’m just wondering whether it can be voluntary? So, someone can quit being a voyeur by own will maybe?