scopophilia

[ skoh-puh-fil-ee-uh ]

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. the obtaining of sexual pleasure by looking at nude bodies, erotic photographs, etc.

Other Words From

• sco·po·phil·i·ac [skoh-p, uh, -, fil, -ee-ak], scop·to·phil·i·ac [skop-t, uh, -, fil, -ee-ak], noun adjective
• scopo·philic scopto·philic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scopophilia¹

From New Latin, dating back to 1920–25; -scope, -o-, -philia

Example Sentences

Psychoanalytic critics use the term “scopophilia” to refer to a presumably male audience’s erotic viewing enjoyment of the prurient presentation of women’s bodies in film or television, for example.

From Los Angeles Times

Ho’s opinion takes scopophilia to new depths, extending it below the surface of the skin into women’s bodily interiors, which he treats here as yet another category of viewable commodity, more subject to the controlling, pleasure-seeking gaze of medical providers than to the volition of the women themselves.

From Los Angeles Times

Scopophilia objectifies women, turning them into visual surfaces to be looked at, embellished, augmented or reduced, perfected and consumed — in a word, commodified.

From Los Angeles Times

Although Svenson denies any erotic component to his photographs, the frisson of scopophilia unmistakably animates them.

From New York Times

De Palma has spent a lifetime exploring the metaphysics of recording technology and of scopophilia, showing us how observation can deceive as much as it reveals.

From Washington Post