Meaning
What does Dacryphilia mean?
Dacryphilia, also known as Dacrylagnia, is when one is sexually aroused by seeing tears or hearing the sounds of crying or sobbing.
Some people that have this fetish or sexual kink are turned on by seeing someone else cry; others are turned on by their own crying and some are aroused by the emotional release that crying brings.
It is outside of the typical sexual behavior, which means that there isn’t enough research on the topic because many people don’t like to discuss and open up about their sexual behaviors that society doesn’t consider “normal”.
Also, this kink can also be sadistic or voyeuristic, because some people are turned on by controlling their partner during sex; they enjoy making their the other person cry, whether it’s through physical or emotional discomfort.
Meanwhile, the people who have voyeuristic “Dacryphilia” are turned on by other people crying and being emotional. This can also be described as passive “Dacryphilia”.
Origin
What's the origin of Dacryphilia?
Like most paraphilia, “Dacryphilia” was named, using terms from the Greek language, where “dacry-” means tears and philia meaning “love”.
Consequently, it shouldn’t be pronounced “Da Cry Philia”, although this version would serve as a perfect example of a folk etymology.
The data covering “Dacryphilia” is exceptionally restricted, yet more examination is rising as specialists and sexual health workers are starting to comprehend these sexual orientations.
One of the earliest publication, mentioning the paraphilia appears in the 2002 book of Ronald M. Holmes, and Stephen T. Holmes, titled Sex Crimes : Patterns and Behavior.
“Dacryphilia” was first defined on Urban Dictionary in 2004.
Other research papers and publications about the paraphilia started surfacing following 2009 and especially in the mid-2010s.
Spread & Usage
How did Dacryphilia spread?
There are just a couple resources where people can educate themselves about the topic. However, there are still some welcoming sites that help people out and inform them about “Dacryphilia”.
It tends to be useful to begin with associations and forums like Crying Lovers, FetLife and CollarChat.
Also, there are many references on “Dacryphilia”, including the Psychology Today website, where a whole article was dedicated for the topic.
The article titled Can Crying Be Sexually Arousing? A brief look at dacryphilia was written by Mark D. Griffiths and was posted on 14th of January 2016.
This uncommon paraphilia is also a popular topic on the website Wattpad, where people often approach the topic through an artistic approach, writing stories about it.
