[Process of perversion. Methodological and clinical study]

Studies in classical psychiatry and psychoanalysis have reduced perversions to pathological phenomena, by lessening the moral criterion progressively. The applying of a comprehensive method of study of acquired perversions incites to consider various levels of observation. Henceforth properties common to each of these levels appears permitting thus to isolate a general process of perversion. This process, which keeps undeniable links with mental pathology, must however be differentiated, for it is not necessarily to be assimilated or reduced to the latter. Besides, it entails notable consequences on the social and cultural level.