Mechanophilia, or when people are physically attracted to cars

A rather surprising paraphilia, mechanophilia does not only concern cars, but also any motorized device, such as aeroplanes, robots or even bicycles. Indeed, some people can be physically and sexually attracted to their gear, and sometimes even act it out.

A very real phenomenon

For most people, the car is a companion (on the road) and a faithful ally. However, in some very rare cases, this can go as far as mechanophilia, that is to say a physical and sexual attraction to his vehicle. Can one be excited at the sight of a mechanical object and have intimate relations with it? Obviously yes. This surprising phenomenon is also present in the cinema. Take, for example, the film Titanium (2001) whose main character is a killer experiencing a attraction to motorized vehicles. Let’s also mention Destricted (2006), a feature film in which it is possible to see a man making love with the engine of a large cylinder.

However, if this is fiction, you should also know that some people act out in real life. The platform Koreus released two videos set in Brazil and Thailand respectively showing men trying to have sex with automobiles. Moreover, how not to quote the Briton Edward Smith who, in 2014, declared having “slept” with more than 700 cars, planes and other helicopters. Nevertheless, the latter claims never to enter these vehicles. He simply hugs them, hugs them and talks to them from time to time.

kiss car mechanophilia
Credits: hjalmeida / iStock

Is it a mental disorder?

When we talk about paraphilia, we are talking about sexual deviance which obviously includes mechanophilia. However, it is not easy to consider this type of fetishism as a mental illness. Moreover, the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), which is a classification system for mental disorders, removed fetishism from the list of paraphilias. According to officials, a paraphilia can be considered a mental disorder only in specific cases, that is to say when it is the cause of a social and/or professional disability or that it causes distress to the person.

In which category is mechanophilia classified? Again, it’s hard to say. You should know that within this paraphilia, the nature of the acts can vary. Note also that there is no no data to assess the extent of the phenomenon.

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