Voyeur

In my computer's dictionary, the term "voyeur" is discrebed as follows: "a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.
• a person who enjoys seeing the pain or distress of others."
And it adds: "ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from French, from voir ‘see.’ "
Wikipedia goes in the same line. Quoting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyeurism): "Voyeurism is a practice in which an individual derives sexual pleasure from observing other people. Such people may be engaged in sexual acts, or be nude or in underwear, or dressed in whatever other way the "voyeur" finds appealing. The word derives from French verb voir (to see) with the -eur suffix that translates as -er in English. A literal translation would then be “seer” or "observer", with pejorative connotations. "Also, the word voyeur can define someone who receives enjoyment from witnessing other people's suffering or misfortune".
"Voyeur" is defined in Encarta Dictionary in the same way: "1. somebody who watches for sexual pleasure: somebody who gains pleasure from watching, especially secretly, other people's bodies or the sexual acts in which they participate 2. persistent observer of misery or scandal: a fascinated observer of distressing, sordid, or scandalous events" (http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_
1861732362/voyeur.html)
According to the web's "Psychology Today" (http://www.psychologytoday.
com/conditions/paraphilias.html)
voyeurism is a form of paraphilia, defined as follows: "A paraphilia is a condition in wich a person's sexual arousal and gratification depend on fantasizing about and engaging in sexual behavior that is atypical and extreme." After listing a series "of paraphilias", it characterizes voyeurism as "observing private activities of unaware victims".

This sort of "mental disorder", when we think about TV's "reality shows" and other matters, seems to be very common indeed. Moreover, it needs to be understood within the frame of a certain "stance of observation" developed since the XIX century, as Bella Dicks refer ("Culture on Display", 2003, pp. 22 and 23). Also, it is intimately connected to modern and contemporary art (see for instance Alyce Mahon, "Eroticism and Art", Oxford University Press, 2005).
Undoubtly, the semantics of the term has enlarged very much, in other to characterize the general tendency of our society to see, its obsession with images, with the sense of sight. Practically, we spend an important part of our lives watching, in particular in front of screens like the computor's or the televison set's. All the central role played in our society by the "art"/industry of photography and movies (not to mention museums, shopping ,etc.) could not be understood without a certain sense of voyeurism. So there is here - it seems - a certain contradiction between a medical/moralist/legalistic discourse, and real life.
Our very "intellectual" interest by the body, by the explanations of desire (so central to a consumer society, a society also dominated by the "psy" sciences) are included in this very peculiar obsession with seeing, and especially with looking at "secrets", by exploring (and exploiting) secrecy.
This is just a brief and modest note about an endless field on enquiry.