<B><P>“As a sex writer, Jesse Bering is fearless—and peerless.” <B>—</B>Dan Savage<BR><BR></B>“You are a sexual deviant. A pervert, through and through.” We may not want to admit it, but as the award-winning columnist and psychologist Jesse Bering reveals in <I>Perv</I>, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it’s voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we <I>all</I> possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we’ve hidden in our closets.<BR><BR>Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the <I>DSM-5</I>, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace. He explores the countless fetishists of the world, including people who wear a respectable suit during the day and handcuff a willing sexual partner at night. But he also takes us into the lives of “erotic outliers,” such as a woman who falls madly in love with the Eiffel Tower; a pair of <I>deeply </I>affectionate identical twins; those with a particular penchant for statues; and others who are enamored of crevices <I>not </I>found on the human body. <BR><BR>Moving from science to politics, psychology, history, and his own reflections on growing up gay in America, Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the <I>amoral </I>study of sex.<BR><BR>As kinky as it is compassionate, illuminating, and engrossing, <I>Perv </I>is an irresistible and deeply personal book. “I can’t promise you an orgasm at the end of our adventure,” Bering writes, “but I <I>can</I> promise you a better understanding of why you get the ones you do.”