Ep 85 The Voyeur: Inside Netflix's Voyeur Documentary and the Psychology of Watching

Show Notes This week we're unpacking Voyeur, the 2017 Netflix documentary in which journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades — a bombshell story that becomes a scandal of its own. We use the film as our jumping-off point for a deeper dive into voyeuristic disorder: what separates ordinary curiosity from a diagnosable condition. As the Merck Manual lays out, voyeurism means becoming sexually aroused by watching an unsuspecting person who is disrobing, naked, or engaged in sexual activity, while voyeuristic disorder involves acting on those urges or fantasies, or being distressed or impaired by them — and critically, most people with voyeuristic tendencies never meet criteria for the disorder itself. We also touch on how the law has caught up (or hasn't) with covert filming, and take a quick detour into two related paraphilias, exhibitionism and frotteurism. Sources below. netflix + 2 Sources & further reading: Voyeur (2017) – Netflix Voyeurism – Wikipedia Making video voyeurism a crime – CBS News PsycNET research record Forensic psychiatric perspective – JAAPL (PDF) Voyeuristic Disorder – Merck Manual Exhibitionism – Wikipedia Frotteurism – Wikipedia Episodes every Monday ⭐️ Subscribe, Rate and Review! 🍸 Recipes drop on socials Discounts: 15% off Comfrt apparel Purple Carrot: 40% off your first box ClassPass: 2 weeks free 15% off non-alcoholic spirits at The Zero Proof 💳 Support us on Patreon | ☕️ Buy Me a Coffee Contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.