Scopophilia

Scopophilia or scoptophilia (from Greek σκοπέω skopeō, "look to, examine" and φιλία philia, "tendency toward"), is deriving pleasure from looking. As an expression of sexuality, it refers to sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects: erotic photographs, pornography, naked bodies, etc.

Psychoanalysis

The term was introduced to translate Freud's Schaulust, or pleasure in looking. Freud considered pleasure in looking to be a regular partial instinct in childhood, which might be sublimated into interest in art, or alternatively become fixated into what the Rat Man called "a burning and tormenting curiosity to see the female body".

Freud thought that inhibition of scopophilia might lead to actual disturbances of vision; other analysts have suggested that it might lead to a retreat from concrete objects into a world of abstractions.

Scopophilia was developed in the psychoanalytic theorizing of Otto Fenichel, with special reference to identification. Fenichel maintained that "a child who is looking for libidinous purposes...wants to look at an object in order to 'feel along with him'". He also explored how looking could substitute for acting in those anxious to avoid guilt.