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Psychiatric Association Debates Lifting Pedophilia Taboo
CNSNews.com ^ | 6/11/03 | Lawrence Morahan

Posted on 06/11/2003 2:18:54 AM PDT by kattracks

(CNSNews.com) - In a step critics charge could result in decriminalizing sexual contact between adults and children, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently sponsored a symposium in which participants discussed the removal of pedophilia from an upcoming edition of the psychiatric manual of mental disorders.

Psychiatrists attending an annual APA convention May 19 in San Francisco proposed removing several long-recognized categories of mental illness - including pedophilia, exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism and sadomasochism - from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Most of the mental illnesses being considered for removal are known as "paraphilias."

Psychiatrist Charles Moser of San Francisco's Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and co-author Peggy Kleinplatz of the University of Ottawa presented conferees with a paper entitled "DSM-IV-TR and the Paraphilias: An Argument for Removal."

People whose sexual interests are atypical, culturally forbidden or religiously proscribed should not necessarily be labeled mentally ill, they argued.

Different societies stigmatize different sexual behaviors, and since the existing research could not distinguish people with paraphilias from so-called "normophilics," there is no reason to diagnose paraphilics as either a distinct group or psychologically unhealthy, Moser and Kleinplatz stated.

Participants also debated gender-identity disorder, a condition in which a person feels discomfort with his or her biological sex. Homosexual activists have long argued that gender identity disorder should not be assumed to be abnormal.

"The situation of the paraphilias at present parallels that of homosexuality in the early 1970s. Without the support or political astuteness of those who fought for the removal of homosexuality, the paraphilias continue to be listed in the DSM," Moser and Kleinplatz wrote.

A. Dean Byrd, vice president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Utah, condemned the debate. Taking the paraphilias out of the DSM without research would have negative consequences, he said.

"What this does, in essence, is it has a chilling effect on research," Byrd said. "That is, once you declassify it, there's no reason to continue studying it. What we know is that the paraphilias really impair interpersonal sexual behavior...and to suggest that it could be 'normalized' simply takes away from the science, but more importantly, has a chilling effect on research."

"Normalizing" pedophilia would have enormous implications, especially since civil laws closely follow the scientific community on social-moral matters, said Linda Ames Nicolosi, NARTH publications director.

"If pedophilia is deemed normal by psychiatrists, then how can it remain illegal?" Nicolosi asked. "It will be a tough fight to prove in the courts that it should still be against the law."

In previous articles, psychiatrists have argued that there is little or no proof that sex with adults is necessarily harmful to minors. Indeed, they have argued that many sexually molested children later look back on their experience as positive, Nicolosi said.

"And other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals, that if children can be forced to go to church, why should 'consent' be the defining moral issue when it comes to sex?" she said.

But whether pedophilia should be judged "normal and healthy" is as much a moral question as a scientific one, according to Nicolosi.

"The courts are so afraid of 'legislating someone's privately held religious beliefs' that if pedophilia is normalized, we will be hard put to defend the retention of laws against child molestation," Nicolosi noted.

In a fact sheet on pedophilia, the APA calls the behavior "criminal and immoral."

"An adult who engages in sexual activity with a child is performing a criminal and immoral act that never can be considered normal or socially acceptable behavior," the APA said.

However, the APA failed to address whether it considers a person with a pedophile orientation to have a mental disorder.

"That is the question that is being actively debated at this time within the APA, and that is the question they have not answered when they respond that such relationships are 'immoral and illegal,'" Nicolosi said.

Dr. Darrel A. Regier, director of research for the APA, said there were "no plans and there is no process set up that would lead to the removal of the paraphilias from their consideration as legitimate mental disorders."

Some years ago, the APA considered the question of whether a person who had such attractions but did not act on them should still be labeled with a disorder.

"We clarified in the DSM-IV-TR...that if a person acted on those urges, we considered it a disorder," Regier said.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of a study on change of sexual orientation that he presented at the 2001 APA convention, took part in the symposium in San Francisco in May.

Spitzer said the debate on removing gender identity disorder from the DSM was generated by people in the homosexual activist community "who are troubled by gender identity disorder in particular."

Spitzer added: "I happen to think that's a big mistake."

What Spitzer considered the most outrageous proposal, to get rid of the paraphilias, "doesn't have the same support that the gender-identity rethinking does." And he said he considers it unlikely that changes would be made regarding the paraphilias.

"Getting rid of the paraphilias, which would mean getting rid of pedophilia, that would not happen in a million years. I think there might be some compromise about gender-identity disorder," he said.

Dr. Frederick Berlin, founder of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, said people who are sexually attracted to children should learn not to feel ashamed of their condition.

"I have no problem accepting the fact that someone, through no fault of his own, is attracted to children. But certainly, such an individual has a responsibility...not to act on it," Berlin said.

"Many of these people need help in not acting on these very intense desires in the same way that a drug addict or alcoholic may need help. Again, we don't for the most part blame someone these days for their alcoholism; we don't see it simply as a moral weakness," he added.

"We do believe that these people have a disease or a disorder, but we also recognize that in having it that it impairs their function, that it causes them suffering that they need to turn for help," Berlin said.

E-mail a news tip to Lawrence Morahan.

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TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apa; catholiclist; dsmivtr; frederickberlin; genderiddisorder; homosexual; homosexualagenda; johnshopkins; longmarch; narth; nicolosi; paraphilias; pederasty; pedophilia; psychology; robertspitzer; sexualdisorders
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To: MEG33; goldstategop
Not going to happen...no way,no how~!!

It is coming, just like they say it is. The APA will remove it as a disorder, and then it will cease to be a criminal act. Perhaps not in our lifetime, but in our children's lifetime.

The fearful thing about this whole thing is that, once the common man has lost all reason to have faith in the establishment, such as trusting that laws are just, what will prevent him from resorting to "homemade" solutions to his problems? If he cannot look to the laws of our states to save his children from predators, he must resort to his own forms of justice to keep them safe.

41 posted on 06/11/2003 4:39:51 AM PDT by Under the Radar
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To: Kevin Curry
Libertarians are DIRECTLY complicit in the moral destruction of this nation. They are, to paraphrase Edmund Burke, good men who see evil and do nothing.

Which is it? Are there too few to matter or are they driving the nation to moral decay with their evil philosophy of "live and let live?"

42 posted on 06/11/2003 4:41:32 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your enemy, and Bush is no conservative)
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To: Kevin Curry
I don't care what gets them locked up, personally, as long as its for as long as possible. I wasn't advocating removal of it from the psych book, by the way - just speculating on possible benefit.

If there's one thing that really galls me it's the constant use of the insanity defense for everything from jaywalking to murder. Sometimes people are just BAD, not "ill".

But if a mental tag is what's needed to keep them locked up longer than so be it.

LQ
43 posted on 06/11/2003 4:42:01 AM PDT by LizardQueen
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To: Under the Radar
I know sex with a child is not going to be legal in my lifetime.
44 posted on 06/11/2003 4:43:09 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: Kevin Curry
Mental illness has NEVER been a defense to a charge of child molestation. On the contrary, the peculiar nature of the mental sickness of pedophilia (e.g, as evidenced by the extremely high recidivism rate) has always been used to ENHANCE punishment because long confinement has been considered the only practical way to keep the sickos away from children.

I wish what you were saying is true, but unfortunately, it is not, at least from my experience as an attorney for a not-for-profit agency that contracts with the local court system and probation department to provide post-conviction mental health evaluation and therapy to pedophiles and other sexual deviants. From my first hand observations, the insanity defense is sometimes used, but rarely successful. Nevertheless, the use of the defense wastes prosecutorial resourses and the threat of the defense becomes a factor when plea bargaining some cases. In addition, despite the extremely high recidivism rate, "first-time offenders" (meaning no prior convictions) are often sentenced to probabtion or short jail sentences upon the condition that they stay away from children and attend group and individual mental health therapy provided by agencies such as the one that I represent.

45 posted on 06/11/2003 4:46:23 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
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To: Under the Radar
It is coming, just like they say it is. The APA will remove it as a disorder, and then it will cease to be a criminal act. Perhaps not in our lifetime, but in our children's lifetime.

I really have trouble seeing this happening. Beyond the whole "disorder" issue, one of the big reasons that it's a crime is because children are considered to be incapable of informed consent.

To legalize this vile behavior they'd have to pretty much revoke the entire concept of childhood and the concept that kids under a certain age do not have the necessary judgement and experience to make major life decisions. Kids declared able to give "informed consent" to sexual behavior with adults would also have to be allowed to vote, marry, serve in the military, etc.

There will always be a small subset of nutjob shrinks that try to argue this, but hopefully common sense will prevail.

LQ

46 posted on 06/11/2003 4:49:05 AM PDT by LizardQueen
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To: SevenDaysInMay
Chickenhawks need love too. Then killing.

You're just being intolerant. Diversity is our strength.

< /Mega mega sarcasm>

47 posted on 06/11/2003 4:49:21 AM PDT by Freebird Forever
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To: kattracks
"And other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals, that if children can be forced to go to church, why should 'consent' be the defining moral issue when it comes to sex?" she said.

OMG.

"And other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals, that if children can be forced to go to school, why should 'consent' be the defining moral issue when it comes to sex?" she said.

"And other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals, that if children can be forced to take a bath, why should 'consent' be the defining moral issue when it comes to sex?" she said.

"And other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals, that if children can be forced to clean their rooms, why should 'consent' be the defining moral issue when it comes to sex?" she said.

Those "other psychiatrists" need to be taken out back and whipped until they lose the moral relativism. And the religious bigotry, while we're at it.

48 posted on 06/11/2003 5:06:24 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: Smile-n-Win
They laughed at scoffed at the idea when people claimed that normalizing taboos such as homosexuality and 3-way sex would lead to people claiming that pedophilia was just a lifestyle choice.

49 posted on 06/11/2003 5:09:19 AM PDT by Lunatic Fringe (Tip the Pizza guy!)
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To: kattracks
a condition in which a person feels discomfort with his or her biological sex... Homosexual activists have long argued that gender identity disorder should not be assumed to be abnormal.

Huh... Well when I feel discomfort about something, when I am physically troubled by something, like that Stoli and cheap bean burritos I had last night, I think you could pretty safely classify that as a disorder. Of the intestines in my case. Disorder, nonetheless.

psychiatrists have argued that there is little or no proof that sex with adults is necessarily harmful to minors. Indeed, they have argued that many sexually molested children later look back on their experience as positive

WTF? Those are some "learned journal articles" that I would like to see.

other psychiatrists have written, again in scientific journals

Ooooooo... I'm all IMPRESSED.

Any yahoo can write up anything s/he wants in a "scientific" journal. And: some journals are more scientific than others.

50 posted on 06/11/2003 5:18:25 AM PDT by maxwell (Well I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation...)
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To: kattracks
The slippery slope at work.
51 posted on 06/11/2003 5:21:29 AM PDT by Kuksool
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To: Torie
People whose sexual interests are atypical, culturally forbidden or religiously proscribed should not necessarily be labeled mentally ill, they argued.

This is why I fight the tide and always will.

52 posted on 06/11/2003 5:21:52 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Kuksool
Exactly!
53 posted on 06/11/2003 5:22:33 AM PDT by kattracks
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To: maxwell
Two things that need to be highlighted:

1. Many psychiatrists and psychologists enter their profession because they're screwed up themselves and wanting to figure things out. That's why deviancy is continually defined down.

2. This article is incredibly clever. It focuses on the pedophilia to get people enraged, but the real story is the gender identity issue. This is thesis, antithesis, synthesis in bold print. Thesis: Legitimize pedophilia. Antithesis: That's too extreme. Synthesis: Okay than we'll just legitimize a little thing like gender identity confusion. The activists are forcing the normal psychiatrists to spend their energy on the pedophilia issue, after which they'll be too tired and have spent too much capital to fight the gender identity issue. All this in cuckoo-land (San Francisco) where this stuff is normalized and the activists will be out in force.
54 posted on 06/11/2003 5:31:07 AM PDT by mongrel (white judges do get off)
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To: Kevin Curry
I'm not sure I need to be lectured by someone who admitted to growing weed in his garden.
55 posted on 06/11/2003 5:33:14 AM PDT by Lazamataz (POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE D)
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To: MEG33
I know sex with a child is not going to be legal in my lifetime.

I agree, cuz the first mo-fo I hear about doing it with a kid legally will get killed by me.

56 posted on 06/11/2003 5:34:10 AM PDT by Lazamataz (POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE D)
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To: hellinahandcart
Those "other psychiatrists" need to be taken out back and whipped

Preferably without their consent.

57 posted on 06/11/2003 5:35:24 AM PDT by Lazamataz (POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE TAGLINE D)
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To: mict42
Psychiatry is not a science, it's an agenda

Well said.

58 posted on 06/11/2003 5:36:17 AM PDT by FourPeas
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To: Lazamataz
You make my point!
59 posted on 06/11/2003 5:39:26 AM PDT by MEG33
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To: kattracks
Nothing is abnormal except normal behavior.

All religions are good and must be promoted - unless they claim that man is inherently evil. Then it's open season.

If it feels good, do it.



60 posted on 06/11/2003 5:46:31 AM PDT by petuniasevan (Sodom and Gomorrah? Pikers. Amateurs.)
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