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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So is pedophilia, with a 100% success rate I might add.
It's called a bullet in the head.
Thing is, at first glance (in this case, the movie poster for The Lizzie McGuire Movie), you would not know it. And that can certainly be a problem in statutory rape cases, girls are physically maturing so fast.
I'll tell you straight away if Hillary was my daughter, any man that touched her would be 100% frickin' dead.
I think the response to to that would be "Then he just needs to be locked up and kept away from kids." Which is sort of where most people are at anyways I think. People don't oppose pedophilia just because they think it's icky, they oppose it because there's a victim.
It should be considered a crime in need of execution for the perpetrator.
You left out "fabulous"
Ok.. then address which rights of these collective individuals are being violated by private consensual adult sodomy. As a side note, can you go through a single thread without saying "sophistry"?
"so AGAIN where is sodomy listed in the constitution like gun ownership"
See my earlier posts. We can go around on this all day.
"I’m prepared to live by the constitution unlike you and if you live in one the states that has sodomy laws that would make you a felon."
More BS from you. AND... now you pretend to know what sexual practices I engage in? Quit thinking about what I get up to, Clint.
On to what you think the government should busy itself with and has an interest in...
"It does for the sake of society, like consensual pedophilia, bestiality, drug and euthanasia laws."
Disagree, except for pedophilia and euthanasia.. but those arguments are for another time. Try to stick to a single topic.
"Nope, the truth is not an attack on ones character, it’s simply the truth."
Ad hominem means instead of debating the points of the argument, you debate characteristics of your opponent. It may be true or untrue. Once again you show problems understanding definitions and logical fallacies.
"This thread is about paraphilic disorder so homosexuality, bestiality…are all included."
No, this thread as titled is about lifting pedophilia from the list of mental illnesses. It incorrectly states that the psychiatric association is trying to lift the taboo, but anyway.. it isn't about homosexuality.
So again.. If you want to argue about homosexuality, either mail me or keep it on a thread about homosexuality.
Liberal/leftist/secular humanist/moral relativists in action. Nothing is a moral weakness because the only "sin" is to think that there is such a thing as "right and wrong". The only wrong is to tell someone they have a moral weakness, or proclaim some behavior or desire as wrong. They are hypocrites, fools, and want to destroy the world.
Anyone who thinks that paraphilias are not moral weaknesses probably seeks kiddie porn or worse on the Internet.
Homo-activists have had as part of their platform to eliminate or lower the age of consent. In 1972 they officially wanted to eliminate it but since that was too extreme for societal acceptance they decided to lower it gradually. Check out Europe's age of consent laws - I believe the Netherland's is something like 12.
Define "condone" -- and please, don't just give me a dictionary definition. Define it in the context of your above statement. What steps would the APA have to take to actually "condone" pedophilia, in your opinion?
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