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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: SauronOfMordor
"The main targets of gay pedophiles are young teens, rather than pre-adolescants."

I think it's important to keep clear that attraction to teens is a typical symptom of same-sex attraction disorder and not a separate disorder.

This is one of the dirty little truths about SSAD that make it look dangerous and unattractive, so activists try to deny it. One way they do that is to refer to any underage victim as a "child" and attribute such offenses to pedophilia and not SSAD.

The sad fact is that where there are SSAD sufferers, teen boys are at risk, and it has nothing to do with pedophilia (which is an attraction to the pre-pubescent).
81 posted on 06/11/2003 7:15:14 AM PDT by dsc
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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.

So if child of 3 forced to eat peas and to go to sleep then can be force raped too? Why should Russia follow West, again?

82 posted on 06/11/2003 7:15:35 AM PDT by RussianConservative (Hristos: the Light of the World)
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To: kattracks
This is shocking - because in paraphilias, there is probably actual brain damage or brain abnormalities contributing to disordered attraction and/or an inability to empathise.

Sexual attraction to pre-pubertal children is a manifestation of an abnormal mind.
83 posted on 06/11/2003 7:16:24 AM PDT by SarahW
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To: SauronOfMordor
"This is why I supervise the activities of my almost-15-year-old daughter"

Why, because of pervs like me? (LOL)

Or you agree that this a normal attraction for males in general? (And btw, I don't disagree with the social unacceptability of relationships between grown men and adolescent girls - even if their bodies are fairly mature, they are not socially or intellectually mature. Maybe in another time it was normal to marry girls off at 14 or 15, but that time is not now, not here).
84 posted on 06/11/2003 7:20:21 AM PDT by -YYZ-
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To: kattracks
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.

This person is truly INSANE. Equating church attendence with pedophilia is an abomination.

85 posted on 06/11/2003 7:21:36 AM PDT by Centurion2000 (We are crushing our enemies, seeing him driven before us and hearing the lamentations of the liberal)
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To: kattracks
This should make our Libertarian friends cheer.
86 posted on 06/11/2003 7:23:15 AM PDT by BOOTSTICK
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To: Torie
Actually she seems to be one of the good guys, pointing out the crap some sickos have written. She should have sourced it, though.
87 posted on 06/11/2003 7:36:59 AM PDT by nina0113 (I didn't steal that line, I liberated it)
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To: SauronOfMordor
Consider the madness that has the US considering that a young person does not have the maturity to drink alcohol responsibly until 21, yet is mature enough to cast a vote for President at 18, and is mature enough to have sex which involves risk of pregnancy or a fatal disease at an even younger age

I agree that this is nuts. And think that half of those kids sent to Iraq couldn't legally drink a beer in celebration when they get home!

My view is that we need to pick a reasonable age when adulthood is declared - I like the idea that it's 17 or 18 (ie. out of high school) and that's when the drinking, marriage, military service, sex, etc. can begin. I don't like the inconsistencies of the laws right now.

LQ

88 posted on 06/11/2003 7:41:56 AM PDT by LizardQueen
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To: BOOTSTICK
This should make our Libertarian friends cheer.

Are you another of the anti-libertarian trolls who labels them all as pedophiles, or what?

LQ

89 posted on 06/11/2003 7:42:45 AM PDT by LizardQueen
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To: LizardQueen
Try reading the Libertarian party platform adopted april, 2000, then read the chapter "Children and families", then read where it says ;" Children are also individuals, with individual rights, some children may seek to be emancipated from their parents, and those who do, should be allowed to do so, as long as they accept the responsabilities of adulthood.Errrr case closed!
90 posted on 06/11/2003 7:57:13 AM PDT by BOOTSTICK
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To: dsc
"Who would want to give all that up just to be a poor schmuck who suffers from same-sex attraction disorder because he was molested."

Here be truth.
91 posted on 06/11/2003 8:03:46 AM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: LizardQueen
I've been thinking much the same lately regarding age of majority.
92 posted on 06/11/2003 8:26:50 AM PDT by been called a cynic
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To: Aquinasfan
I was molested as a child by a stranger in our home. Any tips for protecting my two girls? I never leave them alone with any male.

I'll answer your last question, first.. Being careful about leaving the girls, or a boy, alone with a woman, has been good info in the past, however, today that isn't any less threatening, but it's a fair start. However my niece is still undergoing withdrawals from learning that a gym teacher has been abusing her daughters' friends for 2 years.
Regarding your concern about what to do to protect your kids and keep them safe.. I treat the gay problem much the same way I teach them the most basic and obvious everyday threats. I teach the kids not to touch a hot stove, look both ways before crossing the street, don't eat anything given to you from strangers, and never ever trust a queer!!
BTW, I tell them to stay away from anyone that gives them a queezy, creepy, or just plain bad feeling..so that covers most liberals as well.. :-)

93 posted on 06/11/2003 8:42:01 AM PDT by carlo3b (http://www.CookingWithCarlo.com)
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If I imagine a Saudi iman reading an article like this
I begin to understand their loathing of our culture.
94 posted on 06/11/2003 8:48:23 AM PDT by DeepDish
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To: kattracks
Well, I see the lunatic left is making their move to condone pedophilia...
95 posted on 06/11/2003 9:01:44 AM PDT by Teetop (Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.)
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To: Teetop
"Well, I see the lunatic left is making their move to condone pedophilia..."

Removing it as a mental illness is NOT condoning it, any more than saying murderers are not necessarily mentally ill. If you have a victim, it's still a crime.

96 posted on 06/11/2003 9:04:48 AM PDT by Qwerty
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To: Polycarp
"How much longer, Oh Lord?!?"

You've got a bit of a flair for the dramatic.

Have a donut or something while you wait.

97 posted on 06/11/2003 9:07:23 AM PDT by Qwerty
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To: Smile-n-Win
Wow, you said it before I could.

The lunatics are running the asylum...

98 posted on 06/11/2003 9:08:13 AM PDT by Im Your Huckleberry
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To: mongrel
Yes, many psychologists and psychiatrists are suffering from mental disorders themselves.
Usually Bipolar(manic depressive) or Schizophrenia.

Brings us to the corallory: It takes a nut to know a nut.
As well as: It takes a monster to know a monster.
And so on and such.
99 posted on 06/11/2003 9:16:26 AM PDT by Darksheare (Nox aeternus en pax.)
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To: mongrel
Exactly. Inmates are now running asylum, for 40 years or so now. Old medical textbooks are the best, if you can find them, and haven't been purged from the libraries in your area.
100 posted on 06/11/2003 9:22:21 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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