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Friday 15 July 2011

Sex, Lies and Society Part IV

 
“Normophilics” Freud and FMS

A Kinseyian form of pseudo-scientific justification for abuse is still with us in the form of the American Psychiatric Association and the Psychoanalysis tradition. In 2003, The American Psychiatric Association Symposium Debated: Whether “Paedophilia, Gender-Identity Disorder and Sexual Sadism should Remain Mental Illnesses.”

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 a paper entitled, “DSM-IV-TR and the Paraphilias: An Argument for Removal.” They argued that people whose sexual interests are atypical, culturally forbidden, or religiously prescribed should not, for those reasons, be labelled mentally ill. These included exhibitionism, fetishism, transvestism, voyeurism, and sadomasochism which are to be viewed as simply another form of sexual expression. They were also calling for paedophilia to be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Further, that all of us “normophilics” should allow paraphilias the freedom to be who they are and to remove the label of a mental illness forthwith.

Another speaker at the same conference went on to say that “Any sexual interest can be healthy and life-enhancing…” and “…that society should not discriminate against adults who are attracted to children…” noting that “many beloved authors and public figures throughout history have been high-functioning individuals who could actually be classified as paedophiles.”1

Firstly, a sexual interest can indeed be “Healthy and life enhancing,” depending on which lens we have decided to view reality. By this reasoning, sexual interest can also be pathological and depraved. Ethics and values appear to be shifting in favour of a voting consensus that removes mental disorders without any safety net concerning rehabilitation and treatment.

From what basis are these disorders or genetic predispositions decreed normal? What appears to be happening here is a spin that suggests that if it is ill or sick it is wrong. But if it can all be seen as just another deviancy and thus normalised we can all go home and stop being so retrogressive. If it is not an illness but one symptom among many of chronic narcissism or psychopathy, then we have clear and present implications for the safety of children. Is the legitimization of psychopathology via the sex establishment  joining forces with the politicization of values that is in turn, reshaping our conscience?

Paedophilia has qualities that align itself towards elements of psychopathology. It is fitting that there are a growing number of “scientists” of the behaviourist and psychoanalysis schools that advocate a redefinition of paedophilia rather than a serious appraisal of resources towards treatment and prevention of child abuse. This includes learning every possible method of pulling the wool over the eyes of the authorities be it psychiatrist, policeman or lawyer. This is what makes the whole question of balance an increasingly difficult equation to solve. For to do so, it means that we must see the distortion and deformation of sexuality and those that personify such a malaise through entirely new eyes and as a web of relations intimately connected with power.

Paedophilia may well be a symptom of biological, environmental, and traumatic abuse. It may also be a choice. What is conspicuous by its absence in the above appeals for paedophile rights are the rights of children for whom we must, by virtue of our roles as guardians and protectors, take a positive discrimination in these matters regarding their welfare and safety.

People with “sexually unusual” interests, said Charles Moser of San Francisco’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality and co-author Peggy Kleinplatz of the University of Ottawa, “may in fact be quite happy and well-adjusted.” Sure, but what of their effects on others? I am quite certain that many deeply disturbed persons are quite” happy” with the negative effects they produce on others yet a line must be drawn to protect society from those same subjective illusions that all too often are acted out. It is these kinds of remarks that feed into the progressive “normalization” of society where contradictions and confusion abound. Take these fictional lives to illustrate this point:

Bill has been sleeping with his fifteen year old daughter since she was four years old. It is their secret. Once this desire is released he is able to function normally and leave a “happy and well-adjusted” life. He knows it is wrong but it is an intimacy that has now become part of the life. It is not incest. It is a form of love that he shows his daughter, and that his father showed his sister.  His wife suspects but won’t tell. She loves him too much and won’t risk the fallout.

Dorothy finds that she can only achieve sexual satisfaction if her husband beats her. She knew she was drawn to him because of it. Harold was drawn to Dorothy because she knew that she was the submissive type and that he could exert his need for power over her and that he could only ever achieve climax when he caused pain. But he had always been like that even when he tortured animals as a kid. But nobody knew. And Dorothy always came back to him. It’s all she understood. Just like her mother when she used to beat her and pass her around to the locals for a bob or two. No one would ever guess they were the paragons of the community.

Sharon likes to dress up once a month in leather and go to S &M parties. She has piercing in every part of her body: in her cheeks, eyebrows, tongue and genitals. She likes the tribal aura -  the wild women with a bit of femme fatale thrown in. She knows it enhances the sex, and she likes the aggression and feelings of power over men and women. She feels in control  – she can be that darkness – her shadow self – the animal that has no inhibition the spiked heel and slut who can get down and dirty. Sometimes she is the dominator sometimes the submissive. She knows this is a far cry from her day job and the contrast of prissy office clerk makes it all the more sweet. It is an escape from a dead-end future and the rigmarole of predictability.



So, while these are fictional but typical examples we could continue this “well adjusted” view of society and regard all kinds of pathology and child trauma masquerading as healthy and  normal. This is not about making judgements about what is right or wrong in our sexuality but rather to question where we draw the line in favour of sexual expression that enriches society rather than infects it; where sexual boundaries are being pushed towards more and more extremes, rather than augmenting social relations? Is the line between “healthy” and “damaged” becoming blurred here and who benefits from such obfuscation?

It is a contradiction that behind closed doors a select minority of paraphilics and a larger proportion of humanity seek to indulge their fantasies towards violence, fetishism, paedophilia, ritualistic sex and child molestation which is indicative of suppressed and learned behaviour. Meantime, an entirely different face is presented to the world at large. Genetics may play a significant role whereby traumas are imported down the generational line and impose “bombshells” on the next generation if no other role models exist. Yet what this means for society is a set up between the guardians of over protection and over liberalisation with the resulting chaos created between the two where opportunities for creative solutions is forever denied. Once again, it is the “divide and rule” dynamic so favoured by Western elites.

Noted luminaries were paedophiles or had paedophilic tendencies. There is certainly an historical basis in fact that much of the Establishment or “high functioning” individuals could be classed as paedophiles. The nature of government, secret societies, occult fraternities, religious institutions that offer secrecy and protection of status and power as the norm, may also offer a sanctuary for such people. Is there a link that those with deviant sexual expressions gravitate towards that which can offer them cover, and in so doing, allow them to push the boundaries of sex, reaffirming that power, yet demanding that the deviance becomes more and more extreme? The neo fascist, Nazi-occult heritage that has permeated the American Establishment would suggest this is so. 2


Notes 

1 "Should These Conditions Be Normalized?" American Psychiatric Association Symposium Debates Whether Paedophilia, Gender-Identity Disorder, Sexual Sadism Should Remain Mental Illnesses By Linda Ames Nicolosi, www.narth.com/ 

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