Comments on the current scene: a contemporary look at events in our society.
by William P. Wilson, M.D.

Printable Version

PEDOPHILIA
APRIL 23, 2002

In my morning newspaper was an article that said that the intellectual community has begun to accept pedophilia and defend it. As I have commented before, I lived in the intellectual community for years and know that they would buy into such an amoral position. The reason they would do so has to do with the idea that if “scientific research” says it is OK, it is OK. The impetus for their acceptance was a “research” article done by a psychologist who did what is called a meta-analysis of the literature and came to the conclusion that it is not psychologically harmful to those who have been victims of child sexual abuse.

Let me say that the conclusion the researcher came to is a lie. One of the most deleterious things that can happen to a little boy or girl is to be sexually abused. Year after year I have seen the long-term results of child sexual abuse whether it is incestuous abuse by a family member or by unrelated abusers. Very few children ask to have sex with an adult. Most often they are lured into the relationships with the offer of favors such as candy or other gifts. They do not know how to interpret the request for sexual favors in return simply because they do not know enough about sex to realize what is going to happen when the request is made. If they do not realize that what is being done is wrong immediately, they do in time realize its wrongness. It is then that they react with fear, shame and its concomitant guilt. If the perpetrator is not recognized and their abuse revealed, the emotional pain is repressed to influence the child’s sex life in later years.

Male pedophiles are predominantly homosexuals who like little boys, although there are more than a few who seek out little girls. The pedophile priests who we recently have heard so much about have for the most part been homosexual pedophiles. It is rather interesting that in the argot of the homosexual world, a homosexual who prefers to have sex with children is known as a “chicken queen.” The press has not said so, but the assumption of anyone who knows pedophilia is that they are. It is a documented fact that most homosexuals have sex with at least one boy who is less than 15 years old.

The sad truth about pedophilia is that it is almost impossible to treat. Many treatments have been tried. At one time in Denmark they castrated all chronic pedophiles. There is no report as to the effectiveness of this treatment. Other treatments have been tried to bring about healing in these persons, but they have a low return. One technique in particular aroused much ire in the activist community when they treated pedophiles by showing them pictures of naked small boys in provocative poses. The pedophiles had a stimulating electrode and a transducer on their penis, and when the pictures aroused them the therapists delivered an electric shock to the penis. Their hypothesis was that they would create an aversive conditioned response to any such stimulus. I have attended a number of courses at the American Psychiatric Association on the treatment of this disorder, but when you ask the presenters what their results are they are dismal in the long term. It always amuses me to read a court report where they have remanded a convicted offender to the community mental health center for counseling. It also makes me sad because I know that they cannot help them. It seems reasonable to believe that if experts who have spent years trying to help them often feel helpless, how can someone who has not had training, and possesses no techniques that will help with this problem, do anything that will be constructive.

I am sure that what I have said will be offensive to many, but what I have written is the truth. Psychiatry and psychology for decades have oversold themselves. They have led people to believe that they can heal almost anything. The truth is that they cannot. When they cannot help people who suffer from sexual disorders they try to make them normal so they will not have to face their impotence. I began my psychiatric career at the beginning of the therapeutic revolution in the field. Electric Convulsive Treatment had only been introduced in 1941. I gave my first treatment in 1945. Drugs were first introduced in the early 50’s. Great things happened as a result. People could be healed. Suicides were prevented, the suffering of depression was ameliorated, and bipolar disorders were controlled. Neuroses were healed when cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy was popularized. Even so there are some problems we cannot treat effectively and bring about healing. Pedophilia is one of them. Sexual disorders, no matter what form they take, are usually unresponsive if we use secular techniques.

One of the saddest episodes of my life occurred when I began to receive letters in response to an article published about the work of God in my life in Guideposts. This article was published in 1978. I received over 4,000 letters from people all over the country, and a few from outside of the country, wanting to know if what I did would heal them. The most pitiful were from a group of pedophiles in the Massachusetts prison system wanting to know if I could please do anything to help them. They were slaves to their disorder and had been imprisoned for life because they were chronic offenders. I got letters from men in other prison systems, but the ones from Massachusetts were the most poignant in their plea for help. Their letters prompted me to go to all of the seminars and read all I could about their disorder, but after I had done all that I came to the sad conclusion that I could not help them. I knew that God was their only hope, but at that time in my Christian career I did not know how they could change their lives spiritually.

If they asked me today I would tell them that if they wanted to have hope for being healed they (1) had to be absolutely surrendered to God. (2) They had to be thoroughly discipled so that they know how to use the means of grace. (3) They must recognize their disability as sin and then confess their sinfulness to God. (4) They most importantly have to ask Him to work repentance in them. When this has happened they can be forgiven. (5) They must then continue to avoid temptation and have a support community to come along side as soon as they feel tempted. And they must constantly seek to renew the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. (6) They must build up their spiritual immunity by being in constant communion with God, and (7) finally they must be in constant spiritual warfare. Satan knows their weakness and will tempt them in any way he can to indulge their sexual desires. Only with God’s help can they overcome their perversion.