Medicalization
Medicalization refers to the creation of a medical category for a human condition not previously considered to be a condition requiring medical treatment.
Medicalization and BoyLovers
When The German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing first introduced the concept of pedophilia in his Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study) in the early 20th century, pederastic (and other adult-child sexual activities) first became "medicalized," in other words, subject to medical diagnosis and treatment.
Von Krafft-Ebing based the theories he expressed in his book on very little actual clinical data - a handful of reported "clinical treatments" by other psychiatrists of a few (so-called) "sexually deranged persons". He "invented" the concept of what he called "paedophilia erotica", which was later shortened in English to "paedophilia" (American spelling: pedophilia).
Had "pedophilia" not become medicalized, then "pedophilia" would not be "pathological," and BoyLovers would not be "sick".
If only Richard von Krafft-Ebing had never been born, the world today be be a different (and far better!) place...
External Links
- Medicalization at Wikipedia.
- Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study), available at archive.org
- Extract of the above NOTE:site is now defunct, but I am searching for another source.
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