Overview Program Proceedings Reading List

Pedophilia, Minor-Attracted Persons, and the DSM: Issues and Controversies


Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Baltimore, MD

In the following table, click a person’s name to bring up his or her Web page or online CV. Click the title of a presentation to see the abstract. You can also view a single file of all the abstracts.



TimeSpeakerPresentationBackground reading
8:00 Check-in and Continental Breakfast
9:00Russell A. Dick, LCSW-C
Co-founder, Board Chair
B4U-ACT, Inc.
Westminster, MD
Welcome and Introductory Remarks
9:15Fred S. Berlin, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Keynote Talk: Understanding Pedophilia and Other Paraphilias from a Psychiatric Perspective

On the paraphilias, including pedophilia, from a psychiatric perspective.

Fred S. Berlin, “Commentary on Pedophilia Diagnostic Criteria in DSM-5” in Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, April 2011
10:15John Z. Sadler, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Sciences
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX
Decriminalizing Mental Disorder Concepts — Pedophilia as an Example

DSM categories of mental disorder are confounded with “vice” concepts because diagnostic criteria in many categories describe wrongful or criminal conduct. I provide an analysis of this issue and describe a nosological procedure for managing this problem using the DSM pedophilias as key examples.

John Z. Sadler, “Vice and the diagnostic classification of mental disorders: A philosophical case conference” in Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 15(1):1-17, 2008
10:45 Break
11:00Nancy Nyquist Potter, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY

President, Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry

“Is Anybody Out There?”: Testimony of Minor-Attracted Persons and Hearing versus Listening to their Voices

Hearing and listening are not the same thing and this presentation argues that genuine listening must occur in order for the DSM-V to be scientifically and ethically accurate with respect to minor-attracted persons. Genuine listening requires two types of “virtues” in the transaction: communicative virtue in the hearers and testimonial virtues in speakers.

Nancy Potter, “Giving Uptake” in Social Theory and Practice, Vol. 26, No. 3, Fall 2000
11:30Lisa J. Cohen, Ph.D.
Director of Research for Psychology and Psychiatry, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, NY

Igor I. Galynker, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, NY

Identifying the Psychobiological Correlates of Pedophilic Desire and Behavior: How Can We Generalize Our Knowledge Beyond Forensic Samples?

At present, the DSM definition of pedophilia is highly rudimentary, consistent with significant limitations in our scientific knowledge about sexual attraction to prepubescent children. The purpose of this talk is twofold: 1) to present data from a research program studying the psychological correlates of pedophilia and 2) to consider future research directions in order to separate the factors contributing to the existence of pedophilic desire from the factors contributing to the acting on such desires. Elucidation of such factors should support the development of more precise and clinically meaningful diagnostic systems.

Lisa J. Cohen and Igor I. Galynker, “Psychopathology and Personality Traits of Pedophiles: Issues for Diagnosis and Treatment” in Psychiatric Times, 26(6), 25-30, 2009
12:00 Discussion
12:30 Lunch (provided)
1:30Renee Sorrentino, M.D.
Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Cambridge, MA

Medical Director, Institute for Sexual Wellness, Quincy, MA

The Forensic Implications of the DSM-V’s Pedohebephilia

This presentation will focus on the DSM-V changes to the diagnosis of pedophilia. The theoretical foundation and scientific evidence for the inclusion of the diagnosis of Pedohebephila will be reviewed. The legal, ethical, and medical consequences from the creation of Pedohebephilia will be discussed.

Allen Frances and Michael First, “Hebephilia Is Not a Mental Disorder in DSM-IV-TR and Should Not Become One in DSM-5” in Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 39:78-85, 2011
2:00Andrew C. Hinderliter, M.A.
Graduate Student in Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL
Can the Medicalization of Sexual Deviance ever be Therapeutic?

The medicalization of social deviance–and especially sexual deviance–far too easily blurs the boundary between the helping professions and the criminal justice system, creating the potential (often realized) for psychiatry to become a means of controlling undesirables, rather than an agent of healing. In this presentation, I focus on the diagnosis of pedo(hebe)philia, asking whether it could be reformed so as to promote the well-being of patients and potential patients; I argue that it cannot.

Andrew C. Hinderliter, “Defining Paraphilia: Excluding Exclusion” in Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, V 2, p 241-272, 2010
2:30Jacob Breslow, B.A.
Graduate Student in Gender Research
London School of Economics and Political Science
London, UK
Sexual Alignment: Critiquing Sexual Orientation, The Pedophile, and the DSM V

This presentation will challenge normative assumptions about sexuality, personal and political identity, and childhood, both within the DSM and within wider society, framing the upcoming changes through a theory of queer phenomenology and sexual alignment.

Sara Ahmed, “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology” in GLQ, 12:4, 2006
3:00 Break
3:15Richard Kramer
Director of Operations
B4U-ACT, Inc.
Westminster, MD
The DSM and the Stigmatization of People who Are Attracted to Minors

An analysis of ways in which the DSM has contributed to the stigmatization of people who are attracted to minors (MAPs) will be presented. Data from surveys of MAPs in the general population will be used to demonstrate the effects of this stigmatization on the willingness of MAPs to seek mental health services when needed.

Richard Kramer, “APA Guidelines Ignored in Development of Diagnostic Criteria for Pedohebephilia” in Archives of Sexual Behavior, V 40, #2, 233-235, October 30, 2010
3:45 Discussion
4:45 Adjournment