| This dissertation examined pedophilia, as lived by adult males. Psychological literature addressing pedophilia emphasizes behavioral, cognitive, and chemical intervention strategies in order to manage deviant behavior. The focus upon managing symptoms bypasses the fundamental question of what it means for a person to take up a pedophilic lifestyle. The five subjects of this study were men who acknowledged long term sexual interests in children. The researcher asked these subjects to describe their experiences of sexual relationships with children. Data were obtained in written protocols and followup interviews, and analyzed using a qualitative method developed at Duquesne University.;Results revealed that through these relationships, the pedophile creates an imaginary childhood for himself. This imaginary childhood is a romantic idealization of childhood, in which the pedophile believes that he is alleviating a child's frustration and loss. Within this script the pedophile serves as rescuer for the child, by providing what he assumes the child needs. The child's responsiveness to his overtures allows the pedophile to bolster an illusion of mutuality in the relationship. The pedophile creates this imaginary childhood by alternately relating as a peer, and then as a parental figure, as he manipulates the child. Creating an imaginary childhood functions as a way to gain victory over the losses of his own childhood.;Dialogue with literature included victimology, psychodynamic psychology, and existential-phenomenology. Dialogue with victimology explored similarities and differences in the meanings of sexual abuse for victims who become perpetrators versus for those who don't. Dialogue with psychodynamic theory utilized D. W. Winnicott's view to present a developmental perspective of pedophilia, and show how the pedophile remains fixed in early developmental dynamics. Pertinent existential-phenomenological authors were M. Boss and A. Zipris. From the existential-phenomenological perspective, pedophilia was understood as a restricted form of love in which being-lonely replaces the full, open expression of intimacy. Treatment implications noted how psychotherapy dismantles the pedophile's lonely, hopeless worldview. Individuation can then arise, in which empathy for children replaces possession of children. |
