HEALTH FOR TODAY

Adults Foster Sex Deviates

By W. W. BAUER, M. D.

Director of Health Education

American Medical Assn.

The following article is one of the daily columns by Dr. Bauer which is released to many U. S. daily newspapers through King Features Syndicate. It is reprinted here because the writer's comment represents a significant milestone In calling for better parent-child relationships as help in reducing anti-social sexual deviations. (Copyright 1958 by King Features Syndicate.)

BECAUSE of the ancient

taboos surrounding sex, that phase of the topic dealing with sexual deviations has been particularly hard to discuss without excessive emotional overtones.

Sexual deviations, espe cially homosexual tendencies, have been regarded as moral and legal problems, when in point of fact they are medical. Public attitudes have caused persons with these trends to conceal their thoughts and actions in order to avoid public disgrace.

Relaxation of some of the secrecy surrounding sex is gradually permitting more constructive discussion of sexual abnormalities but it will be a long time before books on this subject will cease to be locked up in libraries.

The Journal of the A.M.A. has recently published a study of sexual deviations

by Drs. Adelaide M. Johnson and David B. Robinson, in which most sexual deviations are attributed to parental attitudes. Most such cases, these physicians say, "result from unconscious or even conscious, fostering of such behavior in early life by the parents.

In an earlier study, discussed in this space, these same psychiatrists reported that repeated juvenile delinquencies, such as stealing, vandalism and arson, are stimulated in similar manner by parents, unconsciously or consciously.

A simple example is the repeated reminding of a child that starting fires is dangerous and harmful; the effect often is to cause the child to do the very thing he was being cautioned against. Some parents get a vicarious satisfaction in seeing done the acts they have secretly longed to do.

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the same reasoning to sexual problems, ascribing deviations to parental influences, which in turn are due to the way the previous generation acted toward them. Unsatisfactory sexual relationships in marriage are present in "all" such cases, these psychiatrists say.

Direct and hostile sexual misbehavior is usually due to the conscious form of parental fostering; aberrations and perverse behavior to the unconscious parental stimulation.

The result of such parental influences is the distortion of the child's psychosexual development. His views

one

about and attitudes toward sex become abnormal or confused, and his conduct is influenced accordingly.

Treating the adult sexual deviate is a tremendous task. It is easier and more effective to attack the problem with the present generation of children, through education of parents primarily.

THIS

HIS concept of parental influence is not going to be a popular or a palatable one for parents, particularly if they remain wedded to older concepts of the place of sex in life. But it offers a hopeful approach to the problem. At the same time, we must not overlook the fact that the child is a reflection not only of his parents but also of his total environment.

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