Ephebophilia

Ephebophilia is a mental disorder, a type of pedophilia. It is expressed in the sexual attraction of an adult man or woman to adolescent children. In the overwhelming majority of diagnosed cases, the causes of the disease are congenital pathological lesions of the brain. Very rarely, mechanical or chemical lesions of the central nervous system are called provoking factors.

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Epidemiology

Various sexual dysfunctions of personality are found in 5-10% of the population. Due to the fact that children are secretive in adolescence, the statistical data are not reliable and complete. Pathological sexual preferences are inherent in both men and women. Personality mental disorders such as ephebophilia are found in 6-9% of the population. In men, pathological attraction is most often recorded in the age range of 30-34 years. In women, 35-45 years.

Causes ephebophiliacs

The motives for the emergence of mental disorders are laid down in the puberty period against the background of a protracted process of formation of sexual self-awareness and psychosexual orientations during close perverted intimate contacts that left an indelible impression.

A significant role in the process of developing sexual attraction to adolescent children is played by difficulties in communicating with peers.

In many cases, ephebophilia actively progresses in individuals with sexual dysfunctions. During intimate relationships with inexperienced young men and women who do not know the technique of sexual intercourse, such individuals feel their superiority and are less likely to be condemned for their sexual actions.

In males with a perverted sexual orientation, with adolescent hypersexuality, high sexual activity is manifested, in the satisfaction of which the individual shows indifference in what way to realize sexual desire. Many ephebophiles like the inexperience of adolescent children, and they are happy to engage in "mentoring".

In elderly people, manifestations of ephebophilia are observed in sexual disorders against the background of fading possibilities for satisfying desire, then contacts with young men or women serve as a stimulus for weakening elderly sexuality.

The hidden variant of attraction in ephebophiles can be observed when infantilism is manifested in the way of communication or manner of dress. Attraction is expressed compulsively, patients rarely seek medical attention with complaints of sexual attraction to teenagers. Such craving increases after taking a large dose of alcohol or drugs.

Risk factors

Ephebophilia is more common in people with hysterical, asthenic, psychoasthenic types, psychopaths, people who abuse alcohol-containing drinks and drugs. The causes of such deviations are:

• retardation of psychosexual development;
• infantilism;
• decreased libido;
• unsatisfied sexual arousal;
• phobias of sexual genesis.

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Pathogenesis

With ephebophilia, sexual behavior is practically no different from normal and traditional, but the following features are noted:

• corruption of minors (frank, intimate conversations disguised as sex education, showing erotic and pornographic photographs, drawings, films, magazines and manuscripts of a pornographic nature “accidentally” forgotten in public areas);
• the desire of ephebophiles to find work related to teenagers.

In most cases, intimate relationships with teenagers, due to the peculiarities of the psyche of children at this age, go unnoticed. Teenage boys simply and with a sense of gratitude perceive manifestations of female ephebophilia. Women voluntarily "teach" inexperienced young men the first steps of intimate life. Patients with ephebophilia receive the greatest emotional and physical pleasure from the lack of experience of their "wards". The process of "enlightenment" stimulates sexual arousal in ephebophiles. Sometimes the disease takes on pronounced pathological manifestations.

Symptoms ephebophiliacs

Patients with ephebophilia periodically have fantasies that determine extraordinary actions in the area of sexual behavior. These antics do not correspond to cultural norms, cause a complete or partial loss of the individual's ability to adequately adapt to established social norms, as well as neurosis of the ephebophile. Attraction is considered as the satisfaction of sexual tension. The consequences of unnatural actions are the cause of additional stress. But, in special cases, such actions are regarded as symptoms of schizophrenia. When examining a patient and collecting anamnesis, the doctor should take into account that patients can carefully hide socially unacceptable forms of attraction. Therefore, to clarify the diagnosis, it is necessary to observe the patient's behavior in dynamics.

The first signs of ephebophilia appear in patients with established diagnoses:

• Mental personality disorders.
• Consequences of brain damage with the development of mental infantilism.
• Schizophrenia in remission.

Alcohol or drug dependence syndrome.

The intensity of symptoms is expressed in the emergence of sexual attraction to children in adolescence.

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Stages

The following stages are characteristic of the traditional normal development of sexual relations:

• The emergence of interest and attraction.
• Emotional rapprochement.
• Sexual intimacy.

In ephebophilia, there is no stage of emotional intimacy. As a rule, ephebophiles move on to sexual intimacy after the stage of attraction. The transition to coitus can take place in a rude, aggressive or sadistic form. But in some cases, the stage of emotional intimacy is veiled as "training" and the transition to intimate intimacy occurs in a soft form.

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Forms

According to statistics of diagnosed mental pathologies, ephebophilia is divided into types, depending on the choice of gender of adolescents. These are:

• bisexual (attracted to both girls and boys);
• heterosexual (attraction to members of the opposite sex);
• homosexual (desire for intimate relationships with people of the same sex).

Diagnostics ephebophiliacs

The diagnosis is based on periodically arising, strong erotic fantasies and increasing sexual attraction to adolescents in order to satisfy physiological sexual needs. Ephebophilia may be evidenced by unusual, extraordinary actions of a sexual nature that contradict the norms of social and ethical behavior. The patient's actions are subordinated to obsessive fantasies, struggling with which he experiences enormous psychological stress. Such pathological behavioral disorders are observed for at least six months. One patient may simultaneously have combined abnormal sexual preferences.

Differential diagnosis

Patients with ephebophilia are usually diagnosed with combined personality and sexual pathological dysfunctions. Perverted attraction to teenagers can be combined with:

• masochism (the tendency to derive pleasure from humiliation and violence);
• voyeurism (hidden peeping at a sexual act);
• sadism (getting pleasure from violence and tormenting the victim);
• fetishism (attraction to items of underwear and things that, in the patient’s opinion, are associated with pleasure);
• transvestism (gender identity disorder);
• sadomasochism (a combination of sadism and masochism).

Psychiatrists carefully differentiate ephebophilia from schizophrenia.

Treatment ephebophiliacs

For the treatment of ephebophilia with monosymptomatic manifestations, methods of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and behavioral therapy are used, combined with complex treatment with drugs that help control impulses:

• Lithium.
• "Carbamazepine".
• Beta-blockers.
• Calcium antagonists.

All therapeutic measures are carried out and monitored by psychiatrists.

Prevention

Measures to prevent psychosexual socially dangerous behavior begin with eliminating provoking factors:

• prevention of alcohol addiction in parents at the stage of conception;
• protecting the health of women expecting babies;
• timely identification of patients with organic lesions of the central nervous system;
• ensuring adequate conditions for the establishment and development of correct sexual identity in a child from the moment of birth;
• prevention of psychosexual disorders;
• It is necessary to teach teenagers the skills of communicating with peers, including with the opposite sex;
• formation of high moral and ethical qualities;
• prevention of corruption of adolescents;
• identification and compulsory therapy of hidden and dangerous individuals with a high propensity for criminal activity on sexual grounds.

An important role in preventing crimes against the background of perverted sexual desires and fantasies belongs to the family. It is in the family circle that moral qualities, life values, development and formation of personality occur. An aggressive unfavorable environment among close relatives creates favorable conditions for the occurrence of incorrect socially dangerous actions in sexual deviations and provokes the development of mental pathologies with sexual maladaptation. The family in which a patient with ephebophilia lives can help in the treatment of mental dysfunction, and can be an additional traumatic cause and aggravate pathological adaptation in society, provoking the patient to dangerous actions.

Since ephebophilia is a paraphilia that is serial in nature, preventive measures in this case will be aimed at preventing a series of crimes.

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Forecast

The prognosis is mostly doubtful. Sexually motivated offenses are among the most serious. Relatives and friends should closely monitor the inclinations of relatives with ephebophilia or other sexual disorders. Timely detection of perverted inclinations in family members will help avoid serious consequences.