An Ekşi Sözlük writer stated that they had received messages containing photos of "abuse of a baby girl" from another writer and shared the images by opening a thread on the platform to publicize the incident. The user, who was trying to raise awareness, was blocked by Ekşi Sözlük. The writer shared the disturbing incident on social media. The abuse case prompted action from the Ministry and law enforcement. Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector of Üsküdar University and psychiatrist, commented on the unbelievable statements and images.
Pedophilia and sexual abuse are unacceptable crimes and even perversions in the eyes of society. On the other hand, there is significant research in psychology on the causes of pedophilia. Could you tell us about these causes?
Pedophilia is a behavioral disorder defined in psychiatric literature as sexual perversion or paraphilia. When the psychological worlds of those who have a "sexual interest" in children are examined, most of them have significant psychological pathologies and have experienced various traumas. These traumas have a characteristic we call "sexual narcissism." It manifests itself in the desire to be with people who are weaker and more vulnerable than oneself. Because they see their own egos as superior and powerful, these individuals develop a tendency to want to be with children who are weaker than themselves. They cannot achieve the same satisfaction in their desire to be with the opposite sex. As a result of this inability to achieve satisfaction, they try to get together with defenseless children in exchange for various benefits or payment. These individuals may have had sexual traumas in childhood.
They fear and avoid being with the opposite sex. In this case, it can manifest in some individuals towards children and in others towards animals. In pedophiles, children can be the 'object of sexual love'. For example, in a case of "foot fetishism" we encountered, our investigations revealed that the individual had experienced the act of "loving the child by placing feet on the child's stomach" by their mother and aunts during childhood. Because they were raised to love feet, "foot fetishism" emerged as the object of sexual love during the child's first 0-3 years of life. In pedophiles, the sexual object of affection may also emerge in a similar way as a result of bad examples and bad learning.
If someone in the family does this, or if it is considered normal in the subculture they have created, this situation may continue. In fact, a party is currently being formed in the Netherlands related to this. They are beginning to see this situation, and even incest, as an area of freedom. However, in psychiatric literature, this situation is considered pathological sexuality.
In this case, why do you think the deviant person tends to share the act of child abuse?
There is an example of this happening in England. In England, two boys aged 9-10 were temporarily placed in the custody of a police chief. The police chief took inappropriate pictures of these children and posted them on the internet. This led to a court case. However, in court, this person did not admit that what he did was a crime.
He says, "The children were happy, what's the problem?" The press even refers to him as the 'Teflon man'. They say, "How can someone who dramatizes and exploits children to such an extent not be bothered by this? How is that possible?" and label him a 'Teflon type'. Here, the person's exposure, attempt to be seen, attempt to be satisfied, and sexual object are pornographic beyond sexual contact. This should be seen as pornographic material.
The US Attorney General's Council has a decision on this matter. That decision is as follows: there is a cause-and-effect relationship and causality between the proliferation of pornographic and erotic material and sexual crimes. Pornographic materials are criminal elements.
What should the treatment protocol be?
First, all records of the abused children must be obtained.
There are Child Observation Centers in Turkey. Records are taken here because making the child recount the incident causes secondary and tertiary trauma. When we examine many diseases that emerge in later years, we see the following: we apply the childhood trauma scale. One of the items on this scale is sexual abuse. In the sexual abuse item, if there are items such as 'He showed me his genitals' or 'He touched my private parts', it is considered abuse and can be the cause of future illnesses. These issues need to be discussed during therapy; sexuality is a private area, and random sexuality is contrary to human nature. We see that children in families where random sexuality occurs at home fear normal sexuality and experience this need as pedophilia.
"DON'T DEGRADE SEXUALITY!"
Sexual freedom should not be perceived as sexual irresponsibility. We see pedophilia more often in families where sexuality is not respected. Sexuality should be a concept experienced within the boundaries of privacy, intimacy, and respect. As sexuality becomes more widespread and devalued, people's threshold for sexual arousal decreases. A person who would normally be more difficult to arouse can be aroused more easily. This is why pedophilia is becoming more widespread.