"A Healthy Modesty"

Two Minnesota psychiatrists last week set forth a startling and controversial theory of sex deviations. Its net: many outwardly respectable American homes may, more or less inadvertently, "seduce" children into becoming sexual deviates. The two psychiatrists, who published their theory in the A.M.A. Journal: Dr. Adelaide M. Johnson, 52, professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, and Dr. David B. Robinson, 33, of the Mayo Clinic. They put the blame for deviations squarely and almost exclusively on the parents--who in turn must have been warped by their own parents.

Under "sexual deviation" the authors include hostile, destructive sexual behavior toward others (sadism) or accepted from others (masochism), of the same or opposite sex, and all socially unacceptable forms of overt behavior such as exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, transvestism, homosexuality and bestiality. To understand the origin of these disorders, the two psychiatrists say, "the physician must face a disquieting but demonstrable fact: examples of all degrees of parental seduction of the child occur more commonly than it is comfortable to contemplate . . . The seduction may be as subtle as a caress or as blatant as actual incest."

Modern Frankness. Drs. Johnson and Robinson realize that most doctors, like laymen, react with anger and revulsion to accounts of seduction. But, they insist--and this is where they differ most markedly from many other psychiatrists--that sexual deviation is invariably the result of seduction as they broadly define it, ranging from lascivious permissiveness when a child engages in sexual stimulation to outright coercion.

Much of the behavior that they term seductive is not consciously so intended, conceded Psychiatrists Johnson and Robinson, and may actually seem remote from it. An outstanding example, as they interpret it, is the frankness of modern parents in discussing sex or appearing naked before their children. More obviously unhealthy is the continuance, far beyond infancy, of practices appropriate only for infants: "Under the guise of 'motherly' or 'fatherly' affection, boys and girls may be bathed by parents, often of the opposite sex, until adolescence. Children sense at bathing whether a mother's close inspection of the genitals is an honest, brief, physical necessity or an anxious, seductive maneuver . . . Sleeping with children of the opposite sex is prolonged into the teen-age period. The mother may still continue to lie with the son, despite awareness that erections occur." Beyond this is a wide range of openly seductive behavior, from varying degrees of physical intimacy to incest.

"Stimulated by this parental behavior," the psychiatrists say, "the child finds no outlet for his aroused sensual impulses. Eventually, mounting frustration and anger force him to follow one of two courses. One is regression to the relative safety of more infantile attitudes and behavior patterns . . . The other is physical aggression toward women. Neither course resolves the rage nor dissipates the overstimulated unconscious sexual drives."

Social Assets? Another danger is parental expression of concern that a child may eventually misbehave sexually. The idea may be completely foreign to the child, but "a consciously guileless adolescent who is subjected to suspicious, suggestive, unfriendly quizzing angrily apprehends . . . that he is expected to misbehave sexually. The parents' fantasy . . . provides a compelling guide."

Repeatedly, Drs. Johnson and Robinson emphasize that they are not describing "underprivileged" families, but many which have the highest reputation in the community. "It is clear that parents who so distort their child's psychosexual development are emotionally very confused, badly maladjusted and definitely sick . . . All such parents reveal an unsatisfactory marital sexual relationship."

Psychiatric treatment of the sexual deviate is "a prodigious task." There is most hope in prevention, which can be sparked by an alert family doctor or pediatrician. Drs. Johnson and Robinson recommend that a few pointed questions be made routine: "Who sleeps with whom in the family? Which ones bathe together, and do they bathe themselves? What are the family habits regarding bathroom privacy? Is there a healthy degree of modesty in the home?"

Drs. Johnson and Robinson refuse to estimate what proportion of U.S. homes harbor the conditions they describe. Dr. Johnson reports having seen hundreds of such cases in Chicago, Rochester and Minneapolis. Dr. Robinson has seen perhaps two dozen in six years in Minnesota.

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