Fred Berlin

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Frederick "Fred" Saul Berlin is an American psychiatrist and sexologist specializing in sex offenses. [1]

Contents

Life and career

Berlin studied psychology, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1964, a master's degree from Fordham University in 1966, and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in 1972. He earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from Dalhousie in 1974. Following a clerkship at Victoria General Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he was an intern at McGill University School of Medicine, Jewish General Hospital, and Children's Hospital in Montreal. He completed a psychiatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and served as an exchange resident at Maudsley Hospital in London, England. After serving as chief resident at Johns Hopkins, he was appointed to its Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.as assistant professor in 1978 and promoted to associate professor in 1986. He has been an attending physician there since 1978 and served as founder and director of its Sexual Disorders Clinic from 1980 to 1992. In 1992 he founded the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma and serves as its director.

Berlin served on the Subcommittee on the Paraphilias, American Psychiatric Association committee on the third revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) from 1984 to 1989. He received a Presidential Citation from the City of Baltimore in 1996 and was named a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in 2003. In 2009 he was invited to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on the subject of sexually disordered sexual offenders including those with pedophilia. [2] [3]

Memberships include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

He has appeared as an expert witness in trials including the murder trial of Mark Dean Schwab [4] [5] and Jeffrey Dahmer. [6] [7] He has discussed the merits of chemical castration for sex offenders. [8]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Involuntary commitment, civil commitment, involuntary hospitalization or involuntary hospitalisation, is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is detained in a psychiatric hospital (inpatient) where they can be treated involuntarily. This treatment may involve the administration of psychoactive drugs, including involuntary administration. In many jurisdictions, people diagnosed with mental health disorders can also be forced to undergo treatment while in the community; this is sometimes referred to as outpatient commitment and shares legal processes with commitment.

Paraphilia is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals.

Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia, and from ephebophilia. While individuals with a sexual preference for adults may have some sexual interest in pubescent-aged individuals, researchers and clinical diagnoses have proposed that hebephilia is characterized by a sexual preference for pubescent rather than adult partners.

Kurt Freund Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist

Kurt Freund was a Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist best known for developing the penile plethysmograph, research studies in pedophilia, and for the "courtship disorder" hypothesis as a taxonomy of certain paraphilias. After unsuccessful attempts to change men's sexual orientation, he advocated against conversion therapy and in favor of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Penile plethysmography (PPG) or phallometry is measurement of bloodflow to the penis, typically used as a proxy for measurement of sexual arousal. The most commonly reported methods of conducting penile plethysmography involve the measurement of the circumference of the penis with a mercury-in-rubber or electromechanical strain gauge, or the volume of the penis with an airtight cylinder and inflatable cuff at the base of the penis. Corpora cavernosa nerve penile plethysmographs measure changes in response to inter-operative electric stimulation during surgery. The volumetric procedure was invented by Kurt Freund and is considered to be particularly sensitive at low arousal levels. The easier to use circumferential measures are more widely used, however, and more common in studies using erotic film stimuli. A corresponding device in women is the vaginal photoplethysmograph.

The term chronophilia was used by John Money to describe a form of paraphilia in which an individual experiences sexual attraction limited to individuals of particular age ranges. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism".

Paraphilic infantilism, also known as autonepiophilia, psychosexual infantilism and adult baby syndrome, is a sexual fetish that involves role-playing a regression to an infant-like state. Behaviors may include drinking from a bottle or wearing diapers. Individuals may engage in gentle and nurturing experiences or be attracted to masochistic, coercive, punishing or humiliating experiences. Diaper fetishism involves "diaper lovers" wearing diapers for sexual or erotic reasons but may not involve infant-like behavior. Individuals who experience both of these things are referred to as adult baby/diaper lovers. When wearing diapers, infantilists may urinate and/or defecate in them.

Ray Blanchard American-Canadian sexologist

Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on transsexualism, pedophilia and sexual orientation. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. A person must be at least 16 years old, and at least five years older than the prepubescent child, for the attraction to be diagnosed as pedophilia.

Atascadero State Hospital, formally known as California Department of State Hospitals- Atascadero (DSHA), is located on the Central Coast of California, in San Luis Obispo County, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. DSHA is an all-male, maximum-security facility, forensic institution that houses mentally ill convicts who have been committed to psychiatric facilities by California's courts. Located on a 700+ acre grounds in the city of Atascadero, California, it is the largest employer in that town. DSHA is not a general purpose public hospital, and the only patients admitted are those that are referred to the hospital by the Superior Court, Board of Prison Terms, or the Department of Corrections.

Necrophilia Attraction to dead bodies

Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic manual, as well as by the American Psychiatric Association in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

Martin Paul Kafka is an American psychiatrist best known for his work on sex offenders, paraphilias and what he calls "paraphilia-related disorders" such as sex addiction and hypersexuality.

Child sexual abuse, also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, including using a child to produce child pornography.

Paul Rodney McHugh is an American psychiatrist, researcher, and educator. He is currently the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the author, co-author, or editor of seven books in his field. McHugh is a vocal proponent of Catholic-informed and socially conservative stances relating to sexual orientation and transgender people. Some scientists accuse McHugh of misrepresenting scientific research relating to sexual orientation.

James Cantor American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist

James M. Cantor is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist specializing in hypersexuality and paraphilias.

Peter Jerome Fagan is an American psychologist who served as director of the Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit at Johns Hopkins University from 1985 to 2004.

Michael C. Seto

Michael Chikong Seto is a Canadian forensic psychologist, sexologist, and author. He is director of Forensic Rehabilitation Research at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, where he says his research focuses on pedophilia, sexual offenses committed against children, child pornography, risk assessment, offenders with mental disorders, psychopathy, and program evaluation.

Ernesto Caffo is the founder and President of SOS Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus and Fondazione Child. He is a Chair Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, full-time Director of the Department of Paediatrics for the Hospital of University of Modena, and Director of the 6th edition of the Master Assessment and Intervention in situations of child abuse and pedophilia at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Jörg M. Fegert German psychotherapist and author (b. 1956)

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J. Paul Fedoroff is a Canadian forensic psychiatrist, sexologist, and researcher who specializes in treating individuals with paraphilic disorders and/or individuals with developmental delay. He is now the first director of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic (SBC) at the Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre located in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a full professor of forensic psychiatry, criminology, and law at the University of Ottawa.

References

  1. Gordon, Ed (April 6, 2005). Interview: Dr. Fred Berlin and Chief Walter McNeil discuss sexual offenders and predators. National Public Radio
  2. Testimony of Dr. Fred Berlin June 25, 2009
  3. Smith, Jordan Michael (Feb 18, 2018). "The Professor of Horrible Deeds". Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  4. "451 F. 3d 1308 - Schwab v. V Crosby". OpenJurist. June 15, 2006. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  5. "Mark Dean Schwab #1109".
  6. Stingl, Jim (February 4, 1992). Dahmer Showed Control At Times, Doctor Agrees. The Milwaukee Journal
  7. Fulero, Solomon M., Wrightsman, Lawrence S. (2008). Forensic Psychology. Wadsworth Publishing. pp. 118–19. ISBN   978-0495506492. I did not feel uncomfortable defending the position that an individual who recurrently experiences much more powerful urges to have sex with a corpse than with a living human being is an individual who is afflicted with a mental disease or defect". ... If this isn't a mental illness, I don't know what is.
  8. Bilefsy, Dan (March 10, 2009). Castration of sex offenders: Deterrent or torture? New York Times