Some studies say that it is possible for a MAP to stop being interested on minors

Research
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https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093330

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178915001007?via%3Dihub

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306624X16676547

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2018.1437488

What are ur thoughts?

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This was something that was explored, but never conclusively proven. You can’t stop a MAP from having a sexual interest in minors anymore than you could stop a gay man from being gay. A sexual preference cannot be ‘fixed’.

What can be corrected, though, are offending-related behaviors, such as the consumption of CSAM (as defined as involving/depicting a real child) or hands-on contact offenses against children, such as molestation, grooming, etc.

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It doesn’t work that man. This isn’t something you can turn off

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I read the studies some time ago and as far as I remember they had several issues:

  • The sample sizes were in general fairly small. It was not always clear that the participants even were MAPs to begin with
  • In most cases the sexual desire for minors was not eliminated, but reduced or shifted to an also existing attraction to adults
  • There were never any long time follow-up studies. I do believe that through some mental effort it is possible to decrease the focus to minors for a certain period of time, but I don’t believe that this can work long-term.
  • Even the studies by people trying to prove that MAPs can be changed mostly don’t conclude that it actually can be changed, just that we should not accept MAPness as immutable and not look for “cures”

Also I think that, just as with conversion therapies for homosexuals, the methods used to “cure” MAPness are unethical and harmful. Mostly they work by making MAPs even more ashamed of their attractions than they often already are, and instrumentalizing that shame into guilt to motivate the clients to not think about minors that much anymore.

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I’m astonished by how many confuse an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response pair cannot be changed.

Claiming otherwise is akin to claiming one who likes the smell of baking bread can be made to not like the smell of baking bread.

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