Biography
Bernd Ahrbeck, Ph.D., Professor for psychoanalytical paedagogy at International Psychoanalytical University, Berlin, Germany; Psychologist, Teaching Analyst; Professor emeritus at Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany with a focus on children and youth with social-emotional disorders in the department of rehabilitation sciences.
Karla Etschenberg, Ph.D., Professor emeritus for education and didactic of biology, health and sex education; University of Flensburg, Germany; prior to becoming a professor she was a teacher and among other projects instrumental in developing HIV awareness and destigmatization materials for schools while working for government agencies; recipient of the Magnus-Hirschfeld medal 2012 from the German Society of Sexual Research in Social Sciences (DGSS e.V.).
Marion Felder, Ph.D., Professor for inclusion and rehabilitation in the department of social sciences at the University of Applied Sciences Koblenz, Germany. She spent 18 years living and working in the U.S. as a teacher for children and youth with disabilities (special education).
Abstract
This article focuses on two related areas of concern with regard to sex education and implications for children and youth in Germany. The first one is the history of the currently dominant neo-emancipatory sexual education and its implications for today. This direction of sex education is highly influenced by theories of Helmut Kentler who with the help of the German city of Berlin youth protection services department sent homeless and troubled boys to known pedophiles for care. This experiment went on for 30 years, ending in 2001. Only now has the extend of this horrific practice been fully discovered. The authors will outline the fact that Kentler’s central ideas are still manifest in neo-emancipatory sex education in Germany today. The second area of concern is the dramatic increase in youth who question their biological sex and seek medical intervention to change it, even though the evidence base for medical intervention is controversial. The deconstruction of biological sex is also actively supported and fostered by neo-emancipatory sexual education. The authors will describe and demonstrate that both directions of neo-emancipatory sex education break down protective spaces for children and youth and make them more vulnerable for abuse and psychological and physical damage. Methodologically this is a literature review. Documents and books by Helmut Kentler himself are quoted and analysed. In addition, relevant, current literature about the topic of gender dysphoria is reviewed.
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Recommended Citation
Ahrbeck, Bernd; Etschenberg, Karla; and Felder, Marion (2022) "Neo-Emancipatory Sex Education in Germany: Sexual Abuse and Gender Confusion," Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 2. https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2022.07.01.02
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