Myth: Alcoholism can’t be blamed for pedophilia (etc etc etc)
Don’t Blame Alcoholism
“Don’t blame alcohol,”read the caption to a letter to the editor in USA Today. Letter writer Cheryl James of Englewood, FL wrote that Congressman Mark Foley attempted to blame his behavior on alcoholism. “Alcoholism alone does not cause pedophilia or turn someone into a sexual predator.â€
No, Ms. James, alcoholism does not by itself turn people into predators. However, without damage to the neo-cortex and, therefore, a loss of restraint on the impulses of the lower brain centers, such misbehavior is unlikely to occur. Impulses vary by addict, which with environment, circumstances, Psychological Type of the addict and virulence, determines the style of addiction and the misbehaviors in which the addict will engage. If the style is one of a sexual nature and circumstances allow, pedophilia or other sexually inappropriate behaviors may occur when the area of the brain that restrains base behaviors is damaged. If the style is one of being untroubled while people suffer, an addict may murder hundreds of thousand of innocents in a bid to achieve and maintain power, or devote an entire national economy to the production of weapons of mass destruction while people starve.
Foley did not, as the letter writer says, use his disease “to minimize his abhorrent behavior.”It explained, but didn’t excuse misbehaviors. If Foley hadn’t triggered alcoholism, or had been forced into sobriety rather than enabled by his handlers, his functioning neo-cortex would have likely prevented him from acting out sexual fantasies that were harmful to others, including both his intended as well as unintended victims.