Acknowledgments

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[8]

I an sincerely grateful to the research participants for their trust and interest in taking part in this study. I would particularly like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Kurt Seikowski (President of the Society for Sex Research, Leipzig), who made it possible to carry out this research project in the course of my work toward a degree.

The working title of this pilot study read:

"Phenomenology and context of Self-Concept Characteristics, Feelings of Being Under Stress, and Sense of Well-Being of Pedophilic Men in General and Differential Perspective."

The work was coordinated by the Clinical and Health Psychology faculty of Leipzig, by whom it was unanimously evaluated as "excellent".

A warm thanks to friends and family for their emotional as well as material support.

The author would like to extend very sincere thanks to all of those who had a part in bringing this work to fruition, particularly those who distributed the questionnaires.

Leipzig, June 2005

Horst Vogt

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"If sexuality were nothing more than the capacity to procreate, its meaning would be clear and would not require looking into. But the fact is that hardly anyone of our cultural background would allow their sexuality to be restricted in such a way. On the contrary, for us human beings, sexuality would appear to have an importance similar to that of speech or walking upright: When we describe ourselves as creatures who walk upright, or as speaking beings, we are declaring the essence of who we are.

"Thus our sexuality also is not simply one faculty alongside many others, but rather a defining characteristic of our being. We literally owe our very existence to sexuality, and there is scarcely any sphere of life in which the sexual does not play a role. We humans are sexual beings."

Kentler, 1988 (pg. 9)