Lars Ullerstam

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Lars Ullerstam (in full: Lars Gustaf Adolf Ullerstam), born April 22, 1935 in Vänersborg, is a Swedish psychiatrist and author best known for the book De erotiska minoritertena (1964), translated and published in English as The Erotic Minorities (1966).[1] Ullerstam was one of the most influential sex liberals of the 1960s, and his book was widely discussed and translated into several languages, including German, French and English.

In The Erotic Minorities, Ullerstam argued that much of what contemporaries saw as perversions were in fact normal phenomena that should be accepted. He further argued that sexual minorities / sexual minority orientations, including necrophilia and pedophilia, should be accepted. He also suggested the establishment of state brothels, and argued against rape (i.e. forced and unwanted - non-consensual - sex).

Dr. Albert Ellis, who also wrote on pederasty in debate with Walter Breen (who used the alias J.Z. Eglinton) for his volume Greek Love (1964), reviewed Ullerstam's book with both praise and reservation.[2] He wrote:

"Dr. Ullerstam's views are well-thought-out and persuasively presented and deserve a careful hearing by all thinking people".

A review in Playboy magazine argued, "Dr. Ullerstam's basic premise deserves serious consideration: why shouldn't those who 'deviate' from the sexual norm (in the statistical sense) be permitted their gratification, if it involves equals and is freely chosen?" In a 1975 issue of the Leftist underground LGBTQ newspaper The Berkeley Barb, Kerry Thornley discussed the book positively.[3] Agreeing with Ullerstam that homophiles [homosexuals] have become "the most privileged of the erotic minorities", because "Gay Liberation commands increasing respect", Thornley writes sympathetically of "the remaining sexual minorities": fetishists, geronotophiles, necrophiles, sadomasochists, pedophiles, saliromaniacs, exhibitionists, transsexuals, transvestites and zoophiles. On pedophiles, she wrote:

"Pedophiles are definitely a misunderstood group. [...] It is hard to imagine how gentle pedophilic attentions could be damaging to children in a social context free of hysteria around sex."

Some reviews were harshly critical,[4] while influential figures of the 1st-wave MAP Movement such as Edward Brongersma and Thomas O'Carroll cited Ullerstam neutrally / approvingly in their works.

References