Thore Langfeldt
Thore Langfeldt (born 30 September 1943) is a Norwegian psychologist and sexologist. He was born in Oslo, and is a trained psychologist at the University of Oslo from 1972. He is married and has three children, and is a specialist in clinical psychology and clinical sexology. He has been a practicing psychologist since 1983, and in 1989 founded the Institute for Clinical Sexology and Therapy which he led until 2004. In 1982, together with Elsa Almås, Langfeldt initiated the founding of the Norwegian Association for Clinical Sexology. He has also been a senior researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies.
He is an internationally known psychologist, among other things, for his work on children's sexual development. He was active in the study group known as the Pedophile Working Group (Pedofil Arbeidsgruppe – NAFP). In the 1970s and 80’s, Langfeldt published on child sexuality and positively experienced cases of pedophilic age-gap relationships.
After Langfeldt reportedly attended the 1977 The International Conference on Love and Attraction, held in Swansea, Wales, he published a chapter in the 1979 book emerging from the event. Titled "Processes in Sexual Development," it examined the importance of sexuality in childhood.[1] He wrote how research indicates that children have "a high degree of spontaneous sexual arousal." He concludes by asserting that, "If we are going to pay respect to the children’s feelings and emotions, we cannot consider sexual interactions involving children as a crime." PIE Chairperson Thomas O'Carroll cited Langfeldt’s paper in his 1980 publication, Paedophilia: The Radical Case.
In 1986, he published a book on child sexuality titled: If You Want, You Are Allowed: About Child Sexuality [translated to English].
Langfeldt would later take an interest in researching gender identity. Similar to Richard Green, Langfeldt at one time acted as the president of The Harry Benjamin Resource Centre Europe (Harry Benjamin Resursseter – HBRS), a German-American sexologist after whom the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) was originally named. Elsewhere in his career, he has witnessed in several criminal trials involving unlawful sexual contact. Notably, he acted as a therapist for Erik Andersen, known as The Pocket Man, testifying to his defense during the trial of March 2010.
There are various historical claims made about Langfeldt's publications and associations which we are unable to verify and have therefore not reproduced in this entry.[2]