Meeting François, an elegant young man of 35, having come to ask for an analysis for he knew I had written a book on pedophilia, enabled me to cast a new light on such pedophilic practices which we had studied at length with my colleague Roger Teboul (´Entre pËre et fils. La prostitution homosexuelle des garÁons./Between father and son. Homosexual male prostitution, Paris, P. U. F., 1988).

If indeed in numerous cases of pedophilia we find on both sides, that is both on the side of the adult and on the side of the child, situations of sexual abuse and deficiencies, I felt that one more characteristic were to unite pedophiles and children, namely not only the fact that it pre-existed but also the trans-generational transmission of several kinds of abuse, most of the time being physical ones but also psychological ones that are far more noxious.

This is the point of view with which I shall deal first starting from FranÁois’ story, as compared to previous clinical data, before questioning the impact of such abuse in the constitution of the psyche within its several psychopathological aspects.

But questioning abuse cannot eschew the problematics of incest with its unavoidable trans-generational transmission when no therapy is available, hence a complementary feld of research remains open.

Finally, when one is able to put the pedophilic ´choiceª with a personal story in terms of repeated abuse, often not acknowledged as such gives a new element in favour of arguing that pedophiles can indeed be cured and no longer remains a planned fate for those children who were once victims.