Was Kitagawa mentally ill？
You discussed the issue of grooming which is often seen in child sexual abuse. He proposed a hypothesis that Kitagawa’s incident might represent the hunger for fatherhood seen by Japanese boys. He reminds us that many boys abused by Kitagawa still idealize him or regard him as a God-like figure. Although many of these abused youngsters are deeply traumatized, some of them still like him and think that he is a sort of father figure.
In reality many of them felt totally confused by the fact that apparently a benevolent and all-giving old person can be so selfish and predatory at the same time. Was he a psychopath whose only purpose was to sexually exploit boys and any of his apparent kindness and care for them was only a façade? Although it might have been the case, I imagine that Kitagawa himself was confused about what he was doing.
To be more objective, I believe that Kitagawa had a great trouble controlling his sexual impulse and had something close to behavioral addiction. Just in the same way that once honest and hardworking citizen might end up losing his moral sense and does not mind stealing people’s money in order to keep betting in slot machine, Kitagawa did something as hideous as injecting female sex hormone (with his own hands!) to boys in order to keep them physically immature and stay sexually enticing to him. Why is it that men’s sexual behaviors might get out of control to this level?
