The debate continues around the world. An article from The New Age online (South Africa) highlights a study by clinical psychologist Dr. David Ley that found no physiological side effects of using sexually explicit material. The author of the article suggests that anyone arguing that porn addiction is valid is ignoring the positive benefits such as improved attitudes towards sexuality, variety of sexual behaviors, and pleasure in long-term relationships. The article quotes Dr. Ley: “We need better methods to help people who struggle with the high frequency use of visual sexual stimuli, without pathologising [sic] them or their use thereof.”
What effect does it have on a sexual relationship? What do you think when your partner masturbates to pornography? What about your own personal, private experience with masturbatory imagery on the internet? Does anyone have the right to tell you what to look at, or to masturbate to? Your partner? Your therapist? A “sex expert”? A researcher? What is normal? Only you can decide what pornography is doing to your sex life, to your own intimate connection with a partner and to your capacity to experience desire. I think whenever any expert comes on too strong on one side or the other there could be a problem. Both positive and negative experiences happen to individuals and to couples when pornography is involved. In fact, there are as many types of porn use as there are couples. When we lump them all together and make general sweeping statements about whether or not porn has side effects, we need to look at what kind of porn use we are talking about. How many times per day is the user looking at porn? What type of porn? Are they in a relationship? Is the porn imagery dystonic to the users fantasy life? Is the porn use secret or private? Does the partner participate? Does the masturbation occur quickly during the viewing, or later on, after the viewing? These, and thousands of other questions, will affect the “side effects” and the emotional and psychological consequences of porn use. More studies, more conversations and more research needs to focus on relational effects as well as the scientific use of masturbatory imagery as it relates to orgasm and intimacy.
Read the article yourself: Porn not an addiction, more of a pleasure giver
I’ll be speaking on non-pathologising approaches to helping with out of control sexual behavior at two events this fall:
A teleclass with Dr. Neil Cannon: A Strength Based Approach to Treating Out of Control Sexual Behavior (OCSB) September 22, 2014 from 1:00-3:00 pm Eastern time
At the Lifestyle Intervention Conference in Las Vegas, October 6-8, 2014 I will be speaking about Erotic Recovery After Infidelity. Up to 40% of those dealing with sex addiction are currently struggling with alcoholism and/or substance abuse. Lifestyle Intervention Conference teaches professionals to recognize, diagnose and treat these addiction interactions.
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