Previous Story
Sexual Addiction, Pornography, and the First Amendment
Posted On 26 Mar 2002
Today’s article was sent to us by a private practice psychologist who believes that “Sexual Addiction” is a legitimate and true addiction, something that not all psychologists would agree with. Normally with an article this controversial, I would enable TalkBack immediately so that readers could respond. In this case, however, I felt strongly compelled to write an article responding to the one you are about to read. My response will be published tomorrow, and at that time you will also have an opportunity to respond yourself via TalkBack. – EditorToday’s article was sent to us by a private practice psychologist who believes that “Sexual Addiction” is a legitimate and true addiction, something that not all psychologists would agree with. Normally with an article this controversial, I would enable TalkBack immediately so that readers could respond. In this case, however, I felt strongly compelled to write an article responding to the one you are about to read. My response will be published tomorrow, and at that time you will also have an opportunity to respond yourself via TalkBack. – Editor
Sexually addicted consumers of Internet pornography, Internet pornography providers, and mental health professionals who treat sex addicts would all benefit by the establishment of cooperation between the pornography industry and the mental health community. All that needs to happen first if for the pornography industry and the mental health community to understand each other. The rest is cake.
I don’t think anything ever gets solved between people of opposing views until they understand each other. All that happens is a bunch of bashing and thrashing and character assassination. Everybody spends a bundle of energy pounding the podium in front of audiences of the converted and decrying the wrong-headedness of the other side. That’s great for working off calories and for feeling self-righteous, but not much good for solving problems.
Some people oppose the pornography industry on all fronts and want only that it go away. They believe it is evil. It’s my impression that those folks think that the essential properties of pornography are so seductive and powerful that anyone who consumes porn is at risk of becoming corrupted. I think those folks are deeply sincere in their belief and only want what they think is best for the world. Some of those people are also involved in treating sexual addiction including cyber-sexual addiction.
THE MIDDLE GROUND
There are also more moderate people who are involved in treating sexual addiction including cyber-sexual addiction. I count myself in this group. I recognize the inherent conflict between the needs of sex addicts and the rights of the pornography industry. I think we are best served by seeking a balanced solution. On the one hand, there are free speech and free enterprise issues at stake. On the other hand there are mental health issues at stake. At the risk of hyperbole, it is a conflict between free speech and free enterprise on one hand and free lives on the other. Polarization pushes us to think that one value must prevail utterly over the other. That is usually fruitless. I think there is a more fertile middle ground.
Harrah’s, the casino gaming company, displays the telephone number of the National Council on Problem Gambling on the first page of its website. The National Council’s website, in turn, links to self-help and professional help organizations involved in treating problem gamblers, including Gamblers Anonymous, Gam-Anon, the American Board of Certified Interventionists, American Counseling Association, and the National Center for Responsible Gaming. Seagram, the alcoholic beverage company, supports and holds a seat on the Board of Directors of the Century Council. The Century Council is funded by the alcoholic beverage industry and “promotes responsible decision-making regarding alcoholic beverage use and fights alcohol abuse.” The links on the Century Council’s website include Al-Anon/Alateen, Alcoholics Anonymous, the American Automobile Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Safety Council, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
That suggests to me that the gaming and beverage industries have found it to their advantage to take socially responsible positions with respect to the potential abuses of their products and services. They provide us with a model.
“If a parent stops hitting his kid because he knows he may go to jail or be publicly shamed, it is still good for the kid not to get hit. If a citizen pays her taxes because she knows she will be punished if she doesn’t, it still keeps the balance of taxation fair for all of us.”
Now I am not naive enough to believe that the actions of the gaming and beverage industries came about due to the goodness of corporate hearts. I expect that, along with goodness of heart, there are public relations considerations involved, and that the gaming and beverage industries believe that such moderate steps serve prophylactically to keep the abolitionists at bay. That’s okay. If a parent stops hitting his kid because he knows he may go to jail or be publicly shamed, it is still good for the kid not to get hit. If a citizen pays her taxes because she knows she will be punished if she doesn’t, it still keeps the balance of taxation fair for all of us. I’m not saying that I don’t care about moral reasoning. I do. But I can still appreciate the beneficial impact of another’s behavior even if they don’t share my way of thinking.
OPTIMISTIC HUMANISM
As a psychologist, I suffer from an occupational hazard common to mental health types. I think that everybody, or almost everybody, is good and doing the very best they can. I think that most people, most of the time, are trying to do good or at least trying to avoid doing harm. That sort of pie-eyed, optimistic humanism may not be popular these days, but it is my conviction. That’s not to say that I don’t think that there are very rare individuals who to take pleasure in inflicting harm on others. That happens and I have met a few of those folks. But they are just badly wounded people who are coping with a world neck deep in resentment and ill will, earned in a lifetime of abuse, rejection, and mistreatment. Even they are doing the very best they can.
So what does all my claptrap have to do with sexual addiction, pornography, and the First Amendment? Quite a bit, it seems to me. I think everyone will benefit in the long run if the pornography industry accepts that some people get addicted to their products. Given that, the industry needs to act responsibly. Just as alcoholism and addictive gambling are now formal psychological diagnoses, the day will come fairly soon when sexual addiction will be as well. By then, the name may have changed, but the underlying disorder will be the same. I salute the efforts the industry has already made by posting links to filtering software on their websites. That helps to protect children. Some adults need help too.
I think too that more good would be done if those who oppose pornography outright step back and accept that the First Amendment is not likely to go away, and that outright bans only drive the behavior underground anyway. If we professionals focus our attention on contacting and helping people, our energies are better spent.
These are the bare facts. Some people get addicted to sex. Some of those who become addicted specifically get addicted to sex on the Internet – viewing or downloading pornography, chat rooms, and the rest. People quibble about the adequacy of the addiction model to describe sexual addiction – sometimes called sexual compulsivity. The camps are pounding out the details of that distinction through research and argumentation. That is how science progresses and the question is not yet solved. But as a metaphor it’s pretty clear that some people get involved in cyber-sexual activities in ways that look like an addiction. There are five general qualities that are often applied to determine if a behavior is addictive: the addict can’t stop despite negative consequences, mood alteration occurs, the addict is in denial, the behavior is chronic and escalating, and withdrawal symptoms appear when the behavior is stopped. Compulsive sexual behavior involves these five elements.
Can’t stop despite negative consequences: Sex addicts may suffer the loss of valued relationships, employment, money, and even legal consequences, yet continue to “act out” their addiction.
Mood alteration: Sexual excitement and behavior are mood altering. The difference between non addicts and addicts is that addicts use the mood-alteration to deal with difficult emotions and situations.
Denial: Sex addicts rationalize, minimize, and excuse their compulsive behavior: Addicts distort reality without realizing it. Denial justifies continuing the behavior.
Chronic and escalating acting out: Sex addiction is not a phase; it is chronic. The addict needs increasing “quantity” to fill the need. The increased dose may be achieved by intensified behavior, more frequent behavior, or both.
Occurrence of withdrawal symptoms: Research with sex addicts finds that they often have many of the same withdrawal symptoms as alcohol and drug addicts. These include sleeplessness, intrusive dreams, high levels of anxiety, irritability, and roller coaster emotions.
In summary, it is clear that compulsive sexual behavior often has all the elements that make up an addictive disorder.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SEXUAL ADDICTION
At first blush, some folks think the idea of sexual addiction is trivial. It’s not. Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity is a progressive and costly disease that destroys lives and strips people of their dignity and integrity. It is not trivial and it is not a perversion. Sexually addictive behaviors take many forms, all of which take up inordinate amounts of time, energy, money, job productivity and destroy significant relationships. Consequences include obsessive thinking and compulsive consumption of sexual experiences, guilt, shame, self-loathing, emotional and actual isolation, depression, damaged and broken relationships, financial and even legal problems. Addicts feel driven and unable to stop. They use sex to cope with their feelings, to escape, and to adjust their moods. The good news is that effective treatment is available to those willing to accept help.
THE PROLIFERATION OF PORN
The proliferation of sexually related materials on the Internet has drawn a huge audience. By some reports, “sex” is the number one search term used at search engine sites. “Pornography or porno” is number four. More than half of all requests on search engines are “adult-oriented.” I would not presume to say that I know all of what that appetite means.
“The growth in this particular form of sexual addiction almost certainly involves the privacy and ease of access of cyber-sexual products. People who may have been too inhibited to buy pornography over the counter, call \’00 numbers, visit prostitutes, or frequent adult book stores, can now access sexual experiences with far less fear of discovery.”
But I do know for certain that some proportion of people who consume pornography and other sexually related products online become addicted. We really don’t how what percentage of cyber-sex consumers are or become sexual addicts. Certainly not all. Maybe not half. But judging by what we are seeing clinically, it is not a negligible proportion. The growth in this particular form of sexual addiction almost certainly involves the privacy and ease of access of cyber-sexual products. People who may have been too inhibited to buy pornography over the counter, call \’00 numbers, visit prostitutes, or frequent adult book stores, can now access sexual experiences with far less fear of discovery. As an apparent result, there has been a sky rocketing of cyber-sexual addicts.
Some people blame sex addiction on the pornography itself. I doubt that. The predisposition to addiction is like an opportunity waiting to happen. I tell the addicts (of various sorts) who I work with that I doubt we would find many alcoholics in Saudi Arabia because alcohol is not legal there. But I bet we would find addicts of different sorts. There is probably a sort of generic biological predisposition to addiction and maybe a specific neurochemical predisposition to sexual addiction. That question is not yet solved. It is quite clear that there are environmental predictors to the development of sexual addiction including rigid and detached family systems and histories of abuse. For vulnerable people, contact with mood altering sexual material may quickly bring the addiction into full bloom.
Now I am not generally a supporter of pornography. For a variety of reasons, I am troubled by much of what I have seen. Those opinions have everything to do with my personal values and nothing to with the point of this article. I am an adamant supporter of the pornographers’ rights to do what they do and say what they say. That has to do with another value that does have a place in this article. I value the freedom of speech. This is a familiar argument. If we begin to govern acceptable speech, someone’s values become more valuable than someone else’s values. I could make a list of things I would not like anyone ever to say again. So could you. But were I to impose those values onto others, I would be saying that I think that my right is more right than someone else’s right. I would be saying that I know the truth and would be arrogantly presuming that those who differ with me are not as fundamentally valuable as I am. I would be doing violence to the fundamental tenet of our political philosophy (and my psychological philosophy) that all people are inherently and equally valuable. The only workable solution I can think of is to let people use the freedom of their speech in whatever way they please and then learn to deal with the consequences. That is not pretty, but freedom of speech is so essential to everything else that I think we cannot tamper with it.
UNHEALTHY SPEECH
That is not to say that pornography does no damage. I think it does. But so does advertising that propels people into unhealthy dieting, movies that promote violence, campaigns that coax people to buy environmentally corrosive vehicles, and on and on. We do not generally restrict free speech merely because we think it is not healthy speech to hear. At more extreme levels of harm such as the damage children sustain through early sexual experiences, outright prohibition of certain speech such as child pornography does make sense as a protective measure because it is the only way to do it.
No sane person wants to think that they are making a living by creating suffering in other people. I don’t think that people who work in the Internet sex industry are trying to hurt other people or to create or intensify sexual addiction. I don’t think that any more than I think that the people who make vodka are trying to make alcoholics or people who own casinos are trying to make gambling addicts. I just don’t think that many people can get up in the morning and go off to work with deliberate harm in mind. I imagine that people in the industry are trying to make a living, believe they are helping to break down puritanical sexual ethics, and practicing the high-handed art of a conservative interpretation of the First Amendment. I don’t know, but I imagine they think they are doing good in some way. Maybe they are for some people, but not for the addicts.
I have listened to representatives of the alcohol and gaming industries talk about the problems their products and services help to create in some people. While I know that these are paid spokespeople for these industries, I also think they are sincere both in their recognition of the problems and their responsibility and in their compassion for the addicts. And I think their actions do some good. It is my thinking that, given a chance, the people in the Internet sex industry would be similarly responsible and compassionate. I think that is the way people are.
I think it is time to begin a responsible, mature, respectful conversation between those who help addicts and the pornography industry. Let’s put aside the posturing and blame, and look for common ground. Because, if instead we draw lines and dig trenches, the addicts in no ones land are stranded and suffering. The time has come to raise the banner of compassion, understanding, and progress.
“The Internet sex business community need only see one thing. The industry needs to recognize that their product is harmful to a minority of their customers and that they have a social responsibility to help people in that minority.”
So my idea begins with a simple matter of rapprochement between the sexual addiction recovery community and the Internet sex business community. The request is a simple one. The sexual addiction recovery community needs only bring the lens of understanding that they bring to other interactions to this one. They need only see people in the Internet sex business community as honest, well intended people doing what they think is a good thing for themselves and for the spirit of openness. The Internet sex business community need only see one thing. The industry needs to recognize that their product is harmful to a minority of their customers and that they have a social responsibility to help people in that minority. Simple, right? So let’s quit quarreling about who is more right and start talking about how to help the ones who are getting hurt.
It is premature to predict just how an agreement between treatment folks and pornography folks might pound out. But the alcohol and gaming industries have provided some guidance and I am sure that mutually useful accommodations can be found.
By the way, if I had not made it clear along the way, I speak for no one but myself.
For more information about Sexual Addiction visit my web site at www.michaeljohnsonphd.com, or contact me at doctor@michaeljohnsonphd.com.
A. Michael Johnson is a guest columnist at The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine.
