Post on 24-Jan-2023
RUNNING HEAD: Partner’s Use of Pornography
The Significance of Heavy Pornography Involvement
for Romantic Partners: Research and
Clinical Implications
Raymond M. Bergner
Ana J. Bridges
Department of Psychology
Illinois State University
Citation: Bergner R, & Bridges A. (2002). The significance
of heavy pornography
involvement for romantic partners: Research and
clinical implications.
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Abstract
This paper presents a paradigm case portrait of the female
romantic partners of heavy pornography users. Based on a
sample of 100 personal letters, this portrait focuses on
their often traumatic discovery of the pornography usage,
and the significance they attach to this usage for (a) their
relationships, (b) their own worth and desirability, and (c)
the character of their partners. Finally, a number of
therapeutic recommendations are made for helping these women
to think and act more effectively in their very difficult
circumstances.
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The Significance of Heavy Pornography Involvement
for Romantic Partners: Research and
Clinical Implications
“Pornography kills love.”
--Bumper sticker.
What does it mean to a woman to discover that her
romantic partner is habitually and heavily involved in
viewing pornography? What does it mean to her, further, to
live continually in a relationship where this is the case?
In this article, we will relate the outcome of research
designed to answer these questions, and delineate some
clinical implications of our findings for therapists working
with couples and individuals on issues of pornography usage.
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The Research
Method
The method employed in this research was to collect and
to study 100 letters posted to four different internet
message boards by spouses, fiances, and girlfriends of men
perceived to be heavily involved in pornography, and to cull
these letters for their recurrent, outstanding themes. The
message boards selected for this research were ones
frequented primarily by self-designated sexual and
pornography “addicts,” and secondarily by partners of these
individuals who had discovered their behavior, were
distraught over it, and were writing in to seek solutions
and emotional support from others who shared their plight
(see final note for listing of specific sites).
Criteria for selection. Beginning with the most recent
letters on these web sites, the second author worked
backward until she had secured 100 that met the following
criteria. First, the writer had to be a woman discussing
her male partner. Second, the problem reported had to be
confined to pornography use; letters indicating that the
partner had gone beyond such use to live, phone, or chat
room contacts with other women were not included. Third,
the letter had to document the writer’s personal experience
with the pornographically involved partner and the meanings
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this had for her. Postings devoted to such things as advice
to other women, personal theories of pornography use, or
religious admonitions were not included.
The letters comprising the final sample were posted
between November, 1999, and September, 2000. They averaged
approximately one half of a single spaced typewritten page
in length (the shortest letter was three long sentences, the
longest one and one half pages). Aside from gender, marital
status, and sexual preference, it was not possible to
ascertain from these anonymous postings any further
demographic information.
Perceived level of pornography usage. The authors of
the letters reported a level of pornography usage that on
average consisted of daily viewing of several hours
duration; in some cases, it was somewhat less than this, in
others, substantially greater. They further reported that
in most cases this usage interfered significantly with the
user’s relational and vocational functioning (e.g., that in
the marital relationship the user had become sexually
disinterested and emotionally withdrawn). Finally, they
related in every case that the user had been either unable
or unwilling to cease his use, except temporarily in some
instances. While a limitation of this study is that the
investigators were not in a position to assess these men
directly, the perceived levels of involvement, if
reasonably accurate, suggested a relationship to pornography
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that would qualify in virtually all cases as heavy and
habitual, and in most as “compulsive” (Coleman, 1990) or
“addictive” (Carnes, 1983, 1991). Given this limitation,
however, the present study should be viewed as one of how,
perceiving the pornographic involvement as described, our
subjects assigned meanings to this involvement.
Method of study. All letters were studied intensively
by the two investigators, who (a) independently identified
major recurring themes, (b) met to identify common themes
noted and to negotiate any differences in what they
observed, and (c) arrived at a consensus regarding the
primary themes expressed in the letters. While the sample
employed is not a random one drawn from the entire
population, it did seem consonant with the first author’s
clinical experience of women who come to therapy with
concerns about their partners’ use of pornography.
Method of report. To report the results of this
inquiry, we will employ a scientific method involving the
presentation of a paradigmatic or prototypical case (Rosch,
1973; Rosch & Mervis, 1975). This will take the form of a
composite portrait or profile of an individual who
exemplifies all of the outstanding themes emerging from the
study of these letters (cf. the method employed by DSM-IV in
describing mental disorders). Where there are significant
departures from this paradigm case, these will be noted.
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Discovery as a Traumatic Event
For the typical woman in our sample, the discovery of
her partner’s extensive pornography use, which might occur
in a single incident or might increasingly dawn on her over
a period of time, alters her view of her world in a radical
way. The discovery is traumatic in the sense that it
confronts her with a new world that she finds devastating,
confusing, and incomprehensible--and one that, as time
passes, leaves her increasingly at a loss regarding how she
might act effectively to
correct the situation. This new world view encompasses
alterations in her perceptions of three related areas: her
relationship with her partner, her view of her own worth and
desirability, and her view of the character of her partner.
Let us examine each of these in turn.
New View of the Relationship
The discovery of her partner’s involvement in
pornography results in a substantial reappraisal of their
relationship. Often, it is connected to, and seems to
explain, other observations that she has been making. Most
notable among these is that her partner seems increasingly
withdrawn and even secretive, and that the quality of their
sexual relationship has deteriorated.
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In previous research by Roberts (1982), Davis and Todd
(1982), Davis (1985), and Bergner (2000), a conception of
the nature of romantic love was developed. The view
emerging from this research was that romantic love is a
relationship that prototypically embodies the following
characteristics: (a) investment in the wellbeing of the
beloved, (b) respect, (c) admiration, (d) sexual desire, (e)
intimacy, (f) commitment, (g) exclusivity, and (h)
understanding. On this analysis, for persons to believe
that they are loved fully by others is to believe that
these others care strongly about their personal wellbeing,
are committed to them, respect and admire them, find them
sexually desirable, include them intimately, understand them
deeply, and give them a position of exclusivity in their
worlds. When events occur that do not fit this picture--
e.g., the partner is discovered to have a secret life from
which they are excluded, or to be having an affair--these
are seen as violations of the love relationship. If such
violations are of sufficient magnitude, the conclusion drawn
will often be that they are not loved--that they no longer
have a place in the world of the other as his or her
beloved. Such is the conclusion drawn by many women who
learn of, and who experience over time, their partner’s
intensive involvement in pornography. Let us examine in
more detail some of the specific
violations of love that they perceive.
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Exclusivity. The vast majority of women in this study
used words such as “betrayal,” “cheating,” and “affair” to
describe the significance that their partner’s involvement
in pornography had for them. Although their partners were
not in actual contact with other females, these women
clearly viewed the pornographic activities as a form of
infidelity. The theme that runs through their letters is
that “He has taken the most intimate aspect of our
relationship, sexuality, something that is supposed to
express the bond of love between us and to be confined
exclusively to this relationship, and shared it with
countless fantasy women.”
Sexual desire. In this regard, two distinct portraits
emerge from subjects. The first is voiced by women in
circumstances where their partners have ceased pursuing
sexual relations with them: “I am no longer sexually
attractive or desirable to him. He’s more attracted to the
women depicted in his movies, magazines, and web sites than
he is to me, and I feel completely unable to compete with
these women.” The second pattern that emerges occurs in the
frequent situation where the pornographically-involved
partner continues to pursue sexual relations with the letter
writer, but his lovemaking conveys to her the following
painful impression: “I am no longer a sexual person or
partner to him, but a sexual object. He is not really with
me, not really making love to me when we have intercourse.
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He seems to be off thinking about something or someone
else--likely those porn women--or he is just inserting me to
play a role in some novel sexual scenario that he saw
somewhere. He is just using me as a warm body.”
Intimacy/inclusion. The dominant theme in this regard
is this: “I have been excluded, isolated, barred from
intimacy with him. I have lost someone who I thought was
my best friend and most intimate companion in life. He now
has a whole secret life from which I am completely excluded,
and about which he continually lies to me.”
Investment in wellbeing of beloved. The typical
conclusion regarding this aspect of love assumes the
following form: “He no longer seems to care about me or my
wellbeing, and he shows this in many ways. Perhaps most
importantly, it does not seem to matter to him (or to matter
enough that he is willing to do anything about it) that I am
devastated by his pornography use and am in great pain.”
Understanding: The predominant theme: “He doesn’t
really know or understand me. In particular, he doesn’t
seem to understand, despite all that I have said, how his
actions affect me. He doesn’t seem to get it--to have a
clue.”
Living a lie. The final emergent theme concerning the
relationship does not pertain to any specific aspect of love
but to a general feeling voiced by many women: “We are
living a shameful lie--presenting a lie to the rest of the
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world--when we pretend to have a loving relationship. What
we really have is a very sick and unhealthy one. I feel a
deep sense of shame over this.”
New View of Self
The typical woman in our sample engages in a personal
struggle regarding
the implications of what has happened for her worth and
value. A part of her struggles to believe that “This is not
about me--this is not a valid indicator of my worth, value,
and desirability as a woman and a person.” Another part of
her says: “Indeed it is about you.” More often than not,
the latter part prevails. She finds herself unable to
believe that the loss of her partner to his pornographic
interests is not a valid indicator of her true worth and
desirability. In her eyes, his involvement implies that
she must be...
Sexually undesirable. The overwhelming majority of
women in this sample reported that their partners’
preference for pornography left them feeling sexually
undesirable. Self-descriptors such as “fat,” “ugly,”
“old,” and “repulsive” were commonplace in their letters.
Over and over again, the note sounded was that they could
not measure up physically to the impossible ideal of the
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women displayed in pornographic movies, magazines, and web
sites.
Worthless. What has happened must mean that she is
worthless, that she is unlovable, and that she must have
failed as a wife and as a woman. After all, she reasons, if
she was good enough, she would have been able to hold her
husband’s attentions and affections and this never would
have happened.
Weak and stupid. Finally, a common theme expressed in
the letters was that anyone who would let herself be treated
in such degrading ways, and would not respond either by
leaving the relationship or by taking other powerful
measures to respect herself and her personal limits, must be
a weak and stupid person (a further basis for shame).
New View of Partner
In many cases, the partner’s heavy involvement in
pornography results in his mate coming to a new view of his
character and personal worth. The general conclusion drawn
is that “He is not the person I thought he was, but someone
else, and someone for whom I have a great deal less
respect.” Thus the demotion or degradation described above
becomes a two way street. He has excluded and marginalized
her in critical ways due to his preoccupation with
pornography. And now, learning of his predilections, she
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has degraded him as a person and, often, as one whom she
finds she can love as before. The most frequent of her new
characterizations of him are the following:
Sexually degraded. In her eyes, he has become a
“pervert,” a “sex addict,” a “sexual degenerate,” or in some
other way a sexually questionable and degraded being. In
some number of cases, he is seen, not only as sexually
degenerate, but as progressing to further and deeper
degeneration. The most common basis for this attribution is
her discovery that he is involving himself in increasingly
“sicker” material (e.g., pictures of children, of sadistic
scenarios, or of bathroom activities). Finally in this
regard, he is often viewed as an objectifier of women; i.e.,
as someone who treats women, not as co-entitled persons with
desires, rights, and
feelings of their own, but as depersonalized commodities
whose function is to sexually gratify him.
Liar. The great majority of women in our sample
reappraised their partners as liars. They came to view them
as untrustworthy, deceitful persons whose word could no
longer be trusted.
Unloving/selfish: Another common reappraisal of these
men was that they were individuals who were invested
exclusively in their own pleasure at the expense of everyone
else’s wellbeing. In short, the view was that these men had
either ceased loving or had never loved in the first place.
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Inadequate father and husband. Where children are
involved, the user often comes to be seen as a failure in
his crucial role as a father. This view is based on her
perceptions that he has exposed his children to pornography,
has damaged and deprived them by his continual failures to
be available to them, and has set a terrible example for
them. Further, he is seen as having failed to be a true
husband and partner to her in the marriage.
Sick or bad?: A critical dichotomy. Many women in
our sample developed a view of their partners as sick. They
described them variously as “addicted,” “not fully
responsible,” “not in control,” and beset with what they
viewed as a mental illness. In contrast, many others
viewed their partners as fully responsible wrongdoers who
were making a free choice in putting pornography over them
(“putting his dick before me” was a recurrent expression).
Finally, many expressed a tremendous amount of confusion in
this regard, stating either that they could not comprehend
what was going on, or describing their partners
simultaneously as both sick and bad. Not surprisingly, in
the measure that these women viewed their partners as in the
grips of an illness, they also viewed them as less
responsible for their actions, and stated a greater
willingness to stay in the relationship and try to help
them.
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Repentant or unrepentant: A second critical dichotomy.
A second critical factor affecting both the woman’s view of
her partner and her willingness to stay in the relationship
was the degree to which she perceived him as repentant for
his behavior. In cases where the partner exhibited such
actions as admitting that he had a serious problem,
expressing remorse for his behavior and its consequences,
and making a commitment to changing it, these served to
greatly mitigate the devastating picture of him articulated
above and to lessen her desire to leave the relationship.
In cases where evidence of such repentance and desire to
change were absent, the female partner’s loss of respect and
motivation to terminate the relationship were greatly
elevated.
Some Implications for Psychotherapy
The view of reality held by the women in our sample is
not unrealistic or illogical, but it is maladaptive. It
leads in many instances to helplessness, despair and
inactivity; and in others to all manner of ineffective
action. Most common among these actions are attempts to
change the partner through angry attack, personal
degradation, expression of pain, threats to leave, removal
of the offending materials, continual surveillance of his
activities, and strenuous attempts to get him out of denial
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to a realization of what he is doing. In the great majority
of cases, these actions have proven futile for the women
under discussion here.
This section is devoted to the presentation of a more
adaptive alternative formulation of the situation described
above. This formulation is designed to help both therapist
and client better understand what is going on. It is
further designed to enable the female partner to become more
of an observer and less a reactive responder, to realize
that what is going on is in critical ways “not about her,”
and to generate more effective courses of action should she
wish to save her relationship, or even just save herself.
The centerpiece of this revised view is an understanding of
what is going on in what is variously referred to as
“compulsive” (Coleman, 1990) or “addictive” (Carnes, 1983,
1991) pornography use. The following therapeutic
recommendations are intended for those clinical situations
where careful assessment reveals that the female partner is
correct in her perception that her partner is pathologically
involved in pornography usage, as indicated by such
dimensions as amount of time spent, inability to cease use,
and serious interference with relational and vocational
functioning.
The Nature of Pornography Addiction
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Pornography addiction, whether “normal” or paraphilic
in its content, is a species of the broader category of
sexual addiction or compulsion. This being the case, we
draw here on a number of established researchers and
clinicians who have come to a certain conclusion about such
addictions. In broad terms, this conclusion is that the
sexually compulsive person, whether he or she be involved
with pornography, paraphilic acts, relentless cruising, or
other activities, is in the business of repair to his or her
self-esteem. Sexual acting out, which in many cases is
more pronounced after a blow to the individual’s self-esteem
(Carnes, 1991; Coleman, 1991), is on various accounts an
attempt to restore one’s sense of personal worth following
an insult to the masculine self-image (Coleman, 1991), to
recover from explicitly sexual childhood degradations
(Bergner, 1988), or to triumph over very damaging childhood
sexual indoctrinations (Money, 1984, 1986).
A clinically useful analogy for capturing in more
illuminating detail what is going on in sexual compulsivity,
and for humanizing the addicted person by drawing parallels
to nonsexual problems, may be found in the following case
illustration. The case involves a young doctoral candidate
in English literature whom we shall call “William.” William
had had a childhood marked by an unusually great amount of
humiliating and degrading treatment at the hands of others.
This treatment had brought about in him a resolve that one
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day he would “show them all” by achieving a vindictive
triumph over his old familial and peer detractors. As his
talents and inclinations developed, the form that this
vindictive triumph assumed was a fantasied scenario in which
he would write the great American novel, would become
heralded as the next Thomas Wolfe, and would be universally
praised both in bastions of literary excellence and in
popular venues such as Time and Newsweek. In this scenario,
his old degraders would seek him out, flattering him and
seeking to be included in his inner circle of friends.
However, when approached by them, he would dismiss them with
a statement such as, “Excuse me, but I’m afraid I don’t
remember you at all, and I’m really quite busy, so if you
wouldn’t mind...” William spent a great deal of time
indulging in this most gratifying fantasy, doing so to such
a degree that it interfered with his life in important ways
and became the focus of significant therapeutic attention.
In this example, we note three things. First, William
is obsessed with a preferred scenario that has its origins in
his early experiences of humiliation and degradation.
Second, this scenario represents an “accreditation ceremony”
(Bergner, 1987; Ossorio, 1978); i.e., a scenario that, were
it to occur in reality, would (or so he believes) lift him
from his degraded status among other persons to a new
position of vindictive triumph over them and of vast public
acclamation. In the scenario, he has created a world
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conveying ultimate salvation for him and recovery from his
childhood humiliations. Third, this accreditaton ceremony
is unsuccessful--it does not in fact achieve recovery for him.
Transposing this to the domain of compulsive sexuality,
the heavy and habitual user of pornography, like every
individual, has a preferred sexual scenario. This scenario,
famously termed a “lovemap” by John Money (1984, 1986),
shows up in his or her erotic dreams, sexual fantasies, and
pornographic preferences. This scenario, like William’s, is
based on the individual’s experience and, in the case of
pornographic or other sexual addictions, represents a
fantasied world in which the individual overcomes childhood
degradations and achieves a powerful personal accreditation:
now he is desired, adored, and even loved by a beautiful
woman; or humiliates women as they once humiliated him (cf.
Stoller, 1975) ; or exposes himself to the amazement and
wonder of a desirable woman; and so forth. It is this
element of personal validation or accreditation that, when
coupled with the already vast erotic satisfactions inherent
in sexuality, make for such an addictive “cocktail” for
these persons. Finally, however, the ceremony must fail.
It has not occurred in reality--he has not actually achieved
recovery and personal validation. Even worse, it leaves him
in most cases feeling more degraded and depressed in its
aftermath for a variety of reasons. For example, he
recognizes that he has once more lost control and spent
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hours in feverish pursuit of sex; and/or that his preferred
scenario is an unacceptable, “perverted” one; and/or that he
is failing and hurting a woman who loves him by excluding
her in favor of these degrading images. Thus, once the
satisfactions of fantasied validation and orgasmic satiety
have passed, he is left degraded and depressed, and thus in
ever greater need of a new “fix” to restore, however
temporarily, his diminished esteem (cf. Coleman, 1991; Gold
& Heffner, 1998; Wolf, 1988).
Therapeutic Implications
This general view of compulsive pornography use has
applications in clinical work with couples, as well as with
the users or their partners seen individually. Since our
focus in this report is on the female partners of male
users, we will focus on its use with them. When shared with
these partners, the formulation has the following important
applications.
“It’s not about you.” First of all, if accepted, the
formulation gives the individual a view of her partner’s
addiction that says, “This is not about you.” It informs
her that it essentially has to do with childhood
degradations from which her mate is trying strenuously to
recover. It takes the compulsion out of the realm of being
any sort of valid indicator of her personal worth, value, or
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desirability; and into the realm of its being his creation
of a restitutional world for purposes of personal recovery.
Finally, it says to her that it is true that she can’t
compete with it as such--but it is true only in the same
sense that she, like every other human being, can’t compete
with highly idealized fantasies of a world made precisely to
the fantasizer’s order. Thus, the therapist may use the
reformulation as a way to attack the self-degradations
described above that are so characteristic of partners of
heavy pornography users. Clearly, whether she decides
ultimately to leave the relationship or to try to salvage
it, this is a vital therapeutic objective.
Diminishing the degradation of the partner. Accepting
this revised view of her partner’s addiction is, in many
cases, tantamount to degrading him less. On this view, he
is no longer cast as a “sicko” or a “pervert” who is beyond
the pale of acceptable human society. Rather, he is viewed
as a man, in many cases a decent man, who is in a
pathological state--who has, in Wakefield’s (1992) apt
expression, a mental disorder that amounts to a “harmful
dysfunction.” Viewing him thus serves to reduce her
contempt, anger, and dismissal of him as a decent human
being. Finally, it can help her to view the problem with
more dispassion and objectivity, and thus to undertake any
needed action on this more rational basis.
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Implications for revised behavior. The partner of the
pornography addict, based on her formulation of the problem,
has characteristically engaged in certain behaviors. Based
on a maladaptive problem formulation, these behaviors have
been largely unsuccessful, and have often served to create a
systemic situation where her attempted solutions have become
a part of the problem (Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974).
Typically, she has engaged in intensely emotionally- driven
behaviors designed to get her partner to “see” and to
change. These have included attacking, degrading,
imploring, threatening, reasoning, expressing pain,
continually checking on him to see if he is using, removing
or destroying the offending materials, and trying to be more
sexy to win him back. As a rule, rather than improving the
situation, her coercion has elicited resistance, her attacks
have evoked hostility and increased shame, and her attempts
to gain control have been met with a determination not to be
controlled.
Aside from eliciting the consequences just mentioned,
the actions of the female partner have been problematic in
further ways. First, an ample body of experimental
(Goleman, 1995) and clinical (Bowen, 1978; Lerner, 1989)
literature attests to the destructive effects of letting
one’s behavior be driven by emotion at the expense of
observation, thought, and personal principle. In the
present instance, this is clearly the case. The female
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partner is characteristically in an understandable, yet
highly problematic, state of emotional desperation, and her
behavior tends to assume a quality of high emotional
reactivity. When given a more adequate understanding of the
nature of her partner’s problem, she is also given a central
basis for (a) understanding the situation better and thus
how to deal more effectively with it, (b) being more
objective and rational in her responding, and (c) being less
devastated by it, all of which run counter to emotional
responding. Beyond this, explicit assistance by the
therapist in stressing observation, careful planning, and
personal principle over letting oneself be emotionally
triggered is all to the good (Bowen, 1978; Lerner, 1989).
Finally in this connection, the female partner’s
behavior routinely violates the therapeutic truism that one
is best served to remove one’s energy from changing the
other and to place that energy into changing oneself (Bowen,
1978; Lerner, 1989). Under this heading, she is well
advised to reconsider her efforts to change him, and if
necessary to review how her past attempts to do so have
failed. More positively, an excellent therapeutic focus is
on a course of action entailing (a) carefully defining her
own personal limits regarding what she can and cannot live
with, (b) communicating these to her partner in a spirit,
not of ultimatum or of bending him to her will, but of
preserving her own dignity and integrity, and (c) taking
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actions up to and including separation to back up such
statements (Lerner, 1989). Beyond this, a careful and
dispassionate review of what she herself might be
contributing to the marital dysfunction, and actions to
change any problematic behaviors and omissions on her part,
are worthwhile emphases.
Conclusion: Limitations and Clarifications
Sample Characteristics
The present sample, as noted at the outset, was
selected from internet message boards dedicated to
discussions of pornography and other sexual “addictions.”
It was comprised entirely of women who perceived that their
partners were heavily involved in viewing pornography, felt
distraught and helpless over this, and were writing in to
seek solutions from others. The sample was drawn neither
from the population at large, nor from some other, broader
and more diverse, population. Thus, we cannot answer many
important and interesting questions that might be addressed
by employment of such samples. Are there many women who
would be relatively undisturbed by their partners’ similar
involvement in pornography? How do women feel about more
limited use of pornography by their partners? How
frequently do men, in the face of their partners’ discovery
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of and objections to their use, abandon it? Are there women
who are problematically involved with pornography, and, if
so, what significance do male partners ascribe to this?
Finally, however, it might be noted that the present sample
does possess important features that are highly
characteristic of women who seek therapeutic assistance.
All of our subjects were emotionally upset by the problem;
their problem formulations and attempted solutions had thus
far been unsuccessful in bringing about change; and they had
come to other persons in the hope that these persons could
provide effective solutions for their problems (Watzlawick
et al., 1974).
On Sexual Addiction
With respect to sexual addiction, two final things need
be said. First, as noted previously, a limitation of the
present study is that we were unable to assess the
pornography use of the male partners directly. Thus,
strictly speaking, the study is one of the reactions of
women who perceive that their partners are heavily,
habitually, and most often addictively involved in
pornography. Second, the concept of “sexual addiction” is
itself a controversial one (Gold & Heffner, 1998). However,
despite this controversy, there is broad agreement that a
substantial number of persons develop involvements with
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sexuality wherein they spend inordinate amounts of time in
its pursuit, this pursuit seriously interferes with their
relational and vocational functioning, and they are unable
to cease this pursuit when they attempt to do so (Goodman,
1992). In employing the terms “addiction” and “compulsion”
in this article, we wish only to designate such relations to
pornography, and not to take any position in the ongoing
debate regarding whether this is best considered an
addiction, a compulsion, or an impulse disorder (cf. Gold &
Heffner, 1998; Goodman, 1992) .
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Notes
1. The web sites employed for this research were
(a) “Breaking Pornography Addiction” (http://www.no-
porn.com/)
(b) “Internet Addiction Discussion Group”
(http://users.cgiforme.com/
anniblesmith/cfmboard.html)
(c) “Online Sexual Addiction (OSA) Bulletin Board”
(http://
onlinesexaddict.org)
(d) Relationship Web (http://relationshipweb.com).
2. The authors wish to thank Dr. Laurie Bergner for her very
helpful critique of an earlier draft of this paper.
Correspondence may be directed to Raymond M. Bergner, Ph.D.,
Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal,
IL 61790-4620
30