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| "Pornography addiction is being described in the US as ‘our newest and most challenging mental health problem’, but despite the numbers of people suffering serious consequences from habitual porn use, few therapists feel confident addressing their concerns" |
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I read with great interest Wendy Maltz’s article ‘The porn trap’ in the February 2010 issue of Therapy Today. I am particularly heartened by the way she calls for ‘shame-free directness’, that she is not in favour of censorship (censorship is only likely to lead to pornography moving further underground) and perhaps, most importantly, that mental health professionals can be ‘most helpful when we resist our tendencies to automatically condemn or advocate porn’.
Time to address the damage
I read with great interest Wendy Maltz’s article ‘The porn trap’ in the February 2010 issue of Therapy Today. I am particularly heartened by the way she calls for ‘shame-free directness’, that she is not in favour of censorship (censorship is only likely to lead to pornography moving further underground) and perhaps, most importantly, that mental health professionals can be ‘most helpful when we resist our tendencies to automatically condemn or advocate porn’.
I work actively in the area of pornography and cybersexual ‘addictions’ (with both men and women) and am all too aware of the pain and misery that can be brought into lives through these activities. I am no longer surprised by the sheer volume of work that there is to do in this area. However, I am a little disappointed by counselling and psychotherapy’s unwillingness to address and engage with the deep wounds that our pornised society is causing in people.
I have constructed a fictional narrative for other therapists based on my own professional work in this area and I am lucky enough to be having Turned On: Intimacy in a pornised society published this spring. I can only imagine that after almost a decade of broadband pornography, the time is fast approaching when the counselling and psychotherapy profession feels ready to address what some are calling our most challenging mental health problem.Duncan E Stafford
MBACP (Accred), UKRCP
www.counselling-cambridge.co.uk
