Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Does porn actually damage the brain? Might sound far-fetched, but there is some very interesting research on this topic that might convince you that it does. This week, I plan to post each day on a different topic related to my new book, Sex & God at Yale. Chapter 2, entitled "The Great Porn Debate," details a rip-roaring Oxford-style porn debate starring porn performer Ron Jeremy, which was held in New Haven during my junior year.
Just this morning, a current Yale student sent me this fascinating TEDx video, featuring a talk by physiologist Gary Wilson, host of www.yourbrainonporn.com. According to the video description, Wilson's research "arose in response to a growing demand for solid scientific information by heavy Internet erotica users experiencing perplexing, unexpected effects: escalation to more extreme material, concentration difficulties, sexual performance problems, radical changes in sexual tastes, social anxiety, irritability, inability to stop, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms."
The video lasts about 15 min, but you can catch the main drift by watching only the first 5. Do so and I promise you'll learn something:
Fascinating stuff, huh? Especially considering how extreme and how universal porn has become among youth in the internet age. It has shaped an entire generation already.
So what do you think? Is porn harmless, or is it poison for the brain?
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Comments:
May '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I think Porn is like any drug: Some people have a problem with it.
If Porn was really bad for people across the board, then there should have been a massive spike in problems with men since the Internet. While "porn addiction" may be a growing diagnosis, it does not seem to me to be that big an issue.
Further, Romance novels are porn for women, simulating them in their way. That has been around even longer than the guys stuff. Is only porn for men a problem? Maybe we want to say that only men have a problem with porn?
Personally, I think this is just the next "thing" for people to worry about. There are more important problems facing America on the health front than porn. Like obesity.
May '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Poison. And images once seen can not be driven from the memory.
Jul '12
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Ignoring pornography's moral dimension for moment, it can certainly be harmful if ingested habitually.
Various cultures have affirmed the dangerous side of the sexual imagination when it is unhinged.
From a moral perspective sexuality has as its purpose the union of man and woman. Pornography is not typically used for the union of man and woman but it is used to create a self-indulgent gluttonous, but unsatisfying, feast for the sexual desires.
Edited on September 3, 2012 at 9:20pmJun '12
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I have only an anecdotal observation, but in my opinion the general trend is that once a person starts down that path it eventually leads to much more bizarre varieties. I was a company commander in OIF in 2003-04. Early on, they hadn't outlawed porn (or at least we in the field weren't aware of it's being banned). I wasn't and never have been a porn guy, though I have of course seen some. But some of my subordinate officers were serious consumers as well as some of my soldiers. In the span of less than one year, the guys went from Maxim and FMC (I think that's it) to some bizarre German publication which contained imagery I consider myself permanently scarred by. When I saw the crazy [expletive] I forbade anything more lurid than Penthouse being left out in the open. What they kept in their duffle bags was their business. Later all porn on deployment was deemed illicit, a general order I had no beef with (but boy others did!). Personally, I am convinced by my own observations that the gateway soft core stuff leads to harder core stuff for those who are regular consumers of the medium.
May '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I'm inclined to think that porn is bad for anyone, but that there are "addictive personalities" that are going to experience bigger problems than others regardless of what the addictive substance is.
Bryan, I really agree with your comment about romance novels being porn for women. I came to that conclusion many years ago as I was thinking through the moral issue of porn. I'd heard someone talking about porn and its negative impacts on men (not unlike what Wilson describes, but not so thoroughly documented) and it caused me to wonder: If men are "visual" and drift to airbrushed porn rather than real "warts and all" women, what is the female counterpart? I concluded that women are "relational" and will drift to "unrealistically relational" figures rather than real "crass and crude" men.
For me, the first proof of the thesis was that women's denials were of the same character as the men's denials. And further proof was beginning to see patterns of relational dysfunction that mirrored the patterns of sexual dysfunction.
Apr '12
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
High speed internet porn viewing does, understandably, release too much dopamine and become addictive, but at lesser levels it's not typically a problem.
Dec '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
The people who handwringe over porn are the same people who handwringe over violent video games and every other thing they don't like about the culture.
If someone spends so much time on porn that they can't meet their obligations in the world, or they stop interacting with their partner in a healthy way, then they need to stop using it.
However, that can be said about anything, up to and including collecting tiny bobble head dolls.
Certain people are just more susceptible to manic behavior, regardless of what it is toward.
I'm very inclined to agree with the first commenter here.
With all the problems we have in this nation, porn addiction is WAY down the list of things to fix.
How about we work on the stuff that is going to kill us first, and then worry about the merely unseemly things much later (if at all).
Feb '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
The 15 minute video is interesting, but (and the speaker seems aware of this) very incomplete.
The speaker talks about addicts of this material who were already experiencing very serious symptoms prior to giving it up.
Those who do give it up are (according to the talk) very pleased by the results. If I had to guess, those who might voluntarily give up viewing this material for less severe symptoms would experience a smaller improvement in their lives. That is, not everyone will feel like da Vinci (as one man testified).
[EDIT]: But that is just my guess. And it’s something scientific research ought to be able to test fairly easily.
Edited on September 3, 2012 at 9:35pmJul '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I am not a fan at all but have minimal issues with consenting adults doing as they please no matter how much it bothers me personally. This issue can destroy marriages and damage how people view sex considerably. It is very much like alcohol or drugs.
The mainstream acceptance of this has contributed to considerable moral degeneration.
Dec '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Not unrelated is another point:
This sort crap is why those of us on the libertarian side of the fold are very leery of the hard core so-con side.
As soon as it looks like we might win, they come out of the woodwork to demand govt change people's behavior using the law.
The similarity to leftists in this regard is not lost on us.
Please fight your urges to secure a "solution" to this perceived ill through govt intervention.
EDIT: That wasn't in response to you DocJay, it was the tail end of a too long comment, and the thread moved so fast they didn't post consecutively.
Edited on September 3, 2012 at 9:38pmMay '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Actually, in my experience they can....if you want to badly enough. There is an old sermon originally preached by Robert Boyd Munger in the late 40s or early 50s, called 'My Heart Christ's Home'. In that he addresses the very issue in a couple of places.
In the Library, the realm of the mind, he says: "There were some books were there that His eyes were too pure to behold. There was a lot of trash and literature on the table that a Christian had no business reading, and as for the pictures on the walls - the imaginations and thoughts of the mind - these were shameful.
"I turned to Him and said, "Master, I know that this room needs a radical alteration. Will You help me make it what it ought to be?" (pg. 2 of 7)
I've done that and I can tell you that He is faithful. Further on (pg. 6 of 7) Munger talks about cleaning out the closet in similar terms. Again, my experience tells me that, if you want to, He will do that.
Jun '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Poison. And empirical studies have now shredded the "it's only harmless entertainment" BS.
Three things you should read:
Mary Eberstadt's: Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution. Short and brilliant.
A 2010 study of the social science research by Eberstadt and Mary Anne Layden entitled “The Social Costs of Pornography.”
Jill Manning's 2005 Testimony to a Senate Committee: “The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research,” presented to the United States Senate’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights (November 10, 2005).
Based on my reading on the subject and having dealt with some men with serious pornography problems, I am convinced that pornography (especially Internet pornography) is the single most insidious destroyer of marriages to emerge on the scene in the last 20 years.
Nov '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Destruction of sexual limits--nowadays manifestested most obviously as ubiquitous porn--is a logical step, actually just a short pause, on the path to nihilism, for individuals, for institutions, and for societies.
It's but short movement from "sex without rules and without meaning" to "life without rules and without meaning."
Of course, ulitmately nihilism is only a theoretical abstract because when all other rules cease to have meaning or effect, the rule of the jungle reapplies itself with meaningul effect, at which point rape would be as "legitimate" as any other instance of copulation. In the meantime, a shocking number of young men begin to believe it is not rape unless they get caught.
Edited on September 3, 2012 at 9:45pmMay '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
I just can't resist a funny juxtaposition....
Yeah, but porn has to be a lot less enjoyable with a cool hand.
Aug '12
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Nathan thank you so much for posting this video. I have family members and friends that are affected by this addiction, who in turn have caused much damage to themselves and sorrow to others others because of it.
Although I object to porn on a moral basis, it is great to see that physiologically speaking there is reason to condemn its use as well.
Mar '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Porn is a problem primarily because of desensitization, and secondarily because of false expectations. But for most, it is no different than video games: an escapist but only temporary diversion.
Jun '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
CoolHand: Not unrelated is another point:
This sort crap is why those of us on the libertarian side of the fold are very leery of the hard core so-con side.
As soon as it looks like we might win, they come out of the woodwork to demand govt change people's behavior using the law........
The guy in the video is doing nothing to involve government. He's just pointing out that if you weigh 500 lbs, you may want to stop buying cheesecake by the case. He's not saying you need the government to get involved. If you understand that there are evolutionary reasons why you binge on cheesecake, it might be easier to control what you do. Start buying carrots instead.
Feb '11
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
CoolHand:
First, the fact that someone with poor judgment believes that p is no evidence that not p.
Second, the fact that there are more serious problems that this country has to deal with is a massive red herring. And it would be a red herring even if the question had been, “should our country try to stop people from watching this sort of material?” But it’s somewhat worse, since the principal question at issue is more theoretical: “is this material poison for the brain?”
Nov '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
DocJay: I am not a fan at all but have minimal issues with consenting adults doing as they please no matter how much it bothers me personally. This issue can destroy marriages and damage how people view sex considerably. It is very much like alcohol or drugs.
The mainstream acceptance of this has contributed to considerable moral degeneration.
The only woman I know who was married to a porn addict (and this was in the 1980s before the internet and internet porn existed) wound up having to get a legal separation to protect herself and her children from physical abuse. This is purely anecdotal, but it seems logical to me that this stuff escalates, leads to disrespect and objectification of women, and by breaking down men's inhibitions can lead to violence and abuse.
Jun '10
Re: Is Porn Poison for the Brain?
Why in the last 20 years? Pornography has been around throughout recorded human history. In Pompeii they found pornographic paintings on the walls of bordellos, pornographic pictures have been around since the invention of the camera.
Sexuality is hardwired into us. There will always be some who take it to the extreme, take anything to the extreme. Just like there will always be those who want to criminalize the behavior of others who enjoy things they themselves don't like.