The Pornography Addiction Epidemic and the II Corinthians 3:18 Treatment Model
By Don Tjader
“At 13.3 billion, the 2006 revenues of the sex and porn industry in the US
were bigger than the revenues of the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball
combined.”
“Worldwide sex industry sales for 2006 are reported to be $97 billion,
more revenue than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix, and
Earthlink combined.”
“72 million: The approximate number of unique visitors to adult Web
sites in 2006, per month, worldwide.” And, “40 million are US adults”
According to this last statistic approximately 1 out of 4 people have looked at pornography this month--people we walk past in the hallways at school, our coworkers at work, at the mall, at church or other religious fuctions. Google Trends, a search tool of the popularity of keywords shows that from the year of 2004 to present, the search for just the single word, “porn” has increased 300% over the past five years. Two conclusions can be drawn from these statistics: one, pornography has a huge effect on people and trigger strong emotions; and two, as technology grows, so pornography viewing grows in step.
Now, before we make a judgment about the good or bad, right or wrong, about pornography, there is a vast array of arguments, for and against, pornography. There are many controversies and complexities that must be considered on a macro scale of the US, and globally, including political, religious or cultural differences. The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV, the standardized guide that mental health professionals use to diagnose behavioral and other illnesses, does not include pornography addiction, or sexual addiction, in general, as a disorder; but, I wanted to make note of the sheer magnitude of the pornography addiction controversy, and that there are many topics beyond the scope of this small essay to discuss; but at the very least, to make note of there are many competing opinions. So, what is the scope of this essay?
This essay will be written for the person that says to themselves any number of these: “I do have an addiction,” and, “its compulsive,” “it's obsessive,” “I'm out of control,” “it's ruining my life,” “it's taking up too much time,” “too much money,” or “it's risking my life.” They could be near rock bottom, where, everything is about to be lost or thrown away: family, wife, kids, career, or pride. The person could be saying to themselves, “I've tried everything, nothing works,” or, “My problem is different, I'm not treatable.” These are faulty thinking and irrational myths that can, and need, to be broken as soon as possible! Pornography and sexual addictions are very common, correlated to chemical addiction, and treatable and curable, stated by several counselors and therapists definitively.
Another preface, this essay will include a lot of loose wording, for example, sex addiction and pornography addiction will be used interchangeably, for example. This essay will look at sexual addictions and develop a theory, and at the same time, a major point will not be lost—that major point is anyone can have victory in pornography addiction!
Dr. Patrick Carnes, an authority in Sexual Addiction treatment has dedicated his life to counseling sex addicts and has conducted lab tests, surveys and statistics, and has defined the “illness of sexual addiction” as a “pathological relationship with a mood-altering experience.” This is a pretty general definition which encompasses any form of addiction or compulsion (over-eating, gambling, alcohol, etc. falls into this category); and Dr. Carnes has found that sexual addiction is more difficult to stop, as compared to chemical addictions. Sex addicts that want to change their behavior will have to more stronger within themselves, and rely on outside help, because there is hope.
Another influence in the scope of this essay is to capture the unique spirit of the scientific models that biochemist Fazale “Fuz” Rana presents in his research, called the RTB model. The RTB model covers the course of many sciences, including astronomy, biology, and philosophy; but, this paper will be the first to extend the RTB model into the realm of psychology! Fuz takes statements about nature from the Bible and casts them into the scrutinizing eye of the scientific community; the goal being to understand nature by opening science up to the allowance of a physically transcendent being or deity. “A testable supernatural model may be advanced if evidence supporting the model can be demonstrated.” Fuz is not trying to prove the supernatural being exists, or what the being looks like or quality, but to advance our understanding of physical nature further. Likewise, it is outside the scope of this essay to prove God exists, or that the Bible is a valid source of scientific data, but that statements from the Bible can be analyzed via the scientific method to advance a better understanding of nature (in the case of this essay, the nature of pornography addiction and propensity of transformation). The Bible states that God reveals himself through nature (Romans 1:20), so let’s see how before we start building a scientific model!
One way to see the fingerprints of a transcendent being is through Einstein's theory of relativity, which has shown scientifically that time, space, matter and energy have a beginning. The question is, how can the laws of physics have a beginning? Nothingness cannot beget somethingness. Yet, Einstein, through one of the greatest scientific discoveries of E=MC^2, has mathematically shown that hydrogen atoms (beginning of the universe) were created from nothingness. Let alone, the statistical impossibility of those same hydrogen atoms evolving into complex, highly intelligent, cerebral cortex's (in other words, our brains). From the theory of relativity we can make a philosophical inference that a transcendent being must exist outside of the physical realm of nature.
According to Fuz, “[scientific] models advocating supernatural intervention in nature must be testable and must generate predictions that have the capacity to guide the discovery process.” So the scientific model will need to be testable and make predictions. Since the realm of porn addiction is the hardest addiction to break, and there are many helpless addicts Google-searching “porn,” then we want to find the most radically, behavior altering statements the Bible offers us, to build a supernatural, scientific model. Let’s go with II Corinthians 3:18:
“And we all...beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
Now let’s draw out of this statement the testability and predictions, like Fuz told us to do. The scientific model’s testable element would be: beholding the Lord's glory; and, the prediction: the Lord will transform us into his image. Now let’s use only the most revered and well established psychology theories available to us to put this new scientific model to the test and to help it’s validity!
The beauty of casting the Bible into the scientific realm is that we can build off of an already well established field of scientific advancements to test the Bible’s claims of validity. The strictest and longest time tested psychology development to build upon is Sigmund Freud. Freud is the founding father of psychoanalysis and pioneer of diving into the treatment and transformation of sexual behavior. One part of Freud's discoveries included studying the way the patient’s unconscious protects its self from anxiety or pain, he calls defense mechanisms. There are many defense mechanisms Freud has founded, which still today have lastng worth (projection, rationalization, repression, etc.), and still today is widely accepted clinical terminology--but I want to focus on the most important one: transference.
The transference simplest definition is from a medical dictionary, “In psychoanalysis, the process by which emotions associated with one person, such as a parent, unconsciously shift to another, especially to the analyst.” Carl Jung, a giant in psychology, and student of Freud, describes a conversation he had with Freud on the topic of transference as follows, “…. [Freud] asked me..., 'And what do you think about the transference?' I replied with the deepest conviction that it was the alpha and omega…, whereupon he said, 'Then you have grasped the main thing.'” A simple example of transference is when a child meets an older stranger, but, the child knows from past emotional experience will assign the same role of their parent to the stranger. An example of a pornography addict's transference would be when one's emotional longings are for sex, or orgasm, or nurture, or acceptance, etc., they will turn to pornography to fulfill that emotional need through a counterfeit version of sex, or orgasm, or nurture. Transference, therefore, is the most important knowledge to know about ourselves, and to meditate on it, and to fight to know what emotional need, embedded deep down in the near-infinite chasm of our psychology, is demanding our attention, and to break free then from the addictive ways of fulfilling the emotional need. How can we use transference to radically transform our minds for the better?
Counselor Russell Willingham in his book Breaking Free, says we have to take transference and take it to the next level! Russell explains that sex addicts have to take their emotional needs and do something he calls “The Great Transference;” and continues that a sex addict has to spot the addictive cycle he is in, and then name the emotional need that is crying out to be fulfilled; and instead of using pornography, we have to allow God to come in and fulfill our need. Instead of fill our emotional needs with pornography, being filled with God is the ultimate emotional need fulfillment! Pastor John Piper eloquently describes this emotional need, “the deepest longing of the human heart is to know and enjoy the glory of God.”
Back to the RTB II Corinthians 3:18 model which states that if we behold God's glory we will be transformed. So the point is not to behold pornography, but to displace the desire to behold pornography with a greater joy of beholding God’s glory instead. How can we behold the glory of God? “Beholding” is to hold an object in sight, so if one beholds an infinitely powerful supernatural being with finite natural senses, that would cause a type of marveling in wonder and in awe and in amazement and in enthrallment that reality; and to try and take that as far as our mental capacities can take us in all honesty, should reduce a person to... Jell-O.
What are God's qualities?--Only the most powerful being inside (and outside) the universe. The heavens declare the glory of God according to Psalm 19. He breathed out the stars (Genesis 1)--all 13.86 billion light year radius of our observable universe—breathed out of his mouth! To fathom the magnitude of how immensely powerful that is, and how infinitesimally small the speck of dust our earth is, can only bring a glory-beholder trembling to their knees in shock! God is the most sovereign being in the universe (Romans 9). He has power over life and death. To even consider the intense magnitude of these statements is to be blown away into spinning back flips. There are the most amazing promises in the Bible of healing—are they easy to just pass over and not realize it? Our Creator has made our bodies from hydrogen atoms, which exploded a couple times within a quasar, again in a Type II supernova, to create all the elements in the periodic table; and finally spun around into our amazing little rock called earth; and from all this space dust, our 100 billion neurons housed inside our skull cavity was made from all this—including nothing. To behold God the Creator is to really see how infinitesimally small humans are, and how huge God is; and to fear and tremble at the magnitude of everything. To behold God for who he really is, is to displace all our worldly obsessions, with a new obsessions of desiring to see and savor God for the rest of our lives, so that we can be transformed into a likeness of God's image—and that is the testable.
In recap, first dig deep into your heart to find out what the basic levels of emotional need are. When anger abrupts, or sadness creeps in, or sexual urges surface, ask yourself questions. What made me have this feeling? And in which direction do I want to transfer these feelings? Once the emotional need is adequately confirmed and verified, the next step is to do the “Great transference”. There are many ways to behold God's glory, and to realize that we are greatly loved, and fearfully and wonderfully made, and to realize Christ is beautiful and has saved us from our hurts and pains, and will come and allow us to have Him for all eternity, the most beautiful object, whom we were created for, and we can have the greatest hope and needs fulfilled, this is the Great Transference. If we can believe this and trust in the Biblical model, then we can have the greatest joy in transformation, in the most painful suffering.
In conclusion, that's the testability of the II Corinthians model, it's a test-it-for-yourself and see if God will make true and be faithful on his promises, and the prediction of a radical transformation will happen. Perhaps this scientific model is not of the robustness of Einstein's theory of relativity, and is devoid of rigorous, empirical experimentation to show for it; but I do challenge and encourage you to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” and try for yourself if the Lord will manifest himself in amazingly irresistible ways.
The II Corinthians model also states that there is a transformation from one degree of glory to the next, this states that transformation is long term. A pornography addict will not be able to read this short essay and be instantly healed; but should have a warfare-bent mind frame set against their addiction as a life long journey, for the sake of breaking free of addictive bondage, by being a life time student of transference-psychoanalysis on self, and a beholder of the most amazing glory that exists, in and outside of the universe. I have added lists in the back for further help and continued reading to help with the journey of one degree of glory to the next. May God be the most glorious thing you behold for the rest of your life.
Works Consulted
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (ESV). Wheaton: Good news Publishers, 2007. All Scripure quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV).
Piper, Ph.D., Pastor John. Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001.
Rana, Ph.D., Fazale, and Hugh Ross, Ph.D. Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004.
Jung, M.D., Carl.The Basic Writings of C. G. Jung. New York: Random House, Inc., 1959.
Carnes, Ph.D., Patrick. Contrary to Love: Helping the Sexual Addict. Center City: Hazelden Foundation.1994.
Carnes, Ph.D. Patrick. Don't Call it Love: Recovery from Sexual Addiction. Minneapolis: The Gentle Press. 1991.
Russell, Willingham. Breaking Free: Understanding Sexual Addiction & the healing Power of Jesus. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
Michael, Leahy. Porn Nation: Conquering America’s #1 Addiction. Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2008.
Ropelato, Jerry. “2006 Worldwide Pornography Revenues.” Top Ten Reviews. Apr. 2009 http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html.
“transference”. The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. Apr. 2009 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transference>.
“porn”. Google Trends. Apr. 2009 http://www.google.com/trends/search/
Profesional Help
JoAnn K. Nishimoto, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
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Recovery Group
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Online help
www.settingcaptivesfree.com
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Books
Porn Nation, by Michael Leahy
Breaking Free, by Russell Willingham
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, by John Piper
Out of the Shadows, by Patrick Carnes
Special Thanks (alphabetical)
Abern, Sandee (Psyche Prof)
Bruss, John (Mentor)
Chapman, Scott (Pastor)
Furr, Matt (Pastor)
God (All in All)
Griffin, Jeff (Pastor)
Hook, Rylan (Battle Partner)
Morrison, Jim (Astronomy Prof)
Nishimoto, JoAnn (Prayer Warrior)
