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Baird (2005) concentrates on clergy and cybersex (2005). Bird (2006) evaluates the role of marriage and family therapy in facilitating both individual and relationship healing, but only from an addiction perspective.
Additionally, there is a growing interest in child and adolescent exposure to pornographic material (Jochen & Valkenburg, 2006; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005), which extends beyond academic circles and into the political sphere. In the past year, Congress has held hearings on the negative effects of Internet pornography, in which several experts have presented findings from their own research1.1 the Senate Judiciary’s website for more information on the Hearings for Internet pornography, November 10, 2005. http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1674 Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) has sponsored a bill titled “Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005” in an effort to provide protection for children2.2 Sen. Lincoln (D–AR) website for more information. http://lincoln.senate.gov/ press_show.cfm?id=241537
Thus, while there has been some research on adolescents and pornography, the addiction perspective continues to be the most popular lens through which to view the problem of compulsive Internet pornography use. However, Wood (2006) proposes that a psychoanalytic perspective may offer a dimension to understanding the compulsive Internet user. She questions the unconscious meaning that pornography may hold for a specific individual and raises questions about the etiology and psychodynamics of the user. In my own work, I find that it is important to examine the phenomenon of Internet pornography beyond the addiction lens. Rather than being the causal source of distress in a marriage as the addiction model suggests, Internet pornography may serve an important function in the relational life of the couple as demonstrated by my findings.
Chapter One, the Introduction, outlines the purpose of the research. Chapter Two contains a review of the pertinent literature on the history of pornography, current research on pornography including Internet pornography, extramarital affairs, and various psychoanalytic theoretical perspectives.