The topic of sexual addiction predictably provokes contemptuous
laughter from individuals unfamiliar with the phenomena it represents.
Adolescent smirking or moralistic skepticism are the usual responses
on the part of those who do not understand addiction. Although public
awareness and acceptance of the disease model
of alcoholism has made great strides in the past few decades,
a similar understanding of other manifestations of the addictive
process has lagged behind - especially in the case of sexual addiction.
The word addiction derives from the Latin root
addictere,
'to be bound to another,' i.e. enslaved. What appears to observers
as undisciplined and immoral self-indulgence in the irresponsible
pursuit of pleasure is experienced by the addict as a progressively
burdensome and frequently destructive entrapment from which suicide
sometimes seems the only escape. Whether the manifestation of the
addictive process be alcohol, drugs, food, spending, gambling, sex
or a combination of behaviors, the victim of the addictive process
is enslaved and bound to another: his addiction. See the following
articles for more information about the psychology and process of
addiction and recovery:
It is a bitter irony that most moralistic and
condemning responses toward the addict derive in large measure from the envious
misconception that the addict is more free than he ought to be, and that because
he enjoys forbidden pleasures denied to others he merits censure and punishment
for his transgressions. Popular resentment towards addicts stems from the belief
that it's not fair for the addict to get away with excesses and indulgences that
non-addicts deny themselves - supposedly out of due regard for morality and
propriety.
The irony is that addiction is its own punishment -
hence the addict pays for his sins not only by the obvious and cumulative
external consequences of his addictive behavior, but by the constriction
and deformity of his lifeworld itself by the pathological and inescapable
dominance of his addictive compulsions and obsessions. Far from
being more free and thus the legitimate target of envy by others,
the addict is unfree, a prisoner of his insatiable drives and appetites.
The websites and files in this section will
introduce you to the concepts and behaviors associated with sexual addiction. It
will be apparent to anyone with a reasonably open mind that such phenomena, far
from representing mere immoral hedonistic self-indulgence, are pathological and
indeed irrational to the highest possible degree. Individuals caught in the
toils of the addictive process are sick people who, not understanding what is
going on with them, judge themselves with the same degree of ignorant disgust
that is still the default mode of society at large.
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