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111 reviews for:
Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
Gary Wilson, Anthony Jack
3.98 AVERAGE
111 reviews for:
Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
Gary Wilson, Anthony Jack
3.98 AVERAGE
Not that anecdotal evidence doesn’t have its uses, but if I wanted to read this many retention and NoFap testimonials, I would have just gone on r/NoFap.
In fact, I did just that after I finished this book, and I feel like some posts there did a better job addressing not just the personal debilitations caused by porn addiction (lack of confidence, depression, suicidal ideation, ED, etc) but also the invisible social tax the porn industry is in part responsible for enforcing.
I’m disappointed that Wilson mainly writes about the male perspective of porn and says little to nothing about how women are also harmed by porn. Blah blah blah little speech about Laura Mulvey, John Berger, and the male gaze. But seriously, if you spend more time watching videos of women going through all kinds of sexual degradation than getting to know women by actually, you know, forming relationships with them, it’s definitely going to change the way you treat and interact with them.
Subconsciously, you begin to view them as three orifices to be filled instead of full human beings. Not to mention, the porn industry is genuinely exploitative, racist, misogynistic, and even pedophilic (like the ‘barely legal’ shit is fucked). I’ve watched and read a bunch of interviews from women who leave the industry shellshocked, and they oft highlight how they were coerced into extreme situations else they were threatened to be booted or blacklisted from future opportunities.
A really good comment from u/CloacaDiddler on a r/NoFap post:
“Porn brings up every racist, sexist, degenerative, negative, and harmful stereotype and reinforces it with dopamine. It’s not healthy to consume, even assuming the people in it were treated humanely and eagerly consented with full free will, which we all know isn’t the case either.”
In fact, I did just that after I finished this book, and I feel like some posts there did a better job addressing not just the personal debilitations caused by porn addiction (lack of confidence, depression, suicidal ideation, ED, etc) but also the invisible social tax the porn industry is in part responsible for enforcing.
I’m disappointed that Wilson mainly writes about the male perspective of porn and says little to nothing about how women are also harmed by porn. Blah blah blah little speech about Laura Mulvey, John Berger, and the male gaze. But seriously, if you spend more time watching videos of women going through all kinds of sexual degradation than getting to know women by actually, you know, forming relationships with them, it’s definitely going to change the way you treat and interact with them.
Subconsciously, you begin to view them as three orifices to be filled instead of full human beings. Not to mention, the porn industry is genuinely exploitative, racist, misogynistic, and even pedophilic (like the ‘barely legal’ shit is fucked). I’ve watched and read a bunch of interviews from women who leave the industry shellshocked, and they oft highlight how they were coerced into extreme situations else they were threatened to be booted or blacklisted from future opportunities.
A really good comment from u/CloacaDiddler on a r/NoFap post:
“Porn brings up every racist, sexist, degenerative, negative, and harmful stereotype and reinforces it with dopamine. It’s not healthy to consume, even assuming the people in it were treated humanely and eagerly consented with full free will, which we all know isn’t the case either.”
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Really accessible literature with valuable, scientific data supported insights.
We are what we repeatedly do. Aristotle
There are few books like this that study scientifically the ''porn effect'' on neural pathways of the brain. Maybe ''Brain On Porn'' is not a perfect book which considers all aspects of this major problem, but it can start a revolution in scientists and psychologists to make them have a critical perspective on porn.
I don't have much to talk about the book because I am still in the shock of the huge knowledge Gary Wilson gave me and I just chose four paragraphs of the book for you!
A new study on anal sex among men and women ages 16 to 18, analysed a large qualitative sample from three diverse sites in England. Said the researchers: 'Few young men or women reported finding anal sex pleasurable and both expected anal sex to be painful for women.'
Why were couples engaging in anal sex if neither party found it pleasurable? ‘The main reasons given for young people having anal sex were that men wanted to copy what they saw in pornography, and that “it's tighter”. And ''People must like it if they do it” (made alongside the seemingly contradictory expectation that it will be painful for women).'
Watching ‘good porn’ won't eradicate these risks. For users whose brains easily go out of balance in response to overstimulation, there is no ‘good’ porn, with the possible exception of an old-fashioned magazine. For them, the unending erotic novelty of the internet comprises a supernormal stimulus.
As a matter of science, an attempt to sort good porn from bad is futile. The brain's reward circuitry, which drives sexual arousal, has no definition of 'porn'. It just sends a ‘go get it!’ signal in response to whatever releases sufficient dopamine.
There are few books like this that study scientifically the ''porn effect'' on neural pathways of the brain. Maybe ''Brain On Porn'' is not a perfect book which considers all aspects of this major problem, but it can start a revolution in scientists and psychologists to make them have a critical perspective on porn.
I don't have much to talk about the book because I am still in the shock of the huge knowledge Gary Wilson gave me and I just chose four paragraphs of the book for you!
A new study on anal sex among men and women ages 16 to 18, analysed a large qualitative sample from three diverse sites in England. Said the researchers: 'Few young men or women reported finding anal sex pleasurable and both expected anal sex to be painful for women.'
Why were couples engaging in anal sex if neither party found it pleasurable? ‘The main reasons given for young people having anal sex were that men wanted to copy what they saw in pornography, and that “it's tighter”. And ''People must like it if they do it” (made alongside the seemingly contradictory expectation that it will be painful for women).'
Watching ‘good porn’ won't eradicate these risks. For users whose brains easily go out of balance in response to overstimulation, there is no ‘good’ porn, with the possible exception of an old-fashioned magazine. For them, the unending erotic novelty of the internet comprises a supernormal stimulus.
As a matter of science, an attempt to sort good porn from bad is futile. The brain's reward circuitry, which drives sexual arousal, has no definition of 'porn'. It just sends a ‘go get it!’ signal in response to whatever releases sufficient dopamine.
My interest in this book is mainly from a historical perspective: never before have humans had access to continuous streams of sexually stimulating content. Such a development is bound to change the way people express and experience their sexuality.
Your Brain on Porn offered plenty of fascinating information on what viewing copious amounts of internet porn does to the brain. Spoiler alert: it's not good. What I found especially refreshing is that the book takes no moral stance on whether pornography is wrong or not. It simply questions, what happens if we watch (too much of) it?
It presents a convincing argument, compiling all relevant research conducted until now, but ultimately I was not the intended audience. It largely reads as a self-help book for men dealing with sexual issues stemming from porn use. I'm sure this book is helpful to them, as it contains many testimonials and an uplifting message, but this aspect of the book held little interest for me.
Your Brain on Porn offered plenty of fascinating information on what viewing copious amounts of internet porn does to the brain. Spoiler alert: it's not good. What I found especially refreshing is that the book takes no moral stance on whether pornography is wrong or not. It simply questions, what happens if we watch (too much of) it?
It presents a convincing argument, compiling all relevant research conducted until now, but ultimately I was not the intended audience. It largely reads as a self-help book for men dealing with sexual issues stemming from porn use. I'm sure this book is helpful to them, as it contains many testimonials and an uplifting message, but this aspect of the book held little interest for me.
Read for my Pathographies of Mental Illness class. Good information, but my god was it repetitive. This could have been 50 pages instead of 200.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Helping a friend read through some books.
This is a book I would recommend to a person in a situation where a discovery of , whether you are the partner or the one whose brain has been "on porn." This book is from a secular standpoint and provides lots of resources and first person accounts of people all over the map who have quit porn (men, women, married, dating, single, old, young, mostly straight but some gay) for the author's argument. Let me repeat - this book is not rooted in any kind of religion or morale-policing system. It is secular and scientific.
This book allowed me to be more compassionate towards my friend's partner and gave my friend hope that this addiction (which is a tough thing to define - he addresses this some in the book, and I'd love to learn more) can be reversed. The author talks about several studies and explains why this particular issue (is pornography addictive) is so hard to research. He dives into many of the studies that have been done into pretty good detail. I admit that I don't know a ton about these studies, but it sounded to me like he knew his stuff.
Towards the end, he talks about a particular researcher who has made the news about pornography NOT being addictive, and I'd like to look more into these arguments.
Mostly, this book is rooted in hope that the more we are learning about addiction and how it works (especially internet and pornography) the more hope we have in the neuroplasticity of the brain and that new connections can be made, and that the symptoms that men and women face when overusing CAN be erased.
This is a book I would recommend to a person in a situation where a discovery of , whether you are the partner or the one whose brain has been "on porn." This book is from a secular standpoint and provides lots of resources and first person accounts of people all over the map who have quit porn (men, women, married, dating, single, old, young, mostly straight but some gay) for the author's argument. Let me repeat - this book is not rooted in any kind of religion or morale-policing system. It is secular and scientific.
This book allowed me to be more compassionate towards my friend's partner and gave my friend hope that this addiction (which is a tough thing to define - he addresses this some in the book, and I'd love to learn more) can be reversed. The author talks about several studies and explains why this particular issue (is pornography addictive) is so hard to research. He dives into many of the studies that have been done into pretty good detail. I admit that I don't know a ton about these studies, but it sounded to me like he knew his stuff.
Towards the end, he talks about a particular researcher who has made the news about pornography NOT being addictive, and I'd like to look more into these arguments.
Mostly, this book is rooted in hope that the more we are learning about addiction and how it works (especially internet and pornography) the more hope we have in the neuroplasticity of the brain and that new connections can be made, and that the symptoms that men and women face when overusing CAN be erased.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Pornography as the new smoking? Maybe or maybe not. I didn't see many new proofs. Quoting people from some forums doesn't make it more true but more boring.