Article - Sex and the Psychiatrist

Examining private parts may not be the most rewarding aspect of medicine - but surely cleaning blocked toilets is not a rewarding aspect for the plumber! - but medical people are called to do things most of us do not have to. The volume of pornography and nudity on the Internet is staggering - but why not, if you are a psychiatrist, make use of this? However, before you do, do make sure that after browsing the Internet you know how to delete history and temporary files saved in your computer, as well as form information because this can put in a search sentence into the search engine frame, a sentence you may not want others to see - else your son or daughter or spouse may come across these and begin to think you have gone funny or weird.

 
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1.0 The Internet has become a boom industry for all manner of pornography. There seems an endless number of adult sites. Such can be come across unexpectadly. A search on, for example, "nude beaches", may result in sites that portray sexual acts supposedly on nude beaches.

1.1 The sexual nature of the human species is such that sex is an integral and important aspect of a relationship. It can be argued that too much exposure to adult sites might impact this appreciation of a relationship usually between a man and a woman.

1.2 But does it? Unresolved sexual tension can cause some mental illnesses. However, the sexual tension that does this is complicated. In fact, it is in extreme individuals that sexual tension can result in horrible behaviour. Serial killers, for example, may have a complex sexual tension wiring in the brain and the resultant sexual tension when understood correctly is not something most of us, other than psychiatrists, can understand or appreciate.

1.3 It is a known fact that teenagers and adults do masturbate. It is also a known fact that most feel guilty about this. What is the cause of the fear? Classical psychiatry might suggest the fear is the result of religious taboos conditioned into the young.

1.4 This article rejects this view. The fear, it is proposed in this article, is natural. It is a fear that such may become an addiction replacing, or damaging, a normal relationship between male and female. Depending on the personality, in some cases this could be true, however, in the vast majority of cases this fear, it is proposed, is an imaginary fear and not justified. Another aspects of the fear is the fear of being discovered. A sexual act between consenting adults, or even one adult on his or her own, is private business and ought not be a source of shame.

1.5 It is known that violent movies rarely affect people - because people know a movie is make believe, not real. This article proposes that pornography is much like a movie - the person watching knows it is not real, meaning it is staged. In fact, is is extremely difficult to find natural sexual act movies on the Internet. There are many sites which claim they contain home made movies or webcams, but rarely are these sites anything but staged. One tell tale sign is lack of pubic hair. The pornography industry seems to have decided long ago that their actors or models are not to have pubic hair. In fact, it is extremely difficult to find any site that does contain natural sexual acts meaning the people have pubic hair. Another tell tale sign is the size of the male organ. The vast majority of men, it is known, have normal lengths but there are exceptions. The pornography industry seems to find these exceptions and use them. Dangerous for the female actress - in fact, in one clinical article I have come across, it suggested the number of internal injuries caused by such organs especially when anal intercourse is undertaken, is frightening to surgeons who have to deal with this.

1.6 A worrying trend is to use models which are of small stature, and of small dimensions including small breasts, and who are likely 18 or older but can come across as young girls - can come across even as young as twelve.

1.7 Fetish sites are also a concern. There are those which cater to displaying the female body rather than anything else, regardless of how the fetish is presented - these, in my view, are harmless, example of such sites are sites to do with spanking and the act itself is usually staged - but there are also horrifying sites which crucify women and brutalize them. This article suggests that these sites, to do with bondage, would offend ordinary men and women. The person attracted to these sites may have a need that most of us don't have. Of course, men and women are naturally curious about certain matters, and out of curiousity a person may venture into such sites, but it is unlikely they will return to these or look for them once the novelty wears off.

1.8 The spanking sites are interesting. These project violence and brutality, typically against women, but rarely is this believable. Some of the movie clips from such sites are so poorly put together that sometimes the sound is inconsistent with the image being shown (i.e. the sound effects are added later). However, these sites may satisfy a need, an "unresolved tension of childhood", in the seeker. The sexual tension between mother and son is known in psychiatry as the Oedipus complex. Not something a mentally healthy individual is bothered with or even aware of - but those with a mental illness have such tensions, and some of these specialized sites may in fact act to reduce such tension. While to most people any of these sites would come across as "make believe" after the novelty wears of, to those with deep sexual tensions these sites are "real". It may not be the done thing for a psychiatrist to recommend a patient goes on Internet and looks through some of these sites, but maybe, just maybe, this could work.

1.9 Now, it may seem a strange or even bizarre suggestion, but it seems to me that a psychiatrist might be the best person to design some of these specialized fetish sites. Carefully designed colours, shapes, poses, words, can act to heal the inner tensions in the person seeking these sites. Such sites, when designed well, may also provide the vital clue to a psychiatrist about their patient. A piece of furniture, for example, from a particular period, may draw the seeker to such movies or images that contain that piece of furniture. That is, a patient may have been traumatized at that point in their life when a similar piece of furniture was in the house. Or, for example, a painting in the scene reflecting the nature of the turmoil in the psyche, this might result in a person seeking such particular images or films that contain this type of painting. Indeed, if what I read somewhere is true and those truly mentally ill often cling to an object and if only the psychiatrist can decipher the importance of that object, then half his work is done, hence including something similar to that object in a particular image or film clip might go a long way to aid the psychiatrist in deciphering the purpose of that object. Chances are, in my opinion, that object resembles a structure in the brain that ought to be in place but is not. If the importance of that object is understood, then a psychiatrist may be able to build a bridge in the image of the missing structure.

1.10 Again, a seemingly silly suggestion, but it seems to me that it would be proper for say a group of psychiatrists to come to grips with how some sites, spanking the obvious example, could be developed to truly aid the work of psychiatry. A patient could be asked to go through various images or film clips, and indicate how he or she would rate these in terms of appeal. The clues in the image or film would be put there in such a way as to guide the psychiatrist as to the patient's unresolved sexual conflict. The complexity of such sexual tension in those who are mentally ill, can be so staggering that all manner of combinations could be used in such staged images or film clips to help to identify exactly how a complex sexual conflict in childhood began to control aspects of the psyche. Indeed, a long and complex film could be made that can go a long way to stir in the psyche some of the inner tensions that had emerged.

1.11 Let's consider a hypothetical. A young boy say five witnesses his father turn violent against his mother. He hides in the closet, covers his ears, tears flow. He falls asleep in the closet. The next morning the mother packs her bags and takes the boy away from her husband or partner. The boy, however, loves his father and resents being separated in this way. In his psyche, he decides that his mother was at fault and deserved to be beaten. Not something he dares to day so a vault forms, locking in those childhood memories. As he develops, now and then the vault releases some of this pent up hate and in so doing temporarily affecting the young man's behaviour and rationality (toward women). What if, when the man is an adult and still has these problems of uncontrolled anger for an unknown reason, we develop a movie in which a woman is chastised by a man. At first she might wear the same or similar dress to what the patient remembers his mother wearing around that age. The hair of the actress could be made in the same way that the boy remembers. The actor could be made to come across as a lovely man but who lost his temper when his wife did something so bad and the reason he beat her. If such a movie is done well enough, and projects the sense that the woman is at fault and deserved to be punished, then chances are that it might open the vault completely for long enough for the psychiatrist to understand the nature of the inner torment in the man.

1.12 There is no end to the subtletity that can be introduced into a staged film. We could aim to introduce such delays that the patient himself, or herself, watching the movie, will yell "just hit her!". And if he does, chances are this is the vault opening.

1.13 The pornography sites other than fetish sites, convey sex not sexual love. It is almost impossible to find any film clips that convey sexual love. Sex on its own can be seen by an impressionable male as brutality against women. The male patient who finds it impossible to relate to women, for example, might be assisted by watching a film clip which is completely explicit and yet one which conveys sexual love. Not hard to do - a gentle touch of the man's face during the sexual act can convey this, and can confuse a patient in that suddenly he may begin to awaken to the fact that sometimes, or often, sex is about love not just sex.