The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers Read online

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  ENDNOTES

  PART ONE

  FROM PORNOGRAPHY TO PORNO TO PORN: HOW PORN BECAME THE NORM

  1 Lynn Harris, “Stop Him Before He Clicks Again!” Salon.com, 15 April 2004, http://dir. salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2004/04/15/filters/index.html.

  2 John S. Lyons, Rachel L. Anderson, and David B. Larsen, “A Systematic Review of the Effects of Aggressive and Nonaggressive Pornography,” in Media, Children, and the Family: Social Scientific, Psychodynamic, and Clinical Perspectives, eds. Dolf Zillmann, Jennings Bryant, and Aletha Huston (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994), 305.

  3 John Schwartz, “The Pornography Industry vs. Digital Pirates,” New York Times, 8 February 2004, final edition, sec. 3, p. 1.

  4 Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, 23 February 2004.

  5 Mireya Navarro, “Women Tailor Sex Industry to Their Eyes,” New York Times, 20 February 2004, final edition, sec. A, p. 1.

  6 “His Porn Habit Has Become a Hardcore Problem,” Toronto Star, 4 July 2004, sec. B, p. 4.

  7 Courtney C. Radsch, “Teenagers’ Sexual Activity Is Tied to Drugs and Drink,” New York Times, 30 August 2004, sec. A, p. 15.

  8 “National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse IX: Teen Dating Practices and Sexual Activity,” The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, August 2004: 23.

  9 Benoit Denizet-Lewis, “Friends, Friends with Benefits and the Benefits of the Local Mall,” New York Times Magazine, 30 May 2004.

  10 Cynthia Littleton, “Hugh Hefner, Stan Lee to Hop to ‘Superbunnies,’” Hollywood Reporter, 7 September 2004.

  11 Tor Thorsen, “Take-Two, Sony, and Microsoft Sued Over ‘The Guy Game,’” Gamespot.com, 21 December 2004. Available at http://www.gamespot.com/news/6115478.html.

  12 Chris Morris, “Video Games Get Raunchy,” CNN Money.com, 13 May 2004, http://money. cnn.com/2004/05/11/technology/e3_nekkidgames/index.htm.

  13 Patrick Goodenough, “Online Porn Driving Sexually Aggressive Children,” CNSNews.com, 25 November 2003.

  ACQUIRING TASTES AND LOVES : WHAT NEUROPLASTICITY TEACHES US ABOUT SEXUAL ATTRACTION AND LOVE

  * Taken from “Acquiring Tastes and Loves,” from The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doidge, copyright © 2007 by Norman Doidge, used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  1 The tendency of some heterosexuals to develop a homosexual attraction when members of the opposite sex are not available is well known (e.g., in prison or in the military), and these attractions tend to be “add-ons.” According to Richard C. Friedman, researcher on male homosexuality, when male homosexuals develop a heterosexual attraction, it is almost always an “add-on” attraction, not a replacement (personal communication).

  2 This plasticity is one reason why Freud called sex a “drive” as opposed to an instinct. A drive is a powerful urge that has instinctual roots but is more plastic than most instincts and is more influenced by the mind.

  3 The hypothalamus also regulates eating, sleeping, and important hormones. G. I. Hatton. 1997. Function-related plasticity in hypothalamus. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 20:375–97; J. LeDoux. 2002. Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York: Viking; S. Maren. 2001. Neurobiology of Pavlovian fear conditioning. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:897–931, especially 914.

  4 B. S. McEwen. 1999. Stress and hippocampal plasticity. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 22: 105–22.

  5 J. L. Feldman, G. S. Mitchell, and E. E. Nattie. 2003. Breathing: Rhythmicity, plasticity, chemosensitivity. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 26:239–66.

  6 E. G. Jones. 2000. Cortical and subcortical contributions to activity-dependent plasticity in primate somatosensory cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23:1–37.

  7 G. Baranauskas. 2001. Pain-induced plasticity in the spinal cord. In C. A. Shaw and J. C. McEachern, eds., Toward a theory of neuroplasticity. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 373–86.

  8 J. W. McDonald, D. Becker, C. L. Sadowsky, J. A. Jane, T. E. Conturo, and L. M. Schultz. 2002. Late recovery following spinal cord injury: Case report and review of the literature. Journal of Neurosurgery (Spine 2) 97:252–65; J. R. Wolpaw and A. M. Tennissen. 2001. Activity-dependent spinal cord plasticity in health and disease. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:807–43.

  9 Merzenich has done experiments that show that when change occurs in a sensory processing area—the auditory cortex—it causes change in the frontal lobe, an area involved in planning, to which the auditory cortex is connected. “You can’t change the primary auditory cortex,” says Merzenich, “without changing what is happening in the frontal cortex. It’s an absolute impossibility.”

  10 M. M. Merzenich, personal communication; H. Nakahara, L. I. Zhang, and M. Merzenich. 2004. Specialization of primary auditory cortex processing by sound exposure in the “critical period.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 101(18): 7170–74.

  11 S. Freud. 1932/1933/1964. New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. Translated by J. Stratchey. In Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 22. London: Hogarth Press, 97.

  12 Plato’s Eros is not identical with Freud’s libido (or later Eros), but there is some overlap. Platonic Eros is the longing we feel in response to our awareness of our incompleteness as human beings. It is a longing to complete ourselves. One way we try to overcome our incompleteness is by finding another person to love and have sex with. But the speakers in Plato’s Symposium also emphasize that this same Eros can take many forms, some of which don’t appear erotic at first glance, and that erotic longing can have many different kinds of objects.

  13 A. N. Schore. 1994. Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; A. N. Schore. 2003. Affect dysregulation and disorders of the self. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.; A. N. Schore. 2003. Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

  14 M. C. Dareste. 1891. Recherches sur la production artificielle des monstruosités. [Studies of the artificial production of monsters.] Paris: C. Reinwald; C. R. Stockard. 1921. Developmental rate and structural expression: An experimental study of twins, “double monsters,” and single deformities and their interaction among embryonic organs during their origin and development. American Journal of Anatomy, 28(2): 115–277.

  15 In the first year of life, the average brain goes from weighing 400 grams at birth to 1000 grams at twelve months. We are so dependent on early love and the caregiving of others in part because large areas of our brain don’t begin to develop until after we are born. The neurons in the prefrontal cortex, which helps us regulate our emotions, make connections in the first two years of life, but only with the help of people, which in most cases means the mother, who literally molds her baby’s brain.

  16 Sometimes regression is quite unanticipated, and otherwise mature adults become shocked at how “infantile” their behavior can become.

  17 In chapter 8, “Imagination,” I give the scientific evidence that proves that we can change our brain maps simply by imagining things.

  18 T. Wolfe. 2004. I Am Charlotte Simmons. New York: HarperCollins, 92–93.

  19 E. Nestler. 2001. Molecular basis of long-term plasticity underlying addiction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(2): 119–28.

  20 S. Bao, V. T. Chan, L. I. Zhang, and M. M. Merzenich. 2003. Suppression of cortical representation through backward conditioning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 100(3): 1405–8.

  21 T. L. Crenshaw. 1996. The alchemy of love and lust. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 135.

  22 E. Nestler. 2003. Brain plasticity and drug addiction. Presentation at “Reprogramming the Human Brain” Conference, Center for Brain Health, University of
Texas at Dallas, April 11.

  23 K. C. Berridge and T. E. Robinson. 2002. The mind of an addicted brain: Neural sensitization of wanting versus liking. In J. T. Cacioppo, G. G. Bernston, R. Adolphs, et al., eds., Foundations in social neuroscience. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 565–72.

  24 It is possible to judge whether an animal or a person likes the taste of a food by its facial expressions. Berridge and Robinson have shown, by manipulating dopamine levels while animals eat, that it is possible to make them want more food, even though they don’t like it.

  25 N. Doidge. 1990. Appetitive pleasure states: A biopsychoanalytic model of the pleasure threshold, mental representation, and defense. In R. A. Glick and S. Bone, eds., Pleasure beyond the pleasure principle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 138–73.

  26 Certain depressed people have trouble experiencing any pleasure at all, and their appetitive and consummatory systems do not function. They can’t anticipate having a good time, and should they be dragged out to a meal or some other pleasant activity, they can’t enjoy it. But some people who are depressed, while unable to anticipate having fun, will, if dragged out to a meal or social event, find their spirits lifting because, even though the appetitive system is not working properly, the consummatory system is.

  27 S. Thomas. 2003. How Internet porn landed me in hospital. National Post, June 30, A14. These quotes are from the National Post version of an article originally published in the Spectator, June 28, 2003, called “Self abuse.”

  28 E. Person. 1986. The omni-available woman and lesbian sex: Two fantasy themes and their relationship to the male developmental experience. In G. I. Fogel, F. M. Lane, and R. S. Liebert, eds., The psychology of men. New York: Basic Books, 71–94, especially 90.

  29 Stendhal also described how young girls at the theater fell in love with famously “ugly” actors, such as Le Kain, who in their performances evoked powerful, pleasurable emotions. By the end of the performance, the girls exclaimed, “Isn’t he beautiful!” See Stendhal. 1947. On love. Translated by H.B.V. under the direction of C. K. Scott-Moncrieff. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 44, 46–47.

  30 R. G. Heath. 1972. Pleasure and pain activity in man. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 154(1): 13–18.

  31 N. Doidge, 1990.

  32 Ibid.

  33 Ibid.

  34 Unfortunately, the tendency of our pleasure and pain centers to inhibit each other also means that a person who is depressed, and who has aversive centers firing, finds it more difficult to enjoy things he normally would.

  35 M. Liebowitz. 1983. The chemistry of love. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

  36 A. Bartels and S. Zeki. 2000. The neural basis for romantic love. NeuroReport, 11(17): 3829–34; see also H. Fisher. 2004. Why we love: The nature and chemistry of romantic love. New York: Henry Holt and Co.

  37 Tolerance occurs when the brain is inundated with a substance—in this case dopamine— and in response the receptors on the neurons for that substance “down regulate,” or decrease in number, so more of the substance is required to get the same effect.

  38 E. S. Rosenzweig, C. A. Barnes, and B. L. McNaughton. 2002. Making room for new memories. Nature Neuroscience, 5(1): 6–8.

  39 S. Freud. 1917/1957. Mourning and melancholia. Translated by J. Stratchey. In Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press, 237–58, especially 245.

  40 W. J. Freeman. 1999. How brains make up their minds. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 160; J. Panksepp. 1998. Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press, 231; L. J. Young and Z. Wang. 2004. The neurobiology of pair bonding. Nature Neuroscience, 7(10): 1048–54.

  41 A. Bartels and S. Zeki. 2004. The neural correlates of maternal and romantic love. Neuro- Image, 21:1155–66.

  42 A. B. Wismer Fries, T. E. Ziegler, J. R. Kurian, S. Jacoris, and S. D. Pollak. 2005. Early experience in humans is associated with changes in neuropeptides critical for regulating social behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 102(47): 17237–40.

  43 M. Kosfeld, M. Heinrichs, P. J. Zak, U. Fischbacher, and E. Fehr. 2005. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435(7042): 673–76.

  44 The ancient Greeks, with simple elegance, described our tendency to develop powerful, not always rational, loving attachments to family and friends, as “love of one’s own,” and oxytocin seems to be one of several neurochemicals that promote it.

  45 C. S. Carter. 2002. Neuroendocrine perspectives on social attachment and love. In J. T. Cacioppo, G. G. Bernston, R. Adolphs, et al., eds., 853–90, especially 864.

  46 Personal communication.

  47 T. R. Insel. 1992. Oxytocin—a neuropeptide for affiliation: Evidence from behavioral, receptor, autoradiographic, and comparative studies. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 17(1): 3–35, especially 12; Z. Sarnyai and G. L. Kovács. 1994. Role of oxytocin in the neuroadaptation to drugs of abuse. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 19(1): 85–117, especially 86.

  48 W. J. Freeman. 1995. Societies of brains: A study in the neuroscience of love and hate. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 122–23;W. J. Freeman, 1999, 160–61. Freeman points out that hormones that influence behavior, such as estrogen or thyroid, generally need to be released steadily in the body to have their effects. But oxytocin is released only briefly, which strongly suggests that its role is setting the stage for a new phase, in which new behaviors replace existing behaviors. Unlearning may be especially important in mammals because the cycle of reproduction and rearing the young takes so long and requires such a deep bond. For a mother to switch from being totally preoccupied with one litter to caring for the next requires a massive alteration in her goals, intentions, and the neuronal circuits involved.

  49 W. J. Freeman, 1995, 122–23.

  50 One typical explanation for the rigidity of aging bachelors or bachelorettes, who want to marry but have become too fussy, is that they fail to fall in love because they have become increasingly rigid through living alone. But perhaps they also become increasingly rigid because they fail to fall in love and never get the surge of oxytocin that may facilitate plastic change. In a similar vein, one can ask how much of people’s ability to parent well is enhanced by the prior experience of having fallen in love—in a mature way—allowing them to unlearn selfishness and open themselves up to another. If each mature love experience has the potential to help us unlearn earlier, more selfish intentions and become less self-centered, a mature adult love would be one of the best predictors of the ability to parent well.

  51 M. M. Merzenich, F. Spengler, N. Byl, X. Wang, and W. Jenkins. 1996. Representational plasticity underlying learning: Contributions to the origins and expressions of neurobehavioral disabilities. In T. Ono, B. L. McNaughton, S. Molochnikoff, E. T. Rolls, and H. Nishijo, eds., Perception, memory and emotion: Frontiers in neuroscience. Oxford: Elsevier Science, 45–61, especially 50.

  52 N. N. Byl, S. Nagarajan, and A. L. McKenzie. 2003. Effect of sensory discrimination training on structure and function inpatients with focal hand dystonia: A case series. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 84(10): 1505–14. Merzenich has helped Japanese people trying to speak English without an accent get out of their brain traps (see page 122). Knowing that the basis for this problem lies in the absence of a differentiated auditory cortex for certain sounds, Merzenich and his collaborators set out to differentiate them. Using the same kind of approach as Fast For-Word, he radically modified the r and l sounds, so that the difference was grossly exaggerated and the Japanese listeners could pick it up. Then the team gradually normalized the sounds, while the subjects were listening. It was essential for the speakers to always pay very close attention throughout the exercises, something they didn’t do in normal speech. It took about ten to twenty hours of training to learn to make the distinction. “You can teach anybody to speak an accentless second language as an adult,” Merzenich says, “but it requires very intense training.”
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br />   53 The notion of “perversion” implies that our sexual drive is like a river that most naturally flows in a certain channel, until something happens that puts it off course and diverts, or perverts, its direction. People who call themselves “kinky” concede the point, a kink being something with a twist in it.

  54 True, some reject the idea that in perversion, aggression gets linked with sexuality. The literary critic Camille Paglia argues that sexuality is by nature aggressive. “My theory,” she says, “is that whenever sexual freedom is sought or achieved, sadomasochism will not be far behind.” She attacks feminists who believe that sex is all sugar and spice and who argue that it is patriarchal society that makes sex violent. Sex, for Paglia, is about power; society is not the source of sexual violence; sex, the irrepressible natural force, is. If anything, society is the force that inhibits the inherent violence of sex. Paglia is certainly more realistic than those who would deny that perversion is rife with aggression. But in assuming that sex is fundamentally aggressive, and sadomasochistic, she doesn’t allow for the plasticity of human sexuality. Just because sex and aggression can unite in a plastic brain, and appear “natural,” doesn’t mean that that is their only possible expression. We have seen that certain brain chemicals released in sex, such as oxytocin, cause us to be tender to each other. It is no more accurate to say that fully realized sexuality is always violent than to say it is always gentle and sweet. C. Paglia. 1990. Sexual personae. New Haven: Yale University Press, 3.