The word “pornography” comes from the Greek words “porno” and “graphie,” which literally translate into “the writings of or about prosti­tutes.” Since its emergence as a product for public consumption several hundred years ago, pornography has continually evolved in form and potency based on new inventions. It got its first big push from the print­ing […]

In the 1950s Superman television series, the townspeople regularly gath­ered on the street, pointed up at the sky, and exclaimed, “It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!” If only it were that easy to clearly identify what pornography is. It’s hard to think of anything more difficult to classify. Our general sense of what […]

T ony, a twenty-five-year-old grad student, stared out the window and shook his head in disbelief at how quickly he had sunk into the porn trap. “My live-in girlfriend and I were going through a rough time in our relationship. She left town for a few days and I de­cided to look at porn on […]

We chose the name The Porn Trap because it communicates the danger that pornography use can hold. It also describes how many people feel when they realize pornography is causing them serious problems, but don’t want to or can’t give it up. What’s more, the analogy helps us to or­ganize the stories, research, exercises, and […]

Seeing the growing impact porn was having on the lives of our clients and listening to their painful and touching stories, we knew we had to do something more to help them than we were able to do in our tradi­tional practice. We began to research the issue and quickly found that the number of […]

Nearly all the people who experience porn-related problems say that the ready availability of pornography on the Internet and other electronic devices is at least partially responsible. Porn’s promise of easy, commit­ment-free sexual gratification can be just too hard to resist when porno­graphic pictures, videos, chats, and games are only a mouse or remote click […]

In the ten years since we noted growing problems with porn among our own clients, the sheer volume of porn has grown exponentially, as has the ease of getting access to it. As a result, the number of people across the United States and in the world who have developed—and are devel­oping—problems with it has […]

I don’t like alcohol. I’ve never used drugs. I don’t like tobacco. That’s not my thing. My thing is porn. —Alex T wenty-five years ago, we’d never have written a book on por­nography. Back in the 1980s when our practices treating sex, intimacy, and relationship problems were just getting started, we truthfully weren’t that concerned […]

B ehind every book stands a community of people who helped to give it life. We are deeply grateful to the many talented and en­thusiastic individuals who joined with us to make this book a reality. Although we can’t possibly mention every one of you here by name, we do wish to convey our appreciation […]