The Impact of Internet Pornography on Male Adolescent Mental Organization

ABSTRACT

Internet pornography should not be automatically considered deleterious to adolescent development just as no one environmental factor is ever pathogenic. Nonetheless, it should not be considered as harmless as Playboy was to the Boomer generation during their adolescence. There are a variety of factors involved in its being available through the internet that can promote omnipotence, undermine the capacity for symbolization, and lead some adolescents to relate to others only as part objects. These possibilities become more likely when the family structure promotes grandiosity and is sexually overstimulating. In such instances, latency is disrupted so that the impending adolescent arrives at that developmental stage without the requisite capacities to successfully manage its challenges. Vignettes from a case of one such adolescent boy are offered to demonstrate how internet pornography left him unable to internalize the various regulatory functions required to transition to early adulthood.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescent developmental, mental organization; perversion; transitional phenomena; latency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Sugarman

Alan Sugarman, Ph.D., is Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst and Child and Adolescent Supervising Psychoanalyst at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. Additionally, he is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.