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July 03, 2014

Katie Couric Addresses 'Your Brain on Porn' on Daytime Show

LOS ANGELES—Katie Couric brought the subject of porn and porn addiction to her daytime talk show yesterday along with a palpable degree of discomfort for the subject, which she owned up to at the top, explaining (as if anyone couldn't guess) that she's basically a prude. She was also unable to shake a stubborn determination to approach the subject via pure emotion, general assumptions and what she non-journalistically called "common sense." But at least Couric or her producers had the good sense to include as a guest clinical psychologist David Ley, PhD, who is also the executive director of a behavioral health program called New Mexico Solutions and author of The Myth of Sex Addiction, and about which AVN has previously reported.  A lone voice of dissent against newly popularized theories about so-called porn addiction and the alleged changes that occur to your brain on porn—an unfortunate and unoriginal name for the segment, considering it is the same name as a website that unquestionably promotes the debatable science about porn addiction—Ley found himself consistently referencing research that disproved ideas that Couric, her other expert guest  psychologist Dr. Sue Varma and the audience seemed to take as gospel. As one point, Couric even ridiculed Dr. Ley's reliance on research, to the delight of the audience. Indeed, a quick perusal of the comments found here in reaction to the show indicate that Katie fans in general thought Ley was a total jerk who should never have been invited on the show in the first place. "Dr Ley is a complete idiot ... thanks Katie for putting him in his place!!" wrote one fan. And, as usual, other than including Dr. Ley, the rest of the show was constructed around the notion that addiction to porn is a fact of life, including the opening segment, How a Man's Porn Addiction Almost Cost Him Everything, for which the promo read, "1 in 4 adults admits to looking at pornography at work and 70% of access to online porn happens between 9 AM and 5 PM. But too much porn watching can cause major problems in relationships, which is exactly what happened to Craig Perra." And, perhaps inevitably, the show also contained a segment about protecting kids from porn, in which the claim was made (as fact, by Couric) that most kids get their first gander at online porn between the ages of 8-10. (Wasn't it supposed to be 11 years of age?) Again, Ley attempted to counter that claim, as well as the notion that exposure equals devastation and lifetime turmoil, but was perhaps most soundly rebuffed in that attempt, which only worked to reinforce the idea that engaging in a reasonable discussion about kids, sex and porn is almost impossible in a nation of adults so conflicted and confused about their own sexualities that they can (for the most part) only approach the subject through the distorted lens of "common sense." But as inevitable as it may be that our daytime television will by definition take a more favorable position on an alleged affliction that has yet to be either proven or codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, Couric is most definitely to be credited for adding an opposing voice to her show, even if she couldn't help taking an occasional swipe at him.

 
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