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Readers approaching a volume bearing the title Cybersex might begin by wondering what such a neologism might mean. The authors of the initial chapter helpfully address this in the second paragraph of their introduction, advising us that cybersex simply refers to “the pursuit of sexual interests on the Internet.”
Sexual interests are pursued online in two ways: the collection and viewing of pornography, and the use of chat rooms and email to develop relationships for the purpose of sexual gratification. In the latter case, activity often culminates in masturbation while communicating online, an activity that has been euphemistically described as “typing with one hand.”
A wide variety of survey data are presented here, beginning with data collected (fittingly) online through a questionnaire posted at the MSNBC website, resulting in a sample size of more than 13,000. Although this survey provides some important demographic and epidemiologic data, results of other surveys reported here, based on relatively small clinic populations, seem a bit more dubious in value, at least in terms of any reliable generalizations.
Some readers may be put off by the emphasis on an addiction model (although this is certainly to be expected in “book” that is actually a special issue of the journal Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity), but this model does appear to be of utility in understanding and treating individuals who are suffering from the effects of excessive online sexual activity.
Chapter 7 (Compulsive Cybersex: The New Tea Room, by Schwartz and Southern) contains a brief but interesting discussion of the idea of cybersex as a dissociative reenactment, along with the surprising finding that two-thirds of their sample of clinic patients had a history of sexual abuse.
Furthermore, aside from questions of specific psychological models, clinicians who have not yet had much direct experience with this phenomenon will get a helpful introduction to some of its variations in the first-person acco