Pornography as a Mask for Guilt (2026)

Two hosts discuss the key points of Pornocracy, a paper by Mark Kinet in the Dutch ⁠⁠Journal of Psychoanalysis⁠⁠. Pornography is usually discussed in terms of addiction, morality, or sexual liberation. Psychoanalysis asks a different question: What psychological function does pornography serve?Drawing on Freud, Winnicott, Lacan, Michael Bader, Kernberg, and Joyce McDougall, Mark Kinet explores a paradox that challenges many common assumptions. What if pornography is not primarily about unrestrained desire, but about regulating anxiety, guilt, and concern? What if sexual fantasy is less an escape from morality than an attempt to make desire feel psychologically safe?This episode examines pornography as a carefully constructed fantasy world in which sexuality is detached from vulnerability, intimacy, and emotional responsibility. Rather than reducing women to objects out of indifference, some fantasies may function precisely to neutralise excessive concern for the other, allowing sexual excitement to emerge without overwhelming guilt. Sexual preferences are approached not as fixed identities but as personal psychological inventions—creative solutions through which unconscious conflicts, desires, fears, and longings become organised. This episode invites listeners to look beyond the visible content of pornography toward the invisible psychological dramas it conceals. As in dreams, the manifest image tells only part of the story. The real question is not what arouses us, but why this particular fantasy became necessary for this particular person.For the paper in the Dutch Journal of Psychoanalysis: PornocratieVisit ⁠Mark Kinet ⁠for books, articles, and further resources.Current Psychoanalysis brings together more than 35 books and other writings by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Mark Kinet. Each episode explores how unconscious meaning, personal history, and the therapeutic relationship illuminate psychiatry, psychotherapy, and culture. Two virtual hosts discuss carefully selected texts, translating complex psychoanalytic ideas into clear, engaging conversations while remaining remarkably faithful to the original work. For clinicians, students, and anyone curious about the human mind.