Internet pornography use is an extremely widespread human engagement. A minority of viewers finds it compelling and experience distress and/or functional impairment due to their use. There is a tension in how internet pornography is considered culturally; privately, it is approached and engaged with, publicly it is distanced from and rejected. Empirical research into this phenomenon has tended to shy away from exploring the underlying elements inherent in engaging with pornography online, perhaps mirroring this cultural tension. This study used a psychoanalytically oriented multi-interview method and analysis, with five men, to explore the intrapsychic dynamics underpinning their compulsive use of internet pornography. Three themes emerged from this data: ‘searching for something’, ‘holding it all in and then just explode’, and ‘two separate personas’. Emergent themes were linked to psychoanalytic concepts including Laplanche’s concept of the enigmatic signifier and the Kleinian concepts of the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. Clinical implications for working with compulsive users of internet pornography and pathways for future research are discussed.

互联网色情的使用是一种极其广泛的人类活动。少数观众认为它很有吸引力，并会因使用而感到痛苦和/或功能障碍。在文化上如何看待互联网色情内容存在紧张关系；私下，它被接近和参与，公开它被疏远和拒绝。对这种现象的实证研究倾向于回避探索在线色情内容所固有的潜在因素，这或许反映了这种文化张力。这项研究使用了一种以精神分析为导向的多重访谈方法和分析，有五名男性参与，以探索支持他们强迫性使用网络色情内容的内心动力。从这些数据中出现了三个主题：“寻找某物”、“把它全部藏起来然后爆炸”、和“两个独立的角色”。新兴主题与精神分析概念相关，包括拉普朗什的神秘能指概念和克莱因的偏执-分裂和抑郁位置的概念。讨论了与网络色情的强迫性用户合作的临床意义和未来研究的途径。