Sexual Anorexia Quotes

“By the nineteenth century, society had given up burning witches. Yet the sexual exploitation of children continued. In late-nineteenth-century Britain, for example, men who raped young girls were excused because they did it to cure venereal disease. There was a widely held belief that children would take "poisons" out of the body. In fact, leprosy, venereal disease, depression, and impotence were part of a wide range of maladies believed cured by having sex with the young. An English medical text of the time reads, "Breaking a maiden's seal is one of the best antidotes for one's ills. Cudgeling her unceasingly, until she swoons away, is a mighty remedy for man's depression. It cures all impotence.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“By the Middles Ages it was a sin to have sex with a child. If an adult were guilty of such a sin, one remedy was to declare the child a witch. The child thus became an offender who "beguiled" the adult with the power of the Evil One.
Understanding this process puts a new light on the burning of witches. A Catholic bishop in Wurttemberg in the seventeenth century writes, for example, of his sadness at having presided over the burning of three hundred young girls that year and of his wonder if the church were making a mistake.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“We are so used to our own history, we do not see it as remarkable or out of the ordinary, whereas others might see it as horrendous. Further, we tend to minimize that which we feel shameful about.”
― patrick j. carnes , Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“In the 1980s, research on post traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans was regarded as important, noble, and useful. When the same researchers looked at the same problem in children who had been sexually abused, a tremendous controversy ensued a controversy that persists to this day. There were those who disputed the extent and severity of the sexual abuse that had been uncovered.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“However, sexual anorexics do have a definite profile that separates them from the larger population of those having difficulty being sexual: They are often extremely competent people who are committed to doing things very well and have a fear of making mistakes and being human.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“Deprivation draws on two convictions: (1) The deprived person does not believe that he or she is worthy or deserving of pleasure or comfort; and (2) the deprived person feels less anxious and more safe in a deprived state.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“Much energy goes into looking good and shoring up any holes that may appear in that image. This is where the pain starts, in the tremendous distance between idealistic expectations and actual performance.”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred

“They are often extremely competent people who are committed to doing things very well and have a fear of making mistakes and being human. They tend to be judgmental of others”
― Patrick J. Carnes, Sexual Anorexia: Overcoming Sexual Self-Hatred