Are Cheaters Sexual Hypocrites? Sexual Hypocrisy, the Self-Serving Bias, and Personality Style.

This article examines moral hypocrisy and the self-serving bias (SSB) in the sexual infidelity context. We found evidence of self-serving attributions that occur between primary relationship partners following sexual betrayals. Specifically, we found that sexual infidelity perpetrators (a) blamed their primary dyadic partners (i.e., victims) for infidelities significantly more than those victims blamed themselves for such infidelities, (b) blamed the surrounding circumstances for infidelities significantly more than their victims did, and (c) rated the emotional impact of infidelities on their victims as significantly less than victims' ratings of such impact. Moreover, we found that participants with prior experience as both sexual infidelity perpetrators and victims displayed "sexual hypocrisy" by judging others more harshly than themselves for sexually unfaithful behavior. Our findings demonstrate that personality variables associated with sexual infidelity (narcissism, sexual narcissism, avoidant attachment, and primary psychopathy) are also relevant to self-serving attributions in the sexual infidelity context.

Unkosher Sex: Vulnerable Narcissism and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men.

Narcissistic men that engage in out-of-control extra-marital sex can be challenging to treat when their cultural background reinforces their misogyny and sense of entitlement, as it does among ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. A case study illustrates the challenges for a female clinician helping an unfaithful, married, narcissistic ultra-Orthodox Jewish male refrain from seeing prostitutes. He devalued the approach of his female therapist and the client had to learn that he was not entitled to women's love and respect, but that he needed to earn it by transcending his egocentrism and demonstrating empathy rather than contempt for women.

Pathways to Infidelity: The Roles of Self-Serving Bias and Betrayal Trauma.

This study employed a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to examine the interrelationships between the self-serving bias and various known predictors of sexual infidelity. Specifically, we sought to generate a path model depicting how the following variables jointly predict sexual infidelity perpetration: (1) insecure attachment, (2) pathological narcissism, (3) sexual narcissism, (4) primary psychopathy, (5) self-serving attributions for retaliatory infidelity, and (6) sexual betrayal victimization. We developed a structural model describing various pathways to sexual infidelity perpetration based on these six variables. Three pathways to infidelity were discovered. In the first pathway, anxious and avoidant attachment predicted primary psychopathy, and self-justification for retaliatory infidelity mediated the relationship between primary psychopathy and infidelity perpetration. In the second pathway, anxious attachment predicted sexual narcissism, which predicted self-justification for retaliatory infidelity, which in turn predicted infidelity perpetration. In the third pathway, being a victim of sexual betrayal directly predicted sexual infidelity perpetration. In fact, suffering sexual betrayal was the best predictor of sexual infidelity perpetration. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Empathy as a Mediator of Attitudes Toward Infidelity Among College Students.

This study examined attitudes about infidelity among college students. Due to increased sexual opportunities and normalization of casual sex in the college campus environment, commitment level is generally more likely to be lower than for post-college-aged individuals. While lower commitment may contribute to infidelity among college students, we aimed to more closely examine the relative role of individual characteristics. The literature has shown that individuals with certain personality traits, such as narcissism and an insecure attachment style, are more likely to commit infidelity, but less is known about the interaction between sex and these traits and about possible underlying mechanisms that account for why some people resist the temptation to be unfaithful and others don't. Working under the assumption that higher empathy might be the underlying mechanism that enables individuals to resist the temptation to be unfaithful, we demonstrated that empathy partially mediates the relationship between sex, narcissism, entitlement, attachment style and attitudes toward infidelity in college students. Thus, college students who are securely attached, low in narcissism, and high in empathy are more likely to oppose sexual behavior outside of their dating relationships despite the fact that their commitment level may be relatively low.

How children learn about sex: a cross-species and cross-cultural analysis.

Scattered and not widely disseminated evidence from primatology, anthropology, and history of childhood sexuality support the hypothesis that throughout much of human behavioral evolution that human children have learned about sex through observing parental sexuality and then imitating it in sexual rehearsal play with peers. Contemporary theories of psychosexual development have not considered the possibility that young children are predisposed to learn about sex through observational learning and sexual rehearsal play during early childhood, a primate-wide trait that is conserved in humans but suppressed in contemporary contexts.

Therapeutic interaction with an older personality disordered patient.

This study reflects an assessment of the relationship between change in defensive functioning and change in the therapeutic interaction during an eight-year treatment episode of an older personality disordered woman. The patient, Ms. Q, possessed schizoid, avoidant, and depressive personality disorders as well as major depression as assessed by the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III). At the end of the treatment episode, Ms. Q still possessed an avoidant personality disorder and significant depressive personality traits but no longer possessed clinically significant schizoid traits or major depression. Ms. Q made significant positive change in her adaptive defensive functioning as assessed by the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS). Through time-series analysis it was discovered that positive change in adaptive defenses was predicted by increases in a specific type of therapeutic interaction as assessed by the Psychotherapy Q Sort (PQS). In this therapeutic interaction the therapist in a didactic and advice-giving manner highlighted the patient's role in a problem in a clear and coherent way that could be perceived as tactless. Time-series analysis revealed a reciprocal relationship in which positive changes in adaptive defenses predicted further increases in that particular quality of therapeutic interaction.

The adaptive functions of sexual plasticity: the suppression and surreptitious expression of human sociosexuality.

Tendencies toward non-monogamy and bisexual expression may constitute primate-wide predispositions that have been conserved in humans. This observation is supported by studies of sexual development and behavior in our primate relatives and sexually permissive premodern tribal cultures including hunter-gatherers. Nevertheless, even in sexually permissive societies, there may be considerable sexual possessiveness and jealousy as well as attempts at parental control of children's marital choices. This is associated with punitive revenge against unfaithful spouses and mate poaching rivals and parent/offspring conflict around marital choices. There is no paradise lost despite the greater sexual freedom. Humans may be adaptively designed to suppress each other's sexuality due to sexual jealousy and parental desires to control children's sexuality but also to surreptitiously evade those restrictions, though there is considerable cross-cultural variability in the level of sexual restrictiveness.

The primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives.

A review of cross-species and cross-cultural research suggests that, throughout most of human behavioral evolution, children may have been enlightened as to the facts of life by observing parental intercourse and then imitating it in sexual rehearsal play in the context of a continuously rising curve of sexual desire and sexual knowledge throughout childhood. Concealment of the primal scene and prohibition of cross-generational, bisexual, and 'polymorphously perverse' childhood sex play may be of relatively recent origin in human cultural evolution, buttressed by the instillation of culturally acquired sexual disgust in sexually conservative cultures. Looking at the primal scene in cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives utilizing the adaptationist framework of contemporary evolutionary biology can challenge normative assumptions that may still be embedded in psychoanalytic theories of species-wide psychosexual development.

The evolved function of the oedipal conflict.

Freud based his oedipal theory on three clinical observations of adult romantic relationships: (1) Adults tend to split love and lust; (2) There tend to be sex differences in the ways that men and women split love and lust; (3) Adult romantic relationships are unconsciously structured by the dynamics of love triangles in which dramas of seduction and betrayal unfold. Freud believed that these aspects of adult romantic relationships were derivative expressions of a childhood oedipal conflict that has been repressed. Recent research conducted by evolutionary psychologists supports many of Freud's original observations and suggests that Freud's oedipal conflict may have evolved as a sexually selected adaptation for reproductive advantage. The evolution of bi-parental care based on sexually exclusive romantic bonds made humans vulnerable to the costs of sexual infidelity, a situation of danger that seriously threatens monogamous bonds. A childhood oedipal conflict enables humans to better adapt to this longstanding evolutionary problem by providing the child with an opportunity to develop working models of love triangles. On the one hand, the oedipal conflict facilitates monogamous resolutions by creating intense anxiety about the dangers of sexual infidelity and mate poaching. On the other hand, the oedipal conflict in humans may facilitate successful cheating and mate poaching by cultivating a talent for hiding our true sexual intentions from others and even from ourselves. The oedipal conflict in humans may be disguised by evolutionary design in order to facilitate tactical deception in adult romantic relationships.

The co-evolution of sexual desire, narcissistic vulnerability, and adaptations for reproductive advantage.

According to evolutionary psychologists humans possess a variety of "sexual ornaments," physical as well as psychological traits that have evolved as adaptations for reproductive advantage. These sexual ornaments serve as sexually selected indicators of fitness that are automatically assessed, inspire attentional adhesion, and evoke sexual desire in those searching for a mate. Mate choice is therefore determined by the relative presence or absence of these sexually selected indicators of fitness in comparison to the competition. Mate value of self and others is assessed through social comparison according to these sexually selected indicators of fitness. Narcissistic equilibrium is to a significant extent regulated by one's self-perceived survival and reproductive fitness. Implications for psychoanalytic theory of concepts and research findings from the field of evolutionary psychology are discussed.

Primal fatherhood and primal rage.

Fatherhood may unconsciously activate repudiated identifications with patriarchal primal fathers in men with progressive social values. These men may consciously cultivate an image of themselves as rebellious nonconformists. These men may wish to raise children who are fiercely independent just like them. Yet when these rambunctious children challenge paternal authority, these men may become enraged because their unconscious identification with the primal father has been threatened. These men may be referred to treatment for problems of anger management. They tend to unconsciously re-create and enact their conflicted and enraging relationship with the primal father in their relationship with the therapist.

The impulse to infidelity and oedipal splitting.

Freud suggested that the child perceives parental intercourse as an act of infidelity by the desired but unfaithful parent. Parental sexual infidelity is felt to be a major narcissistic injury that gives rise to fantasies of revenge. A defensive organization arises to manage this trauma and its attendant revenge fantasies. That organization involves splitting of the desired parent into faithful and unfaithful parts, displacement of hostility on to the rival parent, and identification with the desired but unfaithful parent resulting in the impulse to infidelity. Romantic fantasies of escape and rescue from evil rivals provide guilt free ways of satisfying fantasies of oedipal revenge. In those fantasies the evil rival is turned into an injured third party who gets his or her just deserts as the romantic couple gets to live happily ever after. This defensive organization may embroil patients in complicated love triangles as adults for which they may seek treatment. Analyzing the repudiated narcissistic wound of parental infidelity and the disguised revenge fantasies that defend against that wound may provoke narcissistic rage towards the analyst as a moralistic, possessive, controlling, envious, and spoiling oedipal parent.

Assessing progress in analysis interminable.

A case study is provided of a schizoid patient in her mid-sixties who in a lengthy analysis had made significant clinical improvement. The treating analyst's impression of clinical improvement was independently verified through systematic analysis of transcripts of audiotapes of thirty-six sessions over a four-year period of treatment. The patient showed significant improvement on measures of character pathology, object relations, mentalization, and superego anxiety. The results suggest that some patients with entrenched character pathology who seem to be in analysis interminable may still make clinically significant improvement. It is suggested that the scientific status of psychoanalysis would be greatly enhanced if the anecdotal evidence generated in private practice were supported by independent verification. The current study illustrates one methodology, "case study plus," for providing independent verification while retaining the richness of the traditional case study.

The observing ego as voyeur.

A resistance to self-observation and self-reflection is discussed in which there is a perversion of the observing ego. The observing ego has been unconsciously recruited in the service of enacting an unconscious fantasy: the fantasy of being an excited observer of a primal scene who is punished for making forbidden observations. This voyeuristic observing ego is pathologically enmeshed in a love triangle with the patient's seductive superego (i.e. identification with the desired but unfaithful parent) and with the patient's punitive superego (i.e. identification with the rivalrous parent). This unconscious scenario is played out in the clinical situation as the patient unreflectively cycles through phases of denial (i.e. self-seduction) and moral masochism (i.e. self-betrayal). A case study illustrates how humor may be employed to free the observing ego from being enthralled by a perverse superego. Humor may unconsciously enable a rebellious attitude toward the omnipotent sadism of a perversely oppressive superego and thus enable the observing ego to break free from its pathological enmeshment.

Where's the text? The problem of validation in psychoanalysis.

Whatever their differences, the various schools of psychoanalysis all subscribe to the case study, based on clinical vignette and anecdote, as the "text" of psychoanalysis. Because the typical case study presents not the actual analytic dialogue but a reconstruction based on the analyst's selective memory, the use of such a text renders problematic the validation of an analyst's case formulation, and has traditionally diminished the epistemological status of psychoanalysis. Pristine clinical data, as would be provided by verbatim transcripts of audio-recorded analytic sessions, are rarely created and even more rarely made public. Study of the psychoanalytic process is thereby made impossible, whether by clinical exegesis, qualitative analysis, or quantitative statistical analysis. Yet the analytic community, highly resistant to this public documentation, continues to marshal five common arguments against it. These arguments are reviewed and responded to in the belief that such documentation would enhance the field's intellectual status by allowing the problem of clinical validation to be addressed in ways that move beyond appeals to the authority of private clinical experience.