PUA Author Neil Strauss Finds That Sex Addiction Rehab Doesn’t Work

Neil Strauss is well known as the author of The Game, a book that brought pickup artistry into the public consciousness. It’s a fun read, documenting his rise from AFC to seduction superstar. In fact, it inspired my own magnum opus, and I was curious to see where Neil’s journey led afterward.

The Truth, describing the further tribulations of his love life, is a grim read. It’s a very different book. The Game had lots of surreal moments, such as Mystery’s near-fatal bouts with ONEitis, and their misadventures in Transnistria. In The Truth, the surrealism is far darker. The first part documents his misadventures in therapy.

Sex Rehab

The action begins after Neil got busted cheating on his girlfriend Ingrid. A friend persuades him to check into a high-end addiction treatment center. (In several details, the unnamed facility seems very much like the place Harvey Weinstein briefly went following his meltdown.) For mere mortals, the price for high-end inpatient therapy is a king’s ransom. Fortunately, Neil had plenty of income from book sales to try to get his head unscrewed. This includes royalties from The Game, an irony that didn’t escape him.

Upon arrival, he’s hastily diagnosed with an impressive (and debatable) laundry list of conditions, up to and including brain damage. As soon as he objects to an item stating that he’d taken Zoloft (which he’d never done), he gets another entry on his report for being in denial. When they discover that he’s a major PUA author, he gets grilled about that, of course. So he goes in thinking he made a dumb mistake, and quickly is informed that he’s dysfunctional nine ways from Sunday.

Neil is put on suicide watch—not that he’s tempted; it’s basic standard operating procedure there. Part of this includes signing a “no suicide” agreement:

What are you going to do if I kill myself? Kick me out for lying?

The lady doing intake doesn’t much appreciate that. Another required agreement is a three month contract, extending beyond the inpatient program: no sexual activity, no porn, no masturbation, basically no impure thoughts even. (A hard-mode reboot can be quite helpful, but he gives into temptation days later.) Despite all the rules and regimentation, it’s actually a nice place, at least for what’s essentially a psych ward.

Neil’s roommate is in for cheating too. His marriage had deteriorated after his wife became lazy and emotionally distant. (Adam isn’t exactly the only dude who committed adultery following a situation like that.) Other guys really do need serious help. Calvin blew $125-250K (depending on how you count it) on hookers. Another guy banged a horse, among other personal quirks.

I can understand getting lonely occasionally, but some of that just seems a little much. Sexuality is indeed a powerful force. It’s generally a good thing, but one that should be channeled in the right direction.

Group therapy

how-to-quit-masturbating

After settling in, the discussions started—lots of them. Joan, one of the directors, seems like a cross between a hellfire-and-brimstone fundamentalist preacher and Andrea Dworkin. Much like second wave feminists, she spends a lot of time demonizing sexuality. (That goes a bit beyond the “channeled in the right direction” principle.) For one example:

“Do you realize that you’re harming these women when you use their bodies to masturbate with?” Joan admonishes Calvin. She senses he’s on the verge of tears, then tries to bring him over the edge. “They don’t care about you. These are hurt and abused women. And you’re reenacting their childhood trauma. You are their father, their first boyfriend, the predator who raped away their innocence.”

I disapprove of prostitution on moral grounds too; I’ve never done “pay for play” because it’s a nasty business. I’m certainly not opposed to telling people to un-fuck themselves either. Still, reducing a patient into a sobbing wreck might be counterproductive. During a later Joan presentation:

I look around and see Calvin drifting off again, no doubt fantasizing about Carrie.

He also privately tells Neil that at least he got something for his astronomical hooker tab.

Beyond discussing morality at an appropriate level, what else could be said? I’d tell Calvin that it’s irrational to keep wasting a fortune by letting the little head do the thinking. Also, I’d recommend fixing his personal problems, developing his social skills, pursuing excellence, and finding a real girlfriend he doesn’t have to rent. I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that perhaps other game authors like Roosh, Troy Francis, Kyle Trouble, and Neil himself might concur.

Revelations

They later work with a different counselor. Fortunately, Lorraine doesn’t make Ayatollah Khomeini seem like a jolly old fellow. During the process, Neil confronts some demons from the past. In his youth, he’d discovered his father’s porn videos. The subject matter is pretty weird—not as far out as some of today’s stuff, but it made his parents’ marriage dysfunctional.

His mother relied on Neil for emotional support, which became a smothering dynamic; the basic Freudian mess. Her overprotective and controlling nature caused him to miss out on a golden first hot date. (Unfortunately, I can relate to that one.) In a cathartic therapy session, he exorcizes the demons of the past. Although he’s a lifetime atheist (though Jewish born), he surprises himself by saying Lorraine is doing the Lord’s work.

Considering himself cured, he checks out early. Neil gets back together with Ingrid, but troubles follow. Immediately after, he gets busted watching porn. (That’s not exactly a glorious event.) He also keeps in touch with some old girlfriends—he wasn’t doing anything objectively wrong, but that ignites further drama. His conversations with Ingrid aren’t the best examples of holding frame. Since reading his earlier work, I’ve suspected that Neil and his associates could use more Inner Game development.

Ingrid does seem like a real gem, though sometimes he finds her to be a pain in the ass. He immerses himself in outpatient recovery and psychobabble, but the relationship is beyond repair, eventually disintegrating. However, his misadventures that follow are an entirely different story.

Et enfin

Was Neil’s brain full of Swiss cheese, or did he just make mistakes? Quite likely, this PUA guru had difficulty transitioning to a committed relationship. Sometimes it takes a while for former AFCs to get years of pent-up frustration out of their systems. Neil’s foibles all throughout aren’t encouraging. Still, maybe he’s not a sex addict wracked with irresistible compulsions, but just another fallible human who fucked up.

As Calvin later states:

“If they turn being male and horny into some kind of brain cancer that’s covered by health insurance, they’ll be billionaires.”

“It would be one thing if the treatment worked,” I gripe. “But it’s taken over my entire life. Like half the time, I’m too busy going to meetings and reading books on intimacy to actually be intimate with Ingrid.”

As Bill Clinton might say, give that man a cigar!

The recent trend of medicalizing bad behavior raises a number of questions that don’t have easy answers. Still, sex addiction is real; millions of guys jerking off to porn incessantly provide gallons of evidence. Better answers are needed, especially since today’s dysfunctional sexual marketplace is making society miserable.

Read More: 3 Reasons Neil Strauss And Tucker Max Abandoned The Ideas That Made Them Rich And Famous

57 thoughts on “PUA Author Neil Strauss Finds That Sex Addiction Rehab Doesn’t Work”

  1. Neil seems to have asked for help from anything and anyone except God.
    May God help him

    1. Why would anyone be stupid enough to go to one of these places?
      Sounds like a camp where women torture men.

      1. I have some familiarity with the porn industry.
        Most of the women who have been getting into porn the last 25 years are essentially good-looking but otherwise lazy and dim.
        A few are quite intelligent and have a business model as well as a 5 year plan.
        Porn used to be dominated by J wish women and none of them were molested or raped. They came from middle-class homes and do porn because they simply don’t believe in Christian punishment. Al Goldstein was quoted as saying this.
        Porn nowadays is done by bored pros to lazy to work as call girls and doing porn is safer-you won’t up running into the Elijah Wood character from MANIAC.
        Women IN porn scoff at feminists anyhow. But they are the equivalent to the Alpha Male Chads scoffing at the dorks.

        1. A woman who waste their best years fucking random men on camera for money is in no way similar to an actual Chad.

      2. Where’s the 12-step rehab program for F.A.D.D – Female Attention Deficit Disorder (n) A condition whereby women crave, but do not receive, the level of attention and resources from men they think they are entitled to, leading to neuroses, psychoses, addictions, and aberrant behaviors that transform them into selfish, manipulative bitches and whores.

    2. This all is stupid. Of course sex therapy could work. It could work wonders, they’re just not doing it right. Serve 3 meals a day of tofu and you’re sorted.

    3. I am not one to hate on God/Jesus, and I have constantly defend Christian people from atheist dibshits, but dude, just turning into a Jesus freak isn’t always going to help you. Plus, religion rubs people in many different ways…some people it helps immensely, and for others it turns them into obsessive nutcases who spend the rest of their lives trying to find hidden codes in the bible, look for any sign of the Virgin Mary under every rock, and turns into the most unlikable people on earth.

      1. Wes,
        Your view about God/Jesus is beyond blue-pill.
        You’ve been brainwashed by Jewish propaganda perhaps more than typical SJW.

  2. “Sex addiction” is by in large a way for feminists to shame men for wanting sex.
    The best way for men to respond to this is to not give a fuck.
    And I state this in the same way I don’t care if you call me a racist for wanting reasonable immigration policies, and in the same way if you call me a misogynist for opposing modern feminism.

    1. Yep. Nailed it.
      Strauss needed “rehab” because he violated the fundamental societal relationship monogamy requirement. Monogamy doesn’t work — especially for men. But he’s now guilty of an offense and must serve some kind of sentence and suffer some kind of punishment for his wandering eye and wanton libido — a completely normal condition of men.
      Rehab is the prescription for behaviors that don’t fit the social norm at any given period in history. It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card for some, and a convenient form of penance for others. It’s at best an empty gesture to show society that you’ve accepted your punishment and are serving your sentence for whatever cultural crime you’ve allegedly committed.
      There are no true addictions, just things people enjoy doing more than life — Stanhope.

    2. @ Reed – re: ‘sex addiction’ – If a man wants sex, that’s what his partner is for. He can screw his partner until his balls turn blue and it’s all fine and dandy. It’s no addiction. But as soon as he seeks sex elsewhere, his partner calls it an addiction. What does she know. Sometimes the man uses sex to shut her up. Sometimes she needs pounded to make her quit the yapping. He uses sex as a therapudic tool on her in that case. When she bitches, respond by unfurling your dick and waving it like a pendulum between her eyes. A ‘dickno-hypno’ session on the ‘couch’ is in short order.

    3. I dated a nympho. Sex addiction is a real thing. Takes up most of your time. I didn’t mind.

      1. #MeToo, lived with one for a year, almost killed me, I couldn’t wait to get away.

  3. I believe Father Time is a feminist.
    Victorian women had their clits rubbed by doctors. While contemporary men are caged & treated worse than criminals : no sexual activity, no porn, no masturbation.

  4. ‘The truth’ haha (((Straus))) whole schtik is based on lies.
    Nobody sells degeneracy (the game) and victimhood (the truth) quite like the self acclaimed chosen people.

    1. You get it. This whole pua thing has been, from its inception, an act of destruction on moral values. Feminism and pua are partners, created by the same triple bracket elites. Warfare on Western values, 3d chess.

      1. @Tracy – The PU artistry is the psych techniques to transport said female from approach to open to splayed agape on your bed for entry. It’s the ‘dump’ part, the distancing and repeat part that would characterize the ‘using up’ of potentially being western tribe assets. THAT would be ((())) detremental to the tribe and culture especially if the women are virgin.
        The PUA tech is a tool like a hammer or shovel or auger drilling rig. PUA is a wonderful set of tools that if used wisely can be used to build a harem of cherry picked virgin sisterwives versus the man who lacks a toolset and who ends up walking in public with some leftover used shebeast who makes noise and must be kept on a leash and who foams at the mouth and growls at little boys. THAT JUST DOESN’T look good on you as a male to parade around with a discarded leftover shebeast. She’ll eat you after she eats your kids.
        GET REAL. Get PUA and cherry pick what you really know you can work with. A clan is built on choice members. Choosy patriarch daddies exercize their discernment wisely when cherry picking their mates. You can build ye house out of shit bricks and more shit for mortar or ye can build using finer materials. It’s your choice.
        Again the ‘pump and dump’ ethic is the (((promoted))) debauched aspect of PUA life. The tool must be used for sorting the finer materials when harem clan building. Remember ‘game’ continues on for a lifetime. Shebeasts must be continually ‘gamed’ in LTR even when they’re clan grandmothers. Keeping a woman straight is something only a game knowledgable master can do. Keep her gamed and confluenced with the patriarchy of the tribe. A woman cannot game herself straight continually. That’s the shebeast’s primary handicap.

    2. It was all a money-making scam from the beginning and being one of the tribe, the marketing part (the hardest part of any venture) was taken care of for him by his fellow tribesmen.
      No amount of “game” could ever save a male that looks like Strauss (or Weinstein, or Dershowitz, or Dan Schneider, or Spielberg, or any Hasid I’ve ever seen for that matter). Only money can save such genetic scum and give them access to pussy. And that’s why they’ve been pursuing money for thousands of years.
      “Game” only works if you’re at least average looking. That’s why it worked for Roosh. Dude’s tall and decent looking and furthermore he got bonus exotic points back when Poland was still pussy paradise.

      1. Yep, you’re right about their pursue of money and how no amounts of game can fix certain situations… but I don’t doubt that Neil actually has the fidelity problem that his book tells and now he can’t be faithful to whatever woman he is supposed to be faithful..
        Which brings me to my next point.. PUAs are so good at pinpointing women’s degenerate behavior and knowing red flags and how you just can’t turn a hoe into a housewife, how being a slut and sleeping around will damage their ability to bond with the next man and to be faithful to him and on and on… that is true, obviously, but what I never understood is why they thought it would be any different with them if they engaged in te same degenerate behavior that we abhor so much, that they had some sort of man shield or superiority that rendered them impervious to the negative effects of promiscuity, that hey could just “enjoy the decline”… and why increase their notch count so much if they hate when their women do the same? It always sounded hypocritical to me.
        Well… it turns out.. that just like females who sleep around, Neil couldn’t just switch his brains and be like “well, now I’m just gonna leave everything behind and be a good faithful man to my wife”… he had to resort to this humiliating experience (that didn’t work for shit)..
        So much for being “alpha”…

        1. I don’t believe for a second that any part of this story is genuine. It’s all staged and Strauss (as well as Weinstein) are just playing their respective roles in this (((spectacle))) called #metoo & #womensrights & #destroythepatriarchy.
          There’s nothing “degenerate” about fucking many women as long as you’re a patriarch. For thousands of years men of balls and means had respectable wives for the home/family and prostitutes/slaves/mistresses for personal pleasure. That was the social norm and still is the social norm in the upper echelons of many present-day societies.
          Male monogamy has always been the domain of peasants. And now the system is robbing modern-day peasants of even that one precious hole and many have to resort to their hand. The Roman poet Martial said that masturbation is the lowest form of sexual release fit only for a slave and that sums up the general attitude of the ancients towards that emasculating act.
          So the common man has in essence gone from being a peasant with at least some autonomy (i.e. patriarchy at home, master of the house, no threat of losing wife and children to divorce) to being a dehumanized, disenfranchised, emasculated eunuch in one gigantic harem of half-naked fertile females to which he doesn’t have any sexual access.

    3. 1. Ross Jeffries, self proclaimed grandfather of the community * Jewish
      2. David Deangelo, perhaps the biggest scammer * Jewish
      3. Neil Strauss and Mystery, One is jewish, the other is a zionist freemason, who may possibly have some jewish hereditary.
      4. Wayne Elise aka Juggler Method, another big method also Jewish
      5. Savoy who runs Lovesystems is also Jewish.
      Game is pervasive with the Jewish character:
      1) Highly verbal technique
      2) Assumption that manipulation is the way to get what you want
      3) Emphasis on marketing, hype, and overstating claims
      4) making a living selling psychological advice (e.g., Freud, Laura Schlesinger, Dear Abby, etc.)
      5) viscous verbal attacks on the competition
      6) plenty of Jewish male customers disadvantaged by their female dominated culture.
      Pick-up art was a “solution” given to men by the same group who made women dysfunctional in the first place.
      Problem-Reaction-Solution.

      1. Absolutely top-rate observations. You are dead on the money.
        But the same can be said for pretty much any degenerate force in Western Society – you trace it back to the original players who developed it and promulgated it, and they are almost exclusively of the tr!be.
        Another commenter touched on something incredibly important – marketing, selling, generating publicity and hype – this is absolutely the most difficult part of any business, and J’s get these services for free from their fellow travelers in the mass media and advertising industries. They also get to tap a nearly unlimited pool of venture capital, handed out like candy to any J with a halfway decent idea (whether stolen or original). These factors go a long way toward explaining the disparate rates of financial success.

        1. Exactly. If Roosh were a J he would be doing segments on Oprah and Ellen degenerate. His work would get so much exposure, faux controversy and praise the great unwashed would think he a rockstar.
          Heck, if his gaming advice was purely for Persian or non white men to nail white wh0res the J would passively support him.
          Thankfully Roosh went red-pill and didn’t sell out his soul. He went deep inside the matrix and like some of us saw the real architects to this sh1t-show. He has chosen to help all men including white and has flirted with the JQ. And for that they will try to crush him.

  5. Never seen a fapper without a smile on his face or else there would be “gallons of evidence”….FFS Beau, this article pulls off the covert feminist shaming agenda nicely. like them femicunts needed your help to spread their crap on ROK. Just like crabs in a bucket, you f**kers keep trying to drag ALL potential escapees from misery, back into your private hell.
    No beta or white knight or femicunt is happy when a real man has a smile in his heart a happy dick in hand and smile on his face.

  6. pathologizing porn is bad enough. a gf making a scene about it, exerting contol, goes right out the door

  7. The most common street definition of sex addiction is, “someone more interested in sex than me.”
    Having said that, if your sex urges cause a significant negative impact on your life (a completely subjective standard I know) it may be time to give it a second look, perhaps with someone more experienced with these things.
    Many mass shooters are just closet perverts who are so sexually frustrated that they snap and do crazy shit.

    1. It all comes down to the Golden Mean. Too little of something is bad, too much of something is bad, whatever’s between is good. Aristotle made that point, and Chinese philosophers as well, among others.

  8. He should have gone to one of those co ed sex rehab’s, where you get locked up with a number of crazy, nympho, bitches. Everyone can fuck to their heart’s content. Problem solved…I’m sure it was very therapeutic.

  9. (((Neil Strauss)))…isn’t it interesting how such a hideous little manlet was able to get famous as a pick up artist, while a tall, good-looking, charismatic Aryan like Mystery who did all the work probably didn’t make a dime? Then he made money on the other side by writing a pseudo-confessional exposing what a liar he is.
    What’s funnier is how all men of the tribe start resembling the Shlomo caricature more and more as they get older. Regression to the mean.
    But to make up for their diminutive physical stature and appalling facial features, G-d gave them a gift for “sniffing” out ever more novel and perverse ways of turning a buck. Bless their little hearts.

  10. (((Neil Strauss)))…isn’t it interesting how such a hideous little manlet was able to get famous as a pick up artist, while a tall, good-looking, charismatic northern european like Mystery who did all the work probably didn’t make a dime? Then Strauss made money on the other side by writing a pseudo-confessional exposing what a liar he was the first time around. That’s chutzpah!
    What’s funnier is how all men of the tr!be start resembling the Shl0m0 caricature more and more as they get older. Regression to the mean.
    But to make up for their diminutive physical stature and appalling facial features, G-d gave them a gift for “sniffing” out ever more novel and perverse ways of turning a buck.

    1. Similar as how God gave women the gift of deceit and manipulation … or shall we say – (((WOMEN))) lol

  11. The notion of sex addiction being some feminist power grab conspiracy is a little reaching. You guys can’t blame everything on feminist lmao. Yeah, men should not be shamed for a healthy sex drive, but I do believe sex addiction is a thing because I’m currently slipping into it myself.
    When you think about sex practically all day, you jack off chronically, visit prostitutes and strip climbs so frequently that you’re strugglling to keep finances in order and when you can’t you binge on porn, you might have a little dopamine problem. Solution? Try to do everything in moderation. Get addicted to something else to distract you from your other addictions so it balances out. Exercise, write, watch and study films, get into cooking food. Anything new to take your mind on sex so you can live a balanced life where you arnt just struggling with one vice.
    This is something I am working on myself as my current addiction is sex.

  12. i’d heard of ‘the game’ before, and figured the writer was some tall good-looking guy who ended up drowning in pussy. then i saw this guy..
    i’m reminded of when i read about mike bloomberg’s divorce trial – his mistress testified that when she told him she was pregnant, his reply was simply ‘kill it’. i was amazed – how does that guy even have a wife in the first place, not to mention a mistress besides?? oh wait – money.
    5’6″ little bedwetting thumbsucker dweeb neil strauss, writing books on how much ass he got – are we supposed to draw the lesson that women really are that stupid, or that money/fame really is that effective?

    1. Style (his PUA name) didn’t have much money when he got all that ass and his fame was trivial, just another little known journalist (had some articles published in Rolling Stone, etc). So to answer your question, the lesson is that, yes, women really are that stupid (and that, once upon a time, before social media, dressing up like a faggot and “spitting game” worked really well in nightclubs).

      1. in a civilized society, this schleeb would still be sleeping with his mom – his real fantasy – not getting boatloads of ass and writing books about it.

  13. In his defense, Ingrid De La O used to be really cute, but as she is getting older, she appears to be on her way to fulfilling that old MGTOW adage:
    .
    “When men get older they look like Sean Connery. When women get older they look like . . . . Sean Connery. – Raindog”

  14. That pic at the top is the PUA named Strauss I’ve read about? I highly doubt this bagel biter is/was a successful PUA.
    OK… just read his Wiki page. Like so many of the tribe, it sounds like he’s done a lot more talking and writing about the subject than actually doing it. All while working for various publications and hobnobbing with the usual degenerates in media and Hollywood. It says he had “interactions” with Tom Cruise, Jan Wenner, and Robert Downey Jr. (all flamers). Yeah, I’ll bet he had interactions with them. ;-O

  15. Fuck three different cunts every day and you’ll be cured of sex addiction. Who the fuck came up with this definition anyways? How about we replace,, sex addiction” with,, normal sexual desire”?

    1. right on man who came up with it the cunts we have not gotten are dicks in yet

  16. He looks like that guy on Sons Of Anarchy, who had his thumbs and fingers cut off by the Asians.

  17. Rehab only works if you are normalizing someone to the rest of society. Being a whore in this world is normal and it is about all there is to do, and like Aristotle one said, “if you are going to do something than excel at it”. It would be like trying to rehab a drunk in a society where everyone is drunk.

  18. Our community and our collective consciousness has evolved since “The Game (2005) ” Strauss has not. Neil moved forward financially and he did get some great trim, however, it must be said that he has only nibbled around the edge of the red pill.

  19. Coolidge effect. At the end of the day I would think most (if not all men) get tired of fucking their girlfriends or wives. Has happened to me many times. The best sex usually occurs in the first 6 months (unless you date a crazy chick – crazy in the head, crazy in the bed). Anyway, I think most men will cheat given an opportunity with no risk of getting caught.

  20. Neil sounds like some kind of weird little Jewish creep who bought into his own lies. The lies that he got rich telling. The comment section pre purge would have set this very straight very quickly but essentially he’s not a man.

  21. There’s no single guys at the sex addiction clinic, as comic Sebastian Manascalco once quipped. It’s just married guys who got caught cheating and need to eat crow to try and “fix” their relationships. True addiction takes over your life and you don’t even enjoy the sex anymore. If you’ve ever turned down sex or can successfully get through a few hours of the day without jerking off, congrats you’re not a sex addict.

  22. “Sex Addi cation” is a fake disease with a fake cure. It is one with most of so called therapy. As Karl Kraus observed ‘Psychoanalysis is the disease which offers itself as the cure’

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