The French Look at SCA

How do "civilians" see SCA? Here's some excerpts from an article written for a French magazine, le Nouvel Observateur, by Jean-Gabriel Freder.

"They call themselves, George, Dennis, Nolan, Matt, Scott...their last name? I would never know. Like AAA [sic] (Alcoholics Anonymous...) from whom they are directly inspired, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous (SCA) and its members, those who are obsessed by anonymous sex, never reveal their identity. It is the golden rule of the group...which offers, in twelve meetings, to detox them, to heal them of their sexual addiction and to reteach them the virtues of fidelity.

It was a very hot day, that Tuesday in July in New York. In the little building in New York where the meeting is held, shorts and bermudas are "de rigeur." Seated silently around a big table, the nine participants, from 25 to 35 years old, listen religiously to the group leader. "I'm Scott, I am a sex addict." Is Scott further along the path of recovery, or slipping seriously? All smile, he admits to having rejoined SCA...four years ago. In a serious voice, he recites the principles of the meeting. "We are here to share our strength, hope and experience..."

Out of curiosity or in homage to the Gay & Lesbian Center in which we are guests, Scott asks those who are homosexual to declare themselves. Three hands raise. SCA is open to men and women. But the participants are practically all men. The plague of AIDS, which strikes mostly men, has added still more to their numbers. The fact that the meetings take place in gay locations in company with the defenders of gay rights, does not signify that SCA shares their views...

The theme of this fourth meeting where I have discretely infiltrated... is the fourth step towards redemption, "I am George, I am a sex addict," each one presents himself and reads aloud a text describing the ravages exercised in this addiction and the supposed benefits of the found again recovery....

Charlatanism? The meetings of SCA are free and their slogan "Progress not perfection" gives them a touch of humanity. The call to meditation and prayer does not escape all the trappings of group therapy, the modern incarnation of confession... The consolation of skeptics:...SCA states that sexuality is too mysterious, too changeable, too complex to be reduced to some brutal affirmations or simple statements about fidelity."


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