Being a fan of Thomas Szasz, I don’t hold psychiatry in very high regard. There just seems to be something inherently hokey in a process where psychological diseases are defined in such ambiguous terms that no two doctors could ever come up with the same diagnosis. In fact, I thought the word disease was out in favor of the word, disorder.
In any case, everyone was stunned to find out a few weeks ago that Tiger Woods, perhaps the most well known sports star on the planet and who most probably had hot willing female groupies throwing themselves at his feet by the dozens, was having sex with multiple partners, only one of whom was his wife. As shocking a revelation as that was, even more shocking was the fact that he has now been diagnosed as having a sex addiction for which he needs treatment.
While not trying to trivialize the impact infidelity can have on a marriage, the charade that has evolved around this episode is surreal. As an example, I was intrigued by some parts of this Time.com article about sex rehab:
While those who treat it say sex addiction is a disease like any other compulsion, the field is in its infancy: there is virtually no research on it, compared with the vast resources on drug or alcohol addiction.
So, the fact that there is virtually no research on it doesn’t keep them from declaring it a disease, huh? Typical of much psychological “science”.
Despite the shortage of statistics, researchers agree that the vast majority of sex addicts — over 90% — are men. Rob Weiss, founder and executive director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Southern California, estimates that up to 5% of Americans deal with some form of sex addiction, though he says there is no real way to know.
To paraphrase, “We really don’t have many hard facts, but we’re more than willing to fabricate what we need.”
“You look at ways that your behavior has made your life unmanageable. That’s really the question,” says Benoit Denizet-Lewis, author of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life.
In this case so unmanageable that Woods become one of the richest and most successful sports stars in history.
Sex addiction is marked not simply by poor decision-making in the face of temptation, but also by a sense of powerlessness before one’s own compulsive behavior.
So, if Woods had simply said, “I didn’t feel powerless at all. I just like sex and I’d do it all over again”, he wouldn’t be diagnosed as diseased? No, then he probably would have been diagnosed as in denial.
I think what’s going on here is Woods is in an aggressive damage control mode, desperately trying to salvage as much of his income and nearly billion dollar net worth as possible and he will do and say whatever that requires.
I wonder what the public response would be if, instead of debasing himself by throwing himself at the notoriously opinion-based, arbitrary, ineffective, and self-serving addiction treatment industry racket, he had just come out and said, “I was unfaithful to my wife just like so many of you, except I was much more successful.”
