Sexual Disorders Expert Robert Weiss Comments on Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Sexual Assault Charges

As news about an alleged sexual attack on a Midtown Manhattan maid by International Monetary Fund Managing Director and potential French Presidential Candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn makes headlines, sexual disorders and addiction expert Robert Weiss takes a deeper look at what drives men in power, to act out. Mr. Weiss, who has provided expert commentary on such stories to major media including CNN, ABC, NBC, ESPN, Discovery Health, The Oprah Winfrey Show believes that when impulsive sexual behavior of high profile individuals like Strauss-Kahn is acted out on the world stage it provides a platform to educate individuals about sexual addiction – a disorder which to date remains hotly debated in behavioral health circles:

“Powerful men engaged in intensely stressful jobs need to have their emotional lives in balance. While functioning at a very high level intellectually, a sense of invulnerability combined with poor self-care and constant pressure to perform can leave them emotionally vulnerable to undermining the very things they have worked so hard to achieve. In this way, sexual addiction has affected some of the most notable figures in television, politics, and entertainment. David Duchovny, Elliot Spitzer, Larry Craig, Christopher Lee, Bill Clinton, and of course Tiger Woods are just a few examples of how sexual acting out can manifest in men of power who should know better.

“The underlying source of these types of addictive sexual disorders is a lack of adult emotional support and intimacy combined with often overlooked early histories of early emotional trauma. People who addictively utilize intensely pleasurable experiences as sources of emotionally distracting stimulation are maladaptively attending to very real emotional needs in dysfunctional ways. Those are individuals who work 16 to 18 hour days, travel the world at a far distance from those close to them and often have few people to fully confide in - while having to manage intense stress and pressure. They often don't make it a priority to create and enjoy down time. As a result, they miss out on the relaxation, self-care and emotional intimacy, human beings require for a healthy life.”

Mr. Weiss has presented on this topic for the American Association of Sex Educators and Therapists, the National Association of Social Work, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Military. He believes the most important function of treatment is stopping the behavior and identifying it for what it is: a maladaptive coping mechanism. Since sexual acting out doesn't meet the individual's underlying emotional needs but serves more as a distraction, good treatment can help identify and alleviate the painful emptiness that drives the cyclic nature of addiction.