Hanna Rosin, writing for Slate,<\/i> thinks it might be,<\/strong><\/a> but allows she\u2019s betting against the house:<\/p>\n When Tiger Woods checked himself into the Gentle Path sex addiction clinic, many women writers and activists reacted with suspicion and rancor. Lemondrop asked if the treatment is \u201cmerely a way for philandering men to pay lip service to their outraged wives?\u201d Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon found the diagnosis \u201cnothing short of maddening.\u201d A group of female protesters in Australia showed up at a golf tournament carrying photos of Tiger with a purple pimp hat and a scepter, implying a certain winking noblesse oblige. Our own Amanda Marcotte wondered whether Woods had a disease or a \u201cfairly typical set of attitudes about women coupled with a lot of opportunities.\u201d Or, as she succinctly put it, are celebrities such as Woods who rack up the mistresses \u201d \u2018addicts\u2019? Or just pigs?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard, admittedly, to sympathize with a man who asks his mistress to change her voice mail because his wife has stolen his phone. Especially when that man is a millionaire golfer who has profited from his clean, good-boy image. But with some historical distance, the situation seems less suspect. Not so long ago, there was no easy way at all to publicly shame a celebrity pig or even any ordinary pig. The term sex addict does some of that work, and its introduction into the psychiatric idiom could be considered an important moment in feminist history. Suddenly, certain brutish behaviors that used to be overlooked were exiled as abnormal. And in the clinical literature, the word promiscuous came to primarily describe not hysterical women but rather predatory men. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n At least as far as the American Psychiatric Association is concerned, sex addiction doesn\u2019t exist<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 at least not at this particular moment. In 1987, it appeared in the third edition of the APA\u2019s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, with the definition: \u201cdistress about a pattern of repeated sexual conquests or other forms of nonparaphilic sexual addiction, involving a succession of people who exist only as things to be used.\u201d By the time the fourth edition emerged, it had been moved to a section marked \u201cSexual Disorders Not Otherwise Specified.\u201d In other words, according to the best medical authorities, being a playa can be a compulsion, but not a full-blown addiction.<\/p>\n A new edition of the DSM is ue out in 2013. It\u2019s worth wondering whether sex addiction will be restored to its former dignity, and if so, how it society might be affected.<\/p>\n The case for the existence of a full-blown sex addiction has a venerable history. It dates back to the 1970s, with Dr. Patrick Carnes\u2019 publication of Out of the Shadows: Understanding Sex Addiction.<\/i> To define the disorder, Carnes employed the following criteria:<\/p>\n Recurrent failure (pattern) to resist impulses to engage in acts of sex. <\/p>\n Frequently engaging in those behaviors to a greater extent or over a longer period of time than intended. <\/p>\n Persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to stop, reduce, or control those behaviors. Preoccupation with the behavior or preparatory activities. Continuation of the behavior despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent social, academic, financial, psychological, or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated by the behavior. <\/p>\n Need to increase the intensity, frequency, number, or risk of behaviors to achieve the desired effect, or diminished effect with continued behaviors at the same level of intensity, frequency, number, or risk. <\/p>\n Giving up or limiting social, occupational, or recreational activities because of the behavior. Now, I\u2019m not sure how many points have to describe a person\u2019s behavior before Dr. Carnes would return a diagnosis of \u201caddicted.\u201d Since the treatment, according to Rosin, involves living \u201ca monk\u2019s life, with no hint of sex or even masturbation allowed,\u201d one hopes psyhciatrists don\u2019t start handing out such diagnoses like business cards. <\/p>\n It would be worse still if the notion of sex addiction took such firm hold in the popular imagination that laypeople began equating a well-adjusted personality with a low sex drive. Once it enters everyday speech, clinical jargon can be a powerful weapon. Think of the word narcissist.<\/i> Gore Vidal accused Norman Mailer of using it as a code for \u201chomosexual.\u201d Countless critics have imputed narcissism to President Obama, although they\u2019re more likely to mean he wears Burberry and went to Harvard. Is it so very hard to imagine \u201cOh, my God! Get away from me, you friggin\u2019 sex addict!\u201d emerging as the go-to rebuff for any young man who\u2019s picked the wrong moment to make his move?<\/p>\n Worse things have happened. Rosin recalls the stigma attached by Victorian society to \u201cnymphomania\u201d:<\/p>\n During the Victorian era, nymphomania became the catch-all term for a wide range of inappropriate behavior, from \u201clascivious glances\u201d to extramarital affairs, writes Carol Groneman in Nymphomania: A History. Even wearing perfume was sometimes diagnosed as a symptom of \u201cmild nymphomania.\u201d The book describes the case of Mrs. R, a widow who, in 1895, blamed her \u201clascivious longings\u201d on reading too many novels and going to too many gay parties as a young girl. It is with \u201cthe greatest difficulty that I could conduct myself in a decorous and ladylike manner in the presence of the other sex,\u201d she lamented to her doctor, who prescribed leeches applied to the uterus and ice to the genital <\/p><\/blockquote>\n At least judging by Marty Kafka, whom Rosin calls \u201cthe reigning expert\u201d on sex addiction, diagnoses are applied with some care. Kafka\u2019s patients seem to be hard cases, who \u201cobsessively look at porn or bankrupt themselves on prostitutes.\u201d Kafka insists that having had 18 mistresses \u2014 Tiger Woods\u2019 count to date \u2014 is not, by itself, a prima facie<\/i> case for sex addiction. On the other hand, Kafka would begin an examination of Tiger Woods by asking how often he has orgasms: \u201cBy the accepted definition, seven times a week consistently for six months would signal a problem.\u201d Sounds a bit on the tyrannical side.<\/p>\n Granted, part of my uneasiness comes from the demographic breakdown. Ninety-five percent of people diagnosed with sexual disorders are male. The DSM-IV does list a hypoactive sexual desire disorder,<\/strong><\/a> which affects mostly women. According to a New York Times<\/i> article titled \u201cWomen Who Want to Want,\u201d<\/strong><\/a> the treatment regimen is far less Siberian than anything a male sex addict might have to look forward to. Psychologist Lori Brotto, who at 34 has won recognition as the world\u2019s leading expert on hypoactive sexual desire disorder, oaches her patients through a set of exercises, in which they imagine themselves as highly sexual beings. Sex up your mind, the idea goes, and the rest of you might follow. It\u2019s a far cry from lockdown. Perhaps unfairly, I find it terribly unfair.<\/p>\n
\nInordinate amount of time spent in obtaining sex, being sexual, or recovering from sexual experience. <\/p>\n
\nFrequently engaging in sexual behavior when expected to fulfill occupational, academic, domestic, or social obligations. <\/p>\n
\nResorting to distress, anxiety, restlessness, or violence if unable to engage in the behavior at times relating to SRD (Sexual Rage Disorder). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n