Film producer Harvey Weinstein has been charged with sexual assault by 44 women, and the list promises to continue to grow in the coming days. Almost from the very moment when the scandal came to light, the production company to which he belonged was in charge of airing that Weinstein was not a rapist but a sick man. A victim of himself. It was even announced that he was coming to therapy to try to overcome his alleged addiction.
It is not the first time celebrities try to make up their sexual abuse and their infidelities after the alibi of sex addiction. They did, for example, Charlie Sheen or Tiger Woods. But ... is there really sex addiction?
To begin with, we must know how to determine whether or not something is a sexual disease. The globally accepted criterion is that dictated by the DSM, the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'. It is published by the American Psychiatric Association and, since the 1940s, it classifies all mental illnesses. In his fifth and so far last edition - the 'DSM 5'- appears a disease called "hypersexuality disorder." So, yes, the disease exists. At least in this manual, because it does not end up being clear.
"Who defines what is a psychiatric disorder are the psychiatrists themselves," says Eparquio Delgado, a health psychologist at the Rayuela Psychological Center in Tenerife. "Disorders are put to a vote and there are pressures of all kinds." Some groups, for example, are looking for certain disorders to be recognized in order to gain a degree of officiality. The last manual, 'DSM 5' was born dead Institute of Mental Health of the United States said it would not fund research based on that manual, "he explains.
According to the DSM, there are four criteria to determine if a patient suffers a "hypersexuality disorder":
1. Presenting intense, recurring fantasies, impulses or sexual behaviors for at least six months.
2. Present a significant discomfort or a notable social or personal deterioration that originates those fantasies, impulses or sexual behaviors.
3. That these fantasies, impulses or sexual behaviors are not product of external agents like drugs.
4. The person is over 18 years old.
Allen Frances is a recognized psychiatrist, founder of two of the most important journals in his field. In addition, he was the coordinator of the fourth edition of DSM, the 'DSM-IV', and has become the biggest critic of the subsequent edition, the 'DSM-5'. The reason: Frances has defended, in various interviews and articles, that the manual lacks the necessary rigor. In his view, 'DSM 5' is one of the responsible for the medicalization of certain non-pathological behaviors, which has generated a global abuse of psychoactive drugs.
But if that is so, if the distrust of 'DSM-5' is so widespread, why do so many celebrities continue to embrace this 'hypersexuality disorder'?
"You have to keep in mind that psychiatric diagnoses are relevant in a trial," says Delgado. "If we accept that there is a hypersexuality disorder and that this is an addiction, it could be considered as an extenuating factor for certain criminal behaviors. What I would suggest is that this in no way serves as an exoneration or mitigation of any kind of criminal responsibility."
And he concludes: "Although we wanted to assume that there is a hypersexuality disorder, that would not imply that anyone who suffers it would violate anyone." Emma Thompson said: "Weinstein can not be described as addicted to sex, he is a predator."
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