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After a bombshell report from the New York Times revealed a litany of sexual harassment allegations against him, the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is reportedly on his way to rehab to be treated for sex addiction, TMZ reported.
But that's not the whole story.
The Times' investigation chronicled what became a familiar pattern: Women accused him in court of unwanted advances, alienation, and other inappropriate behavior, and Weinstein and his lawyers paid to settle the cases quietly.
It happened for 30 years.
Three days after the Times' story was published, Weinstein's entertainment company fired him. On Tuesday, his wife, the designer Georgina Chapman, announced she was leaving him.
It was in this vacuum that the star allegedly turned to therapy for sex addiction. Yet there's a lot about Weinstein that we still don't know. We don't know whether or not he had previously sought counseling. We don't know whether he is a diagnosed sex addict. All we know is that he was charged repeatedly with accusations that suggest that he violated the rights of many women.
For those reasons and much more, it's crucial that we avoid throwing around the term "sex addict," certified sex addiction therapist Jenner Bishop told Business Insider. This does a disservice to the thousands of Americans who actually grapple with sex addiction. More importantly, said Bishop — most clients with real sex addiction display some key characteristics, including repeatedly seeking help and displaying a sense of internal strife or despair.
"There are men who come into my office for treatment throwing around sex addiction when really they’re philanderers. They're serial womanizers. They're dogs. But because we don’t have a real definition for it, someone — any other therapist — could supposedly treat them for that. That label is very seductive in terms of everybody having a mea culpa," Jenner said.
There's a lot of controversy surrounding the use of the term "sex addiction" among psychologists and therapists. Some argue that it doesn't exist, pointing to the fact that the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM) — widely considered the psychiatrist's bible for identifying mental illnesses — doesn't include it on the grounds that there aren't enough large studies on the topic to support it. But many others say it is a real disorder that needs attention and treatment — and the fact that it gets thrown around among celebrities actually makes it tougher to do this.
Jenner said it's fairly easy to tell the difference between someone who has a real sex addiction and needs help and someone who is simply seeking an easy way out.