Can Sex-Addiction Rehab Save Tiger?

[Hot Pants]

AP Photo & Getty Images A new report says the golf star may enter an Arizona rehab clinic for "sexual compulsion." Abby Ellin on the science behind a controversial disorder - and why there's little chance he'll be cured.

After weeks of predictions, it finally happened: Tiger Woods has reportedly decided to check into rehab for sex addiction. But to treat a real disorder, or just his fractured image? Sex addiction is the diagnosis du jour for male public figures caught cheating or gawking at porn: David Duchovny, Eliot Spitzer, and Christie Brinkley’s ex-husband Peter Cook, and ESPN’s Steve Phillips have all done their time on the couch.


Sex addiction isn’t in the DSM-IV, the bible of psychological medicine, but neither are many disorders that therapists routinely treat. And the team of doctors currently revising the guide are considering adding sex addiction to the new version.


“What would make him an addict is if his behavior gets in the way of his day-to-day functioning,” says one psychologist. “Tiger Woods is obviously a highly functioning person in his job.”

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[kandlad]

I don't know if he's a classic sex addict, I think it has more to do with what he could "get away with" since there are no reports of doing the deed in strange, dangerous places.