Aggressive Sex and Mental Health

The first Chinese member in Congress isn't running for reelection following accusations of "aggressive and unwanted sex."

If it is not rape, (we don't know the details yet), the episode certainly has the markings of attempted rape, a violent attack.  Whatever the reality, his behavior traumatized a young woman who graduated high school just last year. 

Mr. Wu is getting treatment for mental health issues.

What does this mean?

It could mean that he has a mental or behavioral disorder.  Mr. Wu has a right to his privacy, but there are only a few handfuls out of hundreds of mental or behavioral disorders that relate to sexual behavior.  They  include the parafilias, fetishes, voyeurism, Peeping Toms, pedofilia, and others. 

Sometimes, during the manic episodes characteristic of mood disorders, Bi-polar Disorder, specifically, individuals can be hyper-sexual,  focus upon nothing else. But that doesn't mean they attempt rape.

People addicted to cocaine or alcohol or both can be hyper-sexual, as well, under the influence.  They cross boundaries, engage in behavior that they wouldn't do otherwise.  Under the influence we all become uninhibited-- a bad thing, sometimes.

Or perhaps Mr. Wu's defense counsel is thinking that he might have a personality disorder.  Individuals with antisocial personality disorder habitually flaunt laws because they think they can.  But it is unlikely that someone who has achieved as prestigious a position as Congressman, someone with so high a profile, habitually, without guilt or detection, flaunts the law. By now someone would have noticed. 

If he's narcissistic enough, he might think that No means Yes.  Narcissistic thinking:: How could anyone say no to someone as charming and as attractive as me?

Or he could have a sex addiction, the latest of many powerful people to admit how hard it is to stop that compulsion, sex.  We're seeing more of that in the office than ever before, and 12-Step programs work wonders to obliterate various character defects.

It's encouraging, whatever the case, that the Congressman sees that it isn't normal to force himself sexually upon women. The real question is whether or not the crime of attempted rape is being covered up with a mental health defense, one that doesn't exist.  If that's the case, then he might serve time in prison, and maybe rehab, too.  We're hoping that when it all shakes out in the end, that he tells his story, deters others.  That would be a meaningful amends to the people who voted him into office, a real public service.