Strauss-Kahn’s behaviour reveals narcissism run amok

When a sex scandal three years ago threatened to derail his career,
Dominique Strauss-Kahn publicly referred to his actions involving an
underling as a "miscalculation."

This is probably not the word used by a New York maid who alleges the chief
of the International Monetary Fund forcibly confined and sexually assaulted
her Sunday, giving rise to a charge of attempted rape.

Nor would French novelist Tristane Banon be apt to use that word in
connection with her own allegations that, in 2002, Strauss-Kahn sexually
assaulted her during what was supposed to be an interview with a rising star
of French politics.

But Strauss-Kahn's earlier use of the word "miscalculation" is telling.
It comes freighted with meaning about how the powerful so often view their
own sexual indiscretions, and what they think of our collective right to sit
in judgment.

It's not just that the word has a kind of scientific precision, as if
everything had been coolly and rationally calibrated, a calculation made.

Describing what many would see in moral or ethical terms as a mere
"miscalculation" is a way of trivializing both the situation and the other
person involved.

Strauss-Kahn is scarcely the first politician to go down this road after
engaging in high-risk behaviour, though he's among the few whose sexual
exploits involved criminal charges, to which Strauss-Kahn pleaded innocent
Monday.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton derisively referred to Monica Lewinsky as
"that woman" when he at first tried to deny having an affair with the
White House intern.

Ex-New York governor Eliot Spitzer saw his political career unravel under
similar scrutiny, and John Edwards squandered his when, during the 2008 U.S.
presidential primaries, he had an affair with a woman involved in his
campaign. Edwards later blamed the public fawning that came with his
meteoric rise.

What seems to connect these and other cases is a kind of narcissism run
amok, with power and the adulation of others creating a sense of personal
invincibility. And the only way to truly test that invincibility is almost
defiant risk-taking, of which Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may
well be the planet's best-known practitioner.

The 74-year-old is now facing four, concurrent trials involving corruption,
tax fraud and, most spectacularly, charges that he had sex with an underage
prostitute and then used his political office in an attempted cover-up.

Like Berlusconi, Strauss-Kahn now faces a cascade of embarrassing
revelations about other past behaviour.

The French novelist, Banon, has described Strauss-Kahn as acting like a
"rutting chimpanzee" during a 2002 struggle in which he allegedly unhooked
her bra and tried to open her jeans.

At the time, Banon's mother — who is both a Socialist Party councillor and
a friend of Strauss-Kahn — told her then 22-year-old daughter not to file a
complaint, a decision she now regrets. "My error at the time was to think
that it was a moment when he went off the rails," she told French
television Sunday.

Under French law, attempted rape charges can be brought up to 10 years after
an alleged attack.

The IMF board also investigated Strauss-Kahn in 2008 over an improper
relationship with a female employee. The board, while noting the
relationship was consensual, called Strauss-Kahn's actions "regrettable."

Now 62 and married to his fourth wife, Strauss-Kahn has long been nicknamed
"The Great Seducer" by the French media. That might not have been
problematic in France, which famously tolerates the sexual dalliances of its
leading politicians. But the criminal assault charges laid in New York have
left his political promise as the leading centre-left challenger to French
President Nicholas Sarkozy in tatters.

Strauss-Kahn is charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse, a criminal sex
act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He was denied bail Monday,
and New York police said they were also investigating a similar allegation
against Strauss-Kahn at the same hotel.

He and those similarly disgraced simply failed to remember that, despite
their success, they were still human, said Robert Weiss, founder and
director of the Sexual Recovery Institute, which specializes in sexual
addictions.

"If their narcissism or egotism isn't matched by a healthy dose of
humility of what it means to be human … and they run on their intellect and
don't attend to their emotions on any level … then they are bound for
trouble."