David Letterman – Narcissist, Sex Addict, Sexual Harasser or simply clueless?
Up until today this would have seemed a highly unlikely headline about one of our more congenial and familiar national media figures. But the evolving sad back-story of blackmail and attempted extortion at CBS, now pouring out of the media outlets, offers more questions than answers.
The facts: a famous 60-something-year old highly public and celebrated male, married to his long-time partner with their one young child, has been having sex with women who worked for him. This behavior was public or known enough for him to have been blackmailed.
The facts themselves encourage the kind of questions that any good sex addiction therapist would ask if presented with an all too typical situation like this one.
The questions: How often was he having sex with these women? Where were they having sex? How many women were there? If these women worked ‘for him’ does that mean he had power over their jobs, advancement etc.? – i.e. sexual harassment.
Accurate answers to these kinds of tough, personal questions are what determine the nature of this type of problem. Is Letterman simply a somewhat clueless narcissist who thoughtlessly and casually committed serial adultery without regard for himself, his show and his family or does he suffer from the kind of hyper-stimulation problem that indicates someone is truly addicted?
Letterman’s willingness to come out so publicly about all this, rather than suffer the potential financial and emotional damage of an eager blackmailer, should be seen as admirable. But this type of (after-the-horse-is-out-of-the-barn) disclosure does not correct for his own concerning and inappropriate actions with staffers, especially those who may have been dependant on his mood, opinions and experience of them for their salaries and/or reviews. And it certainly won’t go far in helping his spouse and family recover from the very public humiliation he has chosen to put them through.
I like Letterman, but don’t like his behavior.