A narcissist, but probably not a sociopath

As more and more evidence surfaces about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, it becomes increasingly evident that he is what is called a sex addict. He made passes at two other hotel employees and an airline stewardess that same fateful weekend, and it turns out that he frequently used the same madame that Eliot Spitzer did. (One wonders, do sex addicts not know how to masturbate? Do they consider it beneath their dignity?) In any case, if Strauss-Kahn did use coercion, then he is now a rapist as well as an addict.

A number of articles out this past week have lumped Strauss-Kahn and Arnold Schwarzenegger together, asking questions like, why do powerful men cheat? And the publicity surrounding the news of Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child has been just as lurid as that surrounding the Strauss-Kahn incident. But what Schwarzenegger did was just not as bad.  Basically, his crime was to have had an affair. According to the statistics, something like 60% of married people have affairs at some point during their marriages. (And that number would probably be a lot higher if the other 40% had more opportunities.) Did Schwarzenegger's "crime" become much worse because it resulted in a pregnancy?

Once he found out that Baena was pregnant, what was Schwarzenegger supposed to do? Convince Baena to have an abortion? By all accounts she had set her sights on him, and wanted the child. Was he supposed to divorce Maria and marry Baena? He had four children with Shriver and only one with Baena; should he have become a part time father to them so he could be a full time father to the one?

A lot of the bad publicity surrounding this affair revolves around the fact that Maria Shriver was kept in the dark for so long. But would most guys in that situation have gone to their wives and said, listen honey, just so you know, I'm having another kid with another woman?

The affair evidently transpired before Schwarzenegger became governor, back while Shriver was a busy career woman. Add to this equation the fact that Schwarzenegger has admitted using steroids, which will make your sexual needs overwhelming -- just ask Tiger. Schwarzenegger, like Bill Clinton, was a busy man, and made do with whomever was at hand. (Baena is pictured above.)

Schwarzenegger's early history as a body builder clearly shows he wasn't the nicest guy. He regularly sabotaged his opponents by giving them bad workout advice and also trying to psych them out. And it's hard to believe that he achieved all of his ambitions in Hollywood and elsewhere by being nice.

One interesting story that came to light over the past couple days was the private report which Anthony Pellicano compiled on Schwarzenegger, back when the gubernatorial run was first being considering. Pellicano uncovered lots of affairs, which is not surprising, but he also discovered one fact that was -- Schwarzenegger preferred plain women to beautiful ones because they allowed him to be the center of attention.

An excerpt from yesterday's NY Post:

LOS ANGELES -- He needs to be the prettiest face in the place! 

Disgraced ex-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly picks unattractive women to bed because they fawn all over his muscle-bound bod -- and are grateful for the attention in a way gorgeous gals never are.

That revelation is one of dozens dished in a "dirty dossier" compiled by now-jailed Tinseltown gumshoe Anthony Pellicano, according to Britain's News of the World. 

"He sees himself as the dominant, beautiful one," reads the dossier, commissioned by Schwarzenegger's political backers during the buildup to his first run for office.

"The physical is most important to him and he does not want to be upstaged or lose the spotlight in company of a strikingly beautiful woman," the explosive report reads....

While filming the 1990 smash hit "Total Recall" in Mexico, Schwarzenegger allegedly had his longtime on-and-off lover Gigi Goyette flown onto the set for weekend romps. 

"The girls on set could not understand why he was bringing this plain girl down when they were all willing and able to help him commit adultery," according to the report. 

But another mistress knew why, according to the dossier. 

"She . . . confided that Schwarzenegger enjoys sex with plain women because they tend to demonstrate more admiration, adoration and excitement over his body."

This is a level of vanity which rivals that of Vinny Basciano, the mobster described seven posts ago. But Schwarzenegger doesn't have Basciano's murderous history. And he's not a rapist, which puts him a rung above Strauss-Kahn.

Schwarzenegger is obviously a narcissistic personality, in the layman's as well as strict psychological definition of the term. But I haven't seen anything to convince me that he is a sociopath.