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A Serious Question About Anthony Weiner
Okay. Now that we’ve all finished being grossed out, laughing ourselves hoarse, and making Weiner jokes, I’ve got a serious question.
What the hell is wrong with Anthony Weiner?
Clearly, he has a mental illness. It’s obviously an affliction that involves a compulsion to humiliate himself and those close to him. It combines aspects of sadism, masochism, exhibitionism, and addiction. Is this typical of any known disorder? Is it something the DSM-5 has specifically identified? For anyone here in the mental health field — have you ever seen anything like this before?
Usually I relate to politicians by seeing them as akin to ordinary people I know, only more powerful, ambitious, and narcissistic. Hillary’s like the scolding grade school teacher who enjoys her power over six-year-olds far too much for comfort. We all know guys like Bill — probably every woman has a girlfriend who, unfortunately for her, married a smooth-talking, philandering jerk just like him. We all know drunks, drug addicts, people who somehow screw up every job they get, and other self-destructive folk.
But Weiner’s got something really weird going on. He has to be the most humiliated guy in the history of public life, doesn’t he? He clearly longs to be humiliated and to humiliate his family. He deliberately creates situations where he and his family will be grossly humiliated in front of the largest possible audience. To do what he did after participating in a documentary about his humiliation, after years of therapy discussed oh-so-very publicly, during the height of a presidential campaign when obviously the press will be tracking his every breath — well, I just don’t know anyone who has even a minor case of what he’s got, whatever it is.
Do you?
Published in General
Weiner is a very weak cuckolded man in the grip of the sin of pride and narcissism which he makes no effort to escape because he desires both the fame and tawdry notoriety that even a remote relationship to the Clintons gives him.
He believed himself invulnerable because of that relationship. I will speculate that the marriage might not be done at this point if he is prudent in whispering innuendos about the nature of Clinton’s relationship with his Wife. Who really knows or cares?
Narcissism combined with addictive sexual behavior. Not really fascinating actually. The scrawny lil perv was also chronically horny and married to someone who would never satisfy him even on her good days as she was alpha and felt no need to please him or had general revulsion of him and her devil’s bargain .
Being sexually denied justifies his actions in his mind and he expects others to think like Chris Rock did about Bill/Hillary. We don’t though so the joke is on him. The fun starts at 3 minutes.
Perhaps his pseudonym, Carlos Danger, best explains his situation. He’s a danger junkie who gets an adrenaline rush by doing potentially disastrous things. I would rank him in the same class as Armin Schmieder who Facebook-Lived his own death while base jumping in the Alps. I’ve known a couple of men who got the same rush cheating on their wives: they lived on an intoxicating mix of narcissism and adrenaline.
Feels like severe ADHD to me. Lack of impulse control. Inability to consider likely outcomes from immediate decisions. A poor sense of time itself. Lives in the “eternal now”. Surrounds himself with women because women often tend to be natural organizers.
This brightens my day. Is the media responsible, then, for keeping him in the public eye? I’m guessing this guy is a ratings bonanza.
If it wasn’t for the fact that his wife is White-House-Chief-of-Staff-in-Waiting absolutely no one would bat an eye. We don’t have royalty in America but that doesn’t mean we don’t find the palace intrigues… Well, intriguing.
It’s about power, not sex.
What would have been the reaction if Huma had released this statement instead: “Because I value my marriage and my son’s future stability, I have decided to resign my position at Hillary For America and concentrate on the people that mean the most to me in my life. I thank the Secretary for her support and understanding and look forward to working for her in the future.”
Whatever else you think of her, “natural organizer” is a highly understated description of the woman Wiener married.
No need for psychobabble.
The dude is horny. This is how he gets un-horny.
Take religion out of my next question- is there anything wrong with what he is doing aside from embarrassment?
No. So there is no medical diagnosis necessary.
Just a guy trying to get un-horny.
Kris Kristofferson wrote it; here are Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris singing it.
He doesn’t need drugs to do that. All he needs is narcissism and a mid life crisis. 40+ year old dweeb looks in the mirror and asks himself “I’ve still got it, right?” “It” being whatever he imagines he was back when he was a 20 something athlete.
Huh? scenarios I can think of (haven’t read the details of the story, so if the recipient were a subordinate in the workplace or some other type subordinate, ignore me)
1. the recipient did not know Weiner, and received the photo out of the blue. (some women would laugh it off, some would think what a jerk, some would find it offensive, probably a few would enjoy it)
2. The recipient was flirting with Weiner. same as 1 above different breakdown percentages.
3. The recipient was interested in a sexting relationship ( would be a reasonable action by Weiner)
By todays standards what makes this so bad is that he was married and his life was being scrutinized for similar previous conduct that he supposedly was trying to not engage in.
The conduct in an of itself is pretty innocuous if the recipient is thought to be a willing participant…
By most accounts he was a workaholic in the House and was supposedly abusive to staffers unable to keep up with him. Had his first incident not happened while he was serving I’d lay some of his actions on that of a restless idle man with too much time on his hands.
I’d wager if one of our mental health professionals got him on the couch they’d say it was not just one thing. It never is. You could probably take the 40 things speculated about and check mark “All of the Above.”
We have no idea how long he had engaged in the behavior, just when he has been caught..
I was trying to figure out how long it’s been technically feasible. When did the first phones with cameras and texting become available?
Blackberry was the device for the longest time, particularly in political circles. They introduced text and pics in ’05, wasn’t it? And then it was proprietary.
It really is a 21st Century problem.
Well there is that point…. but before that he could have just sent polaroids, wouldn’t that be the same?
This disorder is known as “being an unaccountable member of the ruling class.”
Re # 72
The conduct might be desired if the recipient is a willing participant. ( I love looking at my husband.) What sane reason did Weiner have to think these women were potentially willing participants ?
Ah, then we’d be talking violations of the postal code!
possibly because they told him so….
hmmm… you can’t subscribe to playboy?
Sad to say there’s less nudity in Playboy these days than your average text message from Carlos Danger.
However, a subscription is definitely a sign of consent.
Re: 80
You think he was set up ?
Not exactly. For one thing, a Polaroid was unique, and difficult to reproduce. A text message and digital photo can be forwarded with a few clicks. It could have been Polaroid mind in a cell phone world.
Seawriter
Haven’t read the details but the options would be.
I get that distribution and replication are different much less efficient , but is it any different in the act than leaving a nude picture in a envelop on someones desk?
The details of the story are lost to me now. Why do I think there are only two possibilities ? (1) He sent pictures to women who gave him no sane reason to think the pictures would be well received. (2) He sent pictures to women who pretended to be interested.
I think the “hacked” thing was disproven.
But how did the story break ? Didn’t he accidentally send pictures somewhere?
AFAIK, Wiener’s sexting was done between consenting adults – or at least between those claiming to be adults. It is a bit inaccurate to characterize this as “leaving a nude picture in a envelop on someones desk” as if it were sent to some unknown person. The recipients invited it, in some cases to play gotcha as much as because they were interested in the content. It is a lot harder to play that kind of gotcha game with Polaroids.
The real arrogance shown by Wiener is believing no one is trolling for explicit Wiener selfies so they could reveal them to the world after he got bit by this before, on several occasions. Sleazy behavior leads to association with sleazy people.
Seawriter
There’s something in this. We’re asking what’s wrong with Weiner, but the society we live in has opened the door for this sort of thing. We’re saying he’s crossed a line once too often, but where is that line? In many circles of life, the cultural and social elite have done their best to erase or at the very least obscure that line so much that none can really determine where it is. Or at least that’s the goal.
The problem for Weiner is that it does exist, and every so often our attention is brought to it. We awake from our cultural comas to say, “No!” and he just happens to hit those moments, and is expendable enough politically that it won’t be swept under the carpet.
Weiner is associating with people for whom the rules don’t apply. Is it any surprise that he started to think they didn’t apply to him, either?
Re # 89
Yup.