"Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" floats somewhere between exploitative voyeurism and a chance for sick people to get better. Audiences watch with bated breath as celebrities discuss childhood molestation, rape and crippling sex addiction.
Dr. Drew Pinsky has been drawing listeners, readers and viewers for over two decades as he has straddled the worlds of medicine and pop culture. With the nationally syndicated radio show "Loveline" (1984) and celeb-reality shows "Sober House" (2009) and "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" (2008), "Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" could be just another notch on his belt.
The show opens with a collage of porn footage and pulsing pop music. Eight celebrities, including an ex-Playmate, a porn star, a professional surfer and a director, are welcomed into a Pasadena rehabilitation center, where their therapy occurs. Viewers essentially sit in on group and individual therapy sessions and get to ogle at voluptuous people denying themselves sex, masturbation and pornography in an attempt to recover from sex addiction.
A posh, esteemed director confesses to having spent days in his house watching porn without interacting with another human being. A bedraggled surfer admits to masturbating to the point of causing himself physical injury. Two minutes later, the patients dish about crushes they have on each other and how badly they just want to get out and get some.
The show isn't bereft of poignant moments, each set to a soundtrack straight out of "Dawson's Creek" or "Grey's Anatomy." Porn star Penny Flame uses her original name, Jennie Ketcham, for the first time in years, and with tears running down her unmade-up face, calls herself a monster for the way she has treated men. She pleads to the camera, "Why can't I just f-cking connect with anyone?" Dr. Drew, his celebrities and the viewers are torn between being good and being bad. Audiences could be good and dismiss the show for its exploitative absurdity, or could indulge their bad sides and watch on.
Maybe the draw of "Sex Rehab" lies in the viewer's ability to simultaneously relate to the celebrity's obsession while enjoying a feeling of superiority. During commercial breaks viewers will no doubt ask themselves, "How could these people be so stupid as to go on a show like this?"
Is Dr. Drew guilty of the same reaction?
Dr. Drew, along with his colleague Dr. S. Mark Young, published an article in 2006 about a study the two conducted on the relationship between narcissism and celebrity. The two doctors used the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to assess narcissism in celebrities. They found that, "Across celebrity types, reality television personalities had the highest narcissism scores (27% higher than Foster et al.'s average U.S. score), followed by comedians, actors and musicians."
The study (available online at Sciencedirect.com) concludes that "reality television has provided an outlet for narcissistic individuals, many with limited abilities, to believe that they can succeed in the entertainment industry. This desire to enter the industry may be fueled by the types of fantasy feelings of success, power and glory that narcissists seem to exhibit (Raskin & Novacek, 1991)."
Was Dr. Drew aware that he himself would be a reality television personality in just two short years? One can only speculate as to the connection between the Amherst graduate's fascination with celebrity narcissism and his own attention-seeking career.
"Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" approaches serious content with all the trappings of your average reality TV voyeurism. The show publicizes the struggle of its celebrity participants to work through unhealthy obsessions and, perhaps because people keep watching and bolstering its ratings, the show also publicizes a crisis of obsession for its viewers.
Is it horrifying? Perhaps. Is the doctor doing good work? Maybe. Will audiences keep watching? Definitely.
