Web posted on: Friday, August 28, 1998 12:38:55 PM EDT

(CNN) -- According to Jerome Levin, President Bill Clinton fits the pattern of a man who suffers sexual compulsion. In fact, he says there's "a very clear pattern of sexual addiction going back his entire adult life."

"The persistence, the risk-taking, the disregard for consequences, that's all part of the profile," he said.

A New York-based psychotherapist who has treated addiction for two decades, Levin has written a book, titled "The Clinton Syndrome", about the disorder that he claims drove the president into a risky affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

While he doesn't know the president personally, Levin, the director of the Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor Training Program at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, said evidence of addictive behavior is not hard to find. "It's an advantage and a disadvantage to not know him," Levin said in a telephone interview. "It gives me a certain objectivity, but the downside is you don't have the depth" of direct evidence that family and friends would know.

But "the public domain contains an enormous amount of information from which I have drawn to try to reach a balanced appraisal of what demons drive this man. Those same demons drive every one of us," Levin wrote in the introduction of his book.

"No one doubts that Bill Clinton has had an active extramarital sex life. In various ways, he himself has admitted as much. The question is: Is this 'normal' human behavior in a powerful, high-energy, handsome male? Is it a character defect? Is it an addiction?" Levin wrote.

The signs have been there for many years, he said, dating back to his college days, when "Hillary and he were fighting about his infidelities..."

"It continued in Little Rock. There were so many rumors of Bill's proclivities back home that she sent her father and brother to work with him" to keep tabs on his actions, Levin said.

Levin, who is the author of eight books dealing with addiction, cites factors in Clinton's background that may have nudged him toward sexual addiction: an early family life filled with addictive behavior -- an alcoholic ana abusive stepfather, a brother who developed a drug problem and a mother who loved to gamble -- as well as the trauma of never knowing his biological father, and living without his mother for long periods.

"Sexual addictions are not about sex," Levin wrote. "They are about insecurity, low self-esteem, and the need for affirmation and reassurance. At the bottom, the sex addict feels unloved and unlovable and so looks obsessively for proof that this is not so."

Levin says the president appeared to control his urges after arriving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the stress of the presidency and personal grief may have triggered his addiction again.

"Along with the death of his mother," Levin posits that Clinton was in agony over the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who he saw as a father figure, and the death of Cabinet member Ron Brown, who was like a trusted brother.

These factors may have pushed Clinton into a series of dangerous situations, including the Lewinsky affair, Levin said.

"Getting involved with Lewinsky is crazy, but Clinton is not crazy. He reverted to an old pattern," he said.

If Levin is correct, is there help for the president? Could a sex-addicted world leader heal his wounds and be trusted to lead?

Treatment is "the same as (for) any other addiction," Levin said. "The therapist has to confront the denial, and get the patient to confront the addiction. You have to crumble the defense mechanism that has been built up around the patient."

"Support groups are quite helpful, as is relapse prevention, which lets the therapist and the patient learn what the triggers are for the behavior."

But you also have to go inside the mind and deal with what's underneath, he said. The president would have to resolve the "shame, rage, guilt, and fury about the way he was cheated of a childhood by becoming prematurely the adult in the family. He needs to go back and face that pain."

"I'm sure there are many people who saw the signs long ago, but as far as I know, there is no therapist being used," Levin said. "That would be highly desirable."

But do charismatic leaders seek help from others? "I've treated a few politicians, but only losers. The winners don't come for treatment," Levin acknowledged.

"I think it's very sad that he hasn't gotten any help. I would urge the president to let down his defense and deal from the heart."

As every talking head has a suggestion to solve Clinton's woes, Levin offers his solution.

"If he went on the air and said he'd come to realize that he has a problem, the nation would accept that. It would be a tremendous role model for people in denial.

"If he were to do that, and he doesn't have to be very revealing, it would be a great moment for him, for us and for the presidency."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Investigating the president
• Clinton's troubles are not over
• Review of "Spin Cycle - Inside The Clinton Propaganda Machine"

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