One, two, three - twelve, thirteen and counting. 'Alleged mistresses coming out of the woodwork' as the news reports have summarized. The Tiger Woods saga is all over the place and anyone would wonder why Tiger Woods is now more infamous than famous and how his personal failings have totally engulfed his professional achievements in a matter of just under three weeks.

The Tiger Woods Billion Dollar Question (Image: WENN)

It's a billion dollar question as Mr. Woods earns most of his fortune from endorsements. Some sponsors are holding on such as Nike and Tag Heuer. The shoe company and the Swiss watchmaker are sticking with the star so far, while others have dumped him and are slowing down or ending their campaigns.


Of course, the main attraction here is the sex life as sex still sells and the media have got into the frenzy, bringing up one new woman linked to Tiger every day, whether or not there is complete truth to all these stories.

So the question is, why did Tiger risk his billion dollar career to shower love on an alleged string of waitresses and porn stars? Why this phenomenal stupidity?


Tiger Woods transgressions have no direct impact on society really and it's a one man's madness. But then it's an interesting psychological case study.

I've not been following all the details, but even if an iota of this is true, the entire story reveals a strange loss of mental, emotional and moral balance by one of the greatest golfers of our time. Tiger Woods apparently had a great sense of space, a great sense of time, a deep intuition, but lacked a sense of balance and self-control. Possibly there was a deep sense of insecurity and a need for reassurance that his life is worth living after all.


There are many questions, no doubt. Does the Tiger Woods incident reflect the moral fabric of contemporary society? No it doesn't. This is an isolated case of some sort of emotional and sexual imbalance and excess of one particular individual. Most of his alleged mistresses were waitresses or porn stars who likely saw his money and fame rather than his marital status.

This is not a study in sociology, but yes this would definitely raise interesting psychological questions. The minds of a serial rapist or a serial killer, serial adulterer have interesting similarities. All these pathological cases have the same basis of some sort of emotional frustration and a sense of insecurity. So, why would Tiger Woods with all the wealth in the world and all the fame and success suffer from emotional frustration? He has a great wife, but still needed constant reassurance of his worth from other women.


Tiger Woods was a golf prodigy, a genius in sports, he started playing at an unbelievable age of two and attained his heights of success and fame when he was still in his twenties. Success when it comes too early in life could be the basis of frustrations as after attaining everything he wanted to attain, there was nothing to look forward to, his life took a new turn towards instant gratification of impulses, there was no other outlet, in fact every other outlet had been drained.

He may have struggled to know what to do with the fame, with the money, with the marriage, with the wife and with the children. It could have been like things happened and he was not a part of it.

Of course, he could have channeled his sexual needs to more constructive directions. Maybe there was a tremendous personal immaturity as the need to sleep with more and more women was becoming an addiction like golf. Maybe with the trysts he wanted to get away from the demands of a married life. He did not want to believe that he was married. Initially these sexual escapades began as a need to get away from reality and then became an addiction. This sort of behavior is not possible without deep frustrations.


In most cases, men and women cheat in their marriage because they feel they are caught in a marriage forever and there is no way out and these external flings keep the marriage going in a way.

For people like Tiger Woods who have a lot of energy and who have tasted success too early in life, it is advisable to marry late as the burden of children and family may have been too much for Woods at a young age.

It is almost unbelievable that wife Elin Nordegren never had any idea of Tiger's secret life. Were her eyes and ears and intuition always shut closed? Did she not sense his frustrations and transgressions? Was this all consensual? Tiger Woods obviously needed emotional guidance. It is possible that there is a problem of sexual or emotional compatibility.


Sometimes exceptionally talented individuals may have messed up emotional lives, they don't understand what they want emotionally, so they are indecisive.

This happens because the entire focus is sometimes on the career and the ambitions and when that is attained, and the emotional needs surface, there is a certain sense of insecurity and such individuals feel overwhelmed by a sense of emotional deprivation, loss of youthful opportunities, and loss of emotional direction even if they have all the attention in the world.


I wouldn't say that Tiger Woods is sinful and he is not insane in the usual sense of the term. But he definitely lost his moral and emotional balance and this sort of madness is sometimes unfortunately a dark side of talent.

Some exceptionally talented people can control the release of this darker side with their self-awareness and wisdom, some learn to control as they grow older and some get sucked in it. Tiger unfortunately got sucked in it.

He needs intensive psychoanalysis to reveal the childhood events in his life, his early relationships with female authority figures, his early physical relationships, as well as his relationships with his family members and childhood friends. What he really lacks and desperately needs is self-awareness. In fact, all the time he has been trying to seek an escape from reality and his own self. Now, with harsh reality hitting on his face, he is most likely to change.

But with brand Tiger weakened beyond repair the road ahead is difficult for Tiger Woods and if wife leaves him, his image will be tarnished for a long time.

Tiger Woods is an interesting case study, to a psychologist and I'm hoping he will go through some sort of psychological treatment and become more self aware to regain complete emotional balance and a normal and healthy sex life.

Saberi Roy is a columnist, author, activist, blogger and psychologist. She has studied Psychology, Sciences and Philosophy in UK, India and Austria and writes on social, political and religious issues.