무엇인가에 미친 듯 열중하게 되는 현상을 흔히들 ‘중독’이라고 규정하곤 한다. 　　하지만 이러한 열의가 의학적 의미의 중독과는 구분되는 현상임에 틀림없다. 　　담배의 니코틴에는 중독되지만 특정 음악 취향은 중독이라고 하지 않듯이 말이다. 　　그렇다면 과연 성행위는 의학적 중독 대상인가?　(123RF)　뉴욕에서 활동하는 성 전문 치료사 마비스 흄 바드 (Mavis Humes Baird)는 섹스 어딕션 (Sex Addiction)이 존재하는 현상이며 ‘일상생활에 파괴적 영향을 끼치는 성과 관련된 모든 행위’라고 정의한다. 　　바드는 섹스 중독자란 자위, 포르노, 모르는 이와의 성관계 등에 발을 들였다가 삶의 방향을 잃게 된 이라고 말한다. 　　‘금지된 행위’를 한다는 ‘모험심’과 ‘스릴감’에 빠져 이 같은 행위에 집착하게 되고, 뇌에 전달되는 자극에 도취되는 것이다. 　　섹스 중독자들은 태반이 모든 것이 자신의 통제하에 있다고 착각한다. 부정적인 측면을 무시하고 점점 더 빠져들어 중요한

The chief of South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Group on Monday called for stepped-up efforts to develop new luxury and environmentally friendly cars to meet future demands, saying the future is already here.Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo also stressed the importance of the US market as he headed to the world's second-largest auto market."Good performance in the US, the fiercest battleground for global carmakers, is very important. But what is more important are the changes the auto indust

성공한 아침형 리더들은 과연 몇 시에 일어나는 걸까?　미국 경제매체 ‘비즈니스 인사이더’가 정리한 21명의 새벽형 리더 중 한국 독자들이 알 법한 아홉 명을 추렸다. 　　애플 CEO 팀 쿡 (Tim Cook) (123RF)　애플 최고경영자 팀 쿡은 3시 45분에 기상한다고 한다. 　미국 타임지의 팀 쿡 프로필을 보면 그는 “매일 아침 3시 45분에 기상한 후 한 시간 가량 이메일을 확인하고 체육관에 간 후 커피를 챙겨 회사로 출근한다”고 한다. 　쿡은 “자신이 하는 일을 사랑하면 더 이상 그것을 일로 여기지 않게 된다”고 말했다. 　　미국 영부인 미셸 오바마 (Michelle Obama) (123RF)　미국 영부인은 새벽 4시 30분에 이미 체육관에서 운동 중이다. 　미셸 오바마는 오프라 윈프리 쇼에서 “아이들이 일어나기 전 운동하는 것을 즐긴다”고 말한 바 있다. 　그녀는 “운동을 하지 않으면 우울해진다”고 말하며 “백악관에는 생활 보조 인력이 많기에 보다 용이하게 스케쥴을 관리할

A senior executive of retail giant Lotte was summoned Monday as prosecutors accelerated their investigation into the embattled conglomerate after one of its executives was found dead in an apparent suicide late last month.So Jin-sei, a close aide of the group chairman Shin Dong-bin and executive in charge of external affairs, was called in by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office as a suspect on charges of breach of trust.In mid-August, prosecutors summoned So to gain insight into the i

The Bank of Korea will use an automated system to collect, save and update raw data on exports, imports, output and other economic indicators to help it better project how the nation's economy would perform in coming months, a bank official said Monday. So far, BOK officials have put raw data into the bank's database by hand. A computer-assisted data collection system is expected to help the BOK save time in collecting and saving data. On Monday, the BOK opened a bid to select a company to devis

The mass recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones over faulty batteries is expected to cut Samsung Electronics Co.'s second-half operating profit by about 820 billion won ($738.2 million), an analyst said Monday. Samsung announced a global recall of the Note 7 smartphones on Friday after some of their batteries caught fire while being charged. Samsung also decided to replace all Note 7 smartphones sold to customers with new ones.Hwang Min-sung, the analyst at Samsung Securities, said he expects t

South Korea's anti-corruption commission said Monday the anti-graft law that will go into effect in late September will affect 40,919 organizations, signaling massive changes in gift-exchanging traditions throughout the country.The Kim Young-ran anti-graft law, aims to bring more transparency to workers in certain sectors who should maintain higher ethical standards than ordinary citizens. The Constitutional Court also gave a nod to the law that will be enforced starting on Sept. 28.Under the po

South Korea's exports of clean, renewable energy products have sharply increased from a year earlier in the first seven months of the year, the trade ministry said Monday, indicating improving competitiveness of South Korean products.Outbound shipments of solar panels and other related equipment came to $2.01 billion in the January-July period, jumping 46.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Exports of energy storage systems have also

The newly launched foundation for South Korean victims of Japanese sexual enslavement on Monday said it will start the process necessary to recover the damages of the victims as quickly as possible with the arrival of the 1 billion-yen ($9.61 million) fund from Tokyo.The Seoul-based Reconciliation and Healing Foundation agreed during a board meeting Friday to hold a two-pronged operation of collecting opinions from the victims and their families, and issuing notices on media outlets about the re

Taxes collected from pension funds have increased 25-fold over the past five years, an indication that the people of the baby boom generation have started to retire in large numbers, tax authorities said Monday.The baby boom generation accounts for approximately 14 percent of South Korea's population and refers to people born between 1955 and 1963. Those born in 1955 are likely to have retired over the past four to five years as they turned 57, the average retirement age. Within the generation,

North Korea's propaganda websites on Monday condemned South Korea for implementing a new law aimed at improving Pyongyang's dismal human rights record.The North's propaganda website Uriminjokkiri said that South Korea is not entitled to take issue with North Korea's human rights situation, saying that the implementation of the law is a "sinister" move to undermine Pyongyang's dignity.The South Korean law on North Korea's human rights went into effect on Sunday, allowing the government to establi

Growing preference for meat dishes and quick foods has increased demands for processed meat products, industry data showed Monday.The market for canned meat products, such as ham and sausage, reached nearly 1.24 trillion won ($1.11 billion) last year, a 12.4 percent expansion from 2013, according to tallies from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.Sales grew 6.6 percent to 349.5 billion won in the first quarter of this year alone, co