He also had a thing for Vash, and she got away with sitting in the Captain's chair. No one got away with that except her. Crusher got to sit there, but she was in command at the time.
This picture defines the 80's in one simple frame.
Dr. Crusher, OMG Gates McFadden, I was a big fan of her. She got even more neutered than Picard. The writers treated her character like garbage for most of the series. She is freaked out by a Tril that is now female, but she's way into having sex with her grandmother's ghost boy-toy. Her character also stated that the dirty parts of her grandmother's diary were good reading material... ewwwwww
It really was pretty sexists too. Here you have a highly dedicated medical professional, a woman of science in the future, and a little ghost diddling and some dirty diary outakes from her Nana and she's ready to throw her entire career away because OMG LOVE.
Picard can break away from Borg control because BROS! MY BROS NEED ME TO MAN UP! But a woman? No, she needs someone else to blow out the magic candle. Even back in the 80s as a kid, I found that writing insultingly base.
It's typically voted as the worst episode of TNG by a large margin, and sadly it's one of the few Dr. Crusher focus eps.
I read that both Gates and Marina wanted to get more of the joke lines and do something as characters besides concern troll the captain. But the writers gave all the good jokes to Data, Riker and Worf. Denise Crosby saw immediately that the writers had no idea what to do with female characters and left the show.