A Psychoanalytic Overview of Excessive Sexual Behavior and Addiction

Since sex as an addiction is a relatively new concept, there is a scarcity of theories, particularly psychoanalytic, regarding sexual addiction specifically. This article briefly describes how various psychoanalytic theories view the topic of excessive non-normative sexual behavior. Included are related topics such as impulsivity, compulsivity, substance dependence, deviance, promiscuity, and perversion, which are reviewed and integrated to facilitate a deeper theoretical understanding of the concept of “sexual addiction.”