Sexual Addiction - Dispute About The Concept

Dispute About The Concept

Medical studies and related opinions vary among professional psychologists, sociologists, clinical sexologists and other specialists on sexual addiction as a medical physiological and psychological addiction, or representative of a psychological/psychiatric condition at all. Proponents of the sexual addiction model draw analogies between hypersexuality and substance addiction or negative behavioral patterns similar to gambling addiction, recommending 12-step and other addiction-based methods of treatment. Other explanatory models of hypersexuality include sexual compulsivity and sexual impulsivity.

Sexologists have not reached any consensus regarding whether sexual addiction exists or, if it does, how to describe the phenomenon. Some experts regard sexual addiction as a medical form of clinical addiction, directly analogous to alcohol and drug addictions. Other experts believe that sexual addiction is actually a form of obsessive compulsive disorder and refer to it as sexual compulsivity. Still other experts believe that sex addiction is itself a myth, a by-product of cultural and other influences. Some who have expressed doubts about the existence of sex addiction argue that the condition is instead a way of projecting social stigma onto patients.

An example of how far this critique sometimes goes is Marty Klein's claim that "The concept of sex addiction provides an excellent example of a model that is both sex-negative and politically disastrous." Klein singles out a number of features that he considers crucial limitations of the sex addiction model:

• pathology oriented
• pathologize non-problematic behavior
• clinically incomplete
• without context (both individual and situational)
• culturally bound
• politically exploited

Klein states that the diagnostic criteria for sexual addiction are easy to find on the Internet (www.sexhelp.com/sast.cfm). Drawing on the Sexual Addiction Screening Test, he states that "The sexual addiction diagnostic criteria make problems of nonproblematic experiences, and as a result pathologize a majority of people."