Drug addiction is considered in terms of an addiction syndrome, and a theory for its motivation is proposed, based on the treatment of several drug addicts in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. It is suggested that the main cause of the addiction syndrome is the unconscious need to entertain and to enact various kinds of homosexual and perverse fantasies, and at the same time to avoid taking responsibility for this. It is hypothesised that specific drugs facilitate specific fantasies and using drugs is considered to be a displacement from, and a concomitant of, the compulsion to masturbate while entertaining homosexual and perverse fantasies. The addiction syndrome is also hypothesised to be associated with life trajectories that have occurred within the context of traumatogenic processes, the phases of which include social, cultural and political factors, encapsulation, traumatophilia, and masturbation as a form of self-soothing. This hypothesis about the traumatic origins of the addiction syndrome is illustrated with data from the psychoanalyses of addicts.