The clinical material presented in this paper is derived from my analytic work with patients who exhibited sexually addictive behavior. Their search for sexual release possessed the driven quality that one normally associates with the behavior of the addict. These patients illustrate the value of working analytically with such people.

Case 1

Alex entered analysis with me at the age of 33, after several earlier attempts at treatment had aborted due to the deaths or departures of the previous therapists. The prior treatments had paralleled his early life, inasmuch as his mother had divorced both his biological father, who managed to be in the mother's life only long enough to impregnate her, and the first stepfather who shared their household when the patient was between the ages of one to 10. The mother's third husband was despised by the patient and had little contact with him. The family patriarch,