Sex Addictions Faced With the Paradigm of Perversions

ABSTRACT Looking back on the evolution of psychoanalytic definitions of perversion, this article uses contemporary clinical experience with chem-sex to explore the borders between sex addiction and a paradigm of perversion. Where is the dividing line now between “normal” and “pathological” insofar as perversion is concerned? If the limit is no longer located as much at the boundaries of genital and pregenital, nor does it apply to any consensual sexual conduct, should it be placed at the limits between life and death? In ways of functioning where enjoyment is found in the action of killing the other’s soul or, on the contrary, bringing to life an inanimate object, the author, with reference to three case studies, attempts to open some avenues for reflection about the modalities of therapeutic framework that come into play in such clinical encounters.