One of many controversies in the addiction field is whether compulsive behaviors such as excessive gambling and overeating should be considered addictions or simply pathological behavior. Even among those mental health experts who are comfortable viewing many behaviors as addictions, there is strong disagreement about whether sexual compulsivity should be viewed as an addiction. This disagreement even extends to sex experts. Clinical psychologist Dennis P. Sugrue writes, “Few topics in the sexology field have galvanized people into opposing camps as stridently as the topics of sex addiction and sexual compulsivity. They are lightening rods in a 20-year-old controversy about the nature and origin of problematic high-frequency sexual behavior.”

Psychologist Patrick Carnes, one of the most fervent supporters of the concept of sex addiction, argues that “during the past three decades, professionals have acknowledged that some people use sex to...