Psychoanalysis and Addiction

Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, discusses addiction from a psychoanalytic and 12-step perspective, speaking of the importance of consciousness as a precursor to honesty; the problem that addicts often don't know what they're feeling because their defenses are so embedded.

In this episode, Graeme Daniels draws from a vignette from the book Getting Real About Sex Addiction, to discuss the relative merits of individual therapy or psychoanalysis versus couples therapy in the context of sex addiction or infidelity recovery treatment.

In this episode, Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, welcomes to the podcast two first time guests, therapists Jen Shelby and John Kravitz, to discuss their affiliation, work with sex addicts and impacted partners of sex addiction. 

In this episode, Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, reviews Terrence Real's 2022 book, "US", observing its relational life therapy model, which utilizes ideas grounded in psychoanalytic theory as well as modern neurobiology. Daniels further comments upon the book's application to couples therapy.

Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, reviews the book The Heart of Addiction by Lance Dodes, M.D., and focuses upon its thesis: that "true" addictions have a psychological underpinning that entails unconscious defenses against infantile states of rage and helplessness

The pros and cons of working in a team: Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, discusses the history/trend of treating addictions with a so-called team approach, highlighting the reasons that collaborative models are popular and worthwhile, exposing what is problematic pertaining to patient-clinician confidentiality

In this episode, Graeme Daniels and Joe Farley, authors of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, tell anecdotes about feeling exposed, shameful, under pressure, yet working through tough moments with a sense of dignity and resilience. The questions are: how do people cope with their most primitive insecurities? Who are we in such moments, and what can we summon from inside, our reptilian brains or our higher selves?

In this episode, Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, revisits intersectional issues, socio-political undercurrents that influence/infiltrate the therapeutic space of sex addiction treatment, and then applies these ideas to the case of an impacted partner previously spoken of in this series and profiled more comprehensively in the book.

Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, follows-up on matters of guilt, shame, the phenomena of repetition compulsion, defenses like displacement, with a discourse on how these ideas relate to female sex addiction and the treatment of impacted or betrayed partners. 

In this episode, Graeme Daniels, co-author of Getting Real About Sex Addiction, reviews some basics regarding SA treatment: SA as a diagnostic matter, the marginal yet influential role of psychoanalysis; extending from that, this episode reviews the significance of symptom-formation, displacement, acting out, and repetition compulsion, as important theoretical concepts that inform treatment approaches both within psychoanalysis and outside of its professional circles.