Sex Addiction: Are They Faking It?

Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are said to have it. You probably have a friend who says they have it too. But is sex addictio

Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are said to have it. You probably have a friend who says they have it too. But is sex addiction the refuge of scoundrels? Or is it a real psychological problem? We speak to sex therapist Dr. David Ley, clinical psychologist Dr Shane Kraus, neuroscientist Dr. Nicole Prause, and someone we call Jeff.

If you are experiencing troubles related to sex, you can look for support here.

Check out our full transcript and its beautiful thickets of footnotes.

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This episode has been produced by Shruti Ravindran, with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Rose Rimler, Heather Rogers and Romilla Karnick. Our senior producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Additional editing help from PJ Vogt. Fact checking by Michelle Harris. Mix and sound design by Emma Munger. Music written by Bobby Lord. Recording help from Gideon Brower and Hannah Colton. For this episode we also spoke to Dr. Marc Potenza, Dr. Carl Erik Fisher, Dr. Valerie Voon, Dr. Joshua Grubbs, and Dr. Mateusz Gola. Thank you so much for your help. And an extra special thanks to Frank Lopez, Joel Werner, Joseph Lavelle Wilson, and to all the men and women who allowed us to hear their stories in meetings for sex addicts and sexual compulsives in New York.

Selected readings:   

• Shane’s review paper on the case for sex addiction 
• Shane’s survey on sex addiction among veterans
• A review paper critiquing the case for sex addiction
• Nicole’s lab study testing whether sex addicts can control sexual response

There are a lot of fads, blogs and strong opinions, but then there’s SCIENCE. Science Vs is the show from Gimlet Media that finds out what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. We do the hard work of sifting through all the science so you don't have to. This season we tackle alcohol, fasting diets, DNA tests, race and the fertility cliff.