This paper discusses the rise, trajectory and contentions regarding notions of sexual addiction and codependency, and the influence of the knowledge produced in this area on issues and agendas in the realm of sexual politics, based on fieldwork on the emergence of anonymous self-help groups linked to ideas of sexual and love addiction, the popularization of the self-help discourse and the creation of medical and psychological specialized services focused on treating sex and love addiction in Brazil. These dynamics reveal the importance of lay elements in the constitution of knowledge and the structuring of medical and specialized services, as well as representations, practices and the production of professional fields located at the interface between medicine and psych-knowledge.
self-help groups; sexuality; sex and love addiction; professional fields