The following degree paper is a literature review about the complex problem of addiction from a psychoanalytic perspective; for this purpose, research databases were consulted, such as PepWeb, Ebsco and Jstor, reviewing the position of Freudian and Lacanian Psychoanalysisis and other psychoanalytic currents answering the following research questions: (a) How –from a psychoanalytic framework of reference- is addiction understood? (b) How –from Freud’s and Lacan’s theory- is addiction addressed? (c) What does contemporary psychoanalysis says regarding this issue? The issues addressed in this paper include the perspective of addiction from Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan to contemporary psychoanalysts, the role enjoyment play in addiction, and, finally, but not least, the fledgling complex debate on the legality of toxic substances. This is a field of constant publication and it is necessary for clinicians and psychoanalysts to address this field of study permanently and produce research regarding the phenomenon.
