I have done some intensive therapy on codependency.
For me, it was very helpful to note some of the formative patterns that I was operating with when it came to making choices in relationships. But I also agree that you don't necessarily need to know what the formation is...to move into the solution. I just personally have found it helpful.
My pattern? I was a daddy's girl...I was #6 of 7 kids and my mom simply did NOT have time or emotional space for me (long story...) but everyone else was afraid of my dad because he was a rageful man...THAT is where I found my love! I learned to navigate the very dangerous waters that no one else wanted to dip their toe in...and I learned to swim! I had a soft spot next to that raging grizzly bear. in short...it "worked" I got at least a little of the love I so desperately needed as a child! Every child needs love!
who knows...maybe that desperate need also created a starvation mode addiction to love, re: when you find it keep it!! no matter what...
fast forward...
to my love affair with bad boys. rock stars, artists, drug users all. but the last was the worst! I had been never been around anything like crack!! (all the rest were weed smokers and I was an alcoholic myself...) I was willing to navigate life with the bad boys to get the love I wanted/needed...and with the most dangerous one I met (the one addicted to crack) I thought I had won the lottery...the "reformed" bad boy...I had won the prize, and I was willing to help "maintain" his "reformed" status to keep the precious love I had discovered!
all this said...it helped me to get an overview of my pattern, to see the fundamental place where it began. why wouldn't I feel as though I could "get it to work" it had before.
now...add in the manipulative, guilt tripping, blaming, shaming, deceitful techniques that are part and parcel to the addict/codependent relationship and the pattern can get locked in. you must become Houdini for your own life!
the longer you stay in relationship with an addict the more twisted/locked in you can become. that is why al anon/nar anon is a WE program, we help each other gain perspective on our situation.
"Facing Codependency" by Pia Mellody is an amazing book that helps you to see/discover the origin of your capacity for codependency. Not that you NEED to know the origin, but I personally found it helpful.