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Sadism is pleasure derived from inflicting cruelty on another person. Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined the term in reference to the writings of the Marquis de Sade. In "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905d) Sigmund Freud described sadism as the active form in a pair of opposites, masochism being the passive form of the same sexual perversion.

Two pregenital libidinal phases are described, the oral-sadistic (or cannibalistic) stage, and the anal-sadistic stage, which remains active during later libidinal development. During the genital stage sadism becomes linked with the masculine position, owing to the active character of both. In neurotic organization, particularly of the obsessional type, sadism plays an important part, both as an instinctual impulse to be repressed, and because of the ambivalence of the instinctual investment. The case of the "Rat Man," related in "Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis" (1909d) is particularly illustrative of sadism, as is the case of the "Wolf Man," described in "From the History of an Infantile Neurosis" (1918b [1914]), which shows that the child often interprets the primal scene as sadistic.

Sexual sadism is propped analytically on certain developmental events: the coming in of the teeth during the oral stage, during which satisfaction coincides with destruction of the object; mastery of the anal sphincter muscles; and muscular development that brings the genitalia under the control of reproductive functions. Freud in addition took into account from the outset a nonsexual type of aggression, in which a need to eliminate an obstacle to instinctual satisfaction also allows the instinct for mastery to be satisfied.

Thus, as he wrote in "Instincts and Their Vicissitudes" (1915c): "Psycho-analysis would appear to show that the infliction of pain plays no part among the original purposive actions of the instinct. A sadistic child takes no account of whether or not he inflicts pain, nor does he intend to do so" (p. 128). It is in this article that Freud gave his most complete account, within the framework of the first theory of the instincts, of the links between sadism and masochism. Sadism, first, can be transformed into masochism by means of a double reversal, wherein activity is transformed into passivity and the subject is substituted for the object. The same outcome is found in the other pair of opposites described, voyeurism and exhibitionism. Nevertheless, Freud noted that the sexual sadistic component presupposes a prior knowledge of masochism, and that it therefore entails the following contradiction: "The enjoyment of pain would thus be an aim which was originally masochistic, but which can only become an instinctual aim in someone who was originally sadistic" (p. 129).

This contradiction was resolved in 1924 in "The Economic Problem of Masochism," in which Freud confirmed his earlier intuition from "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (1920g) of a masochism that could be primary. He posited an erotogenic primary masochism that binds the part of the death instinct remaining within the organism. Sadism in effect results from the diversion outward, through the intermediary of the musculature, of the libidinally bound destructive instinct onto objects. "It is appropriate, then, to call it the destructive instinct, the instinct for mastery, the will to power. Part of this instinct is directly placed in the service of the sexual function, where it has an important function to fill. This is sadism, properly speaking."

Even in his second version accompanying the introduction of the death instinct, Freud allowed for consideration of sadism in a broad and not necessarily sexual sense, as representing the destructive instinct directed outwards toward the objects. Analysts who deem it unnecessary to adhere to the second theory of the instincts are thus justified in equating sadism and destructiveness, all the more so in that anality, for all its abundant potential for instinctual erotization, also lends itself to the metaphorization, by means of fecalization, of the most radical forms of deanimation (Béla Grunberger). Some authors, such as Jean Bergeret, have even maintained that sadism exists as a fundamental narcissistic violence, well before the emergence of sexuality is clinically revealed in narcissistic structures, and that it is inaccurate to describe it in terms of objects, even pregenital ones. Paul Denis has reassessed the element of mastery present in any instinct, with respect to the aim of satisfaction.

Like Karl Abraham, whom Freud also followed in his conceptualization of sadism and the libidinal stages, Melanie Klein adopted the second theory of the instincts and their dualism, but in her clinical work she focused on sadism as the main expression of the destructive impulse, giving it considerable and early importance. Its turning back against the subject is what puts him or her in danger.

Other authors, such as André Green and Benno Rosenberg, have taken further Freud's conception of the fusion of life and death instincts prior to any sadism, which thus becomes a projected masochism, and accordingly they see sadism as a protection against the threat of the death instinct and its deobjectivizing aim, particularly in borderline states in which primary anality (Green) intervenes against disintegration and its destructive consequences (Rosenberg). In such a view, sadism protects the individual just as masochism does, but with a more secure external object. This is not always the case, however, since in melancholia incorporation of the object endangers the subject's life and illustrates the threat of the superego's sadism toward the ego, which is also present, in a less severe form, in self-punishment.

DENYS RIBAS

See also: Allergy, Ambivalence; Anality; Childhood; Compulsion; Cruelty; Dipsomania; Eroticism, anal; Eroticism, urethral; Hatred; Imago; Infantile sexual curiosity; Jouissance (Lacan); Kantianism and psychoanalysis; Masochism; Mastery; Mastery, instinct for; Melancholia; "Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis" (Rat Man); Object, change of/choice of; Organization; Phallic mother; Phobias in children; Pregenital; Primal scene; Psychosexual development; Reaction-formation; Rite and ritual; Sadomasochism; Stage (or phase); Stammering; Tics; Ulcerative colitis; "Vagina dentata," fantasy of; Violence, instinct of.