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Sadism and masochism represent contrasting forms of pleasure derived from sexual excitation linked to cruelty and the infliction of pain. While both currents are present in any given individual, they also represent pregenital links in an intersubjective context in which one partner is the sadist and the other the masochist. Sadomasochism may have an oral component but takes on characteristic form during the anal sadistic stage.

In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905d), Freud pointed out that sadism and masochism, terms that first gained currency in the work of Richard Krafft-Ebing, "are habitually found together in the same individual" and "occur together regularly as pairs of opposites" (pp. 159-60). Freud eventually generalized this dynamic to psychic structures as a whole, when he posited the relations governing the mental agencies in his second topography. Thus the superego's sadism toward the ego figures prominently in the idea of self-punishment and moral masochism. Sadomasochism may also characterize relationships between individuals, regardless of gender, and even if the context is a normal sexual relationship.

Sadomasochism may be viewed as a regression in the face of castration anxiety, provoked by the oedipal conflict and associated with the perception of the anatomical differences between the sexes. This interplay can be seen in cases of obsessional neurosis—for example, with the "Rat Man" in "Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis" (1909d). Freud also found sadomasochistic aspects to the oedipally tinged auto-erotic fantasies discussed in "A Child Is Being Beaten: A Contribution to the Study of the Origin of Sexual Perversions" (1919e). In general, Freud's original conception of sadomasochism developed from his early instinct theory, which included a drive to mastery without a sexual aim.

However, in terms of the genesis of the sadism and masochism, Freud eventually gave pride of place to the latter, which he discussed first in 1915 in "Instincts and Their Vicissitudes" in terms of the presence of sexual excitation, and then formulated more generally in "The Economic Problem of Masochism" (1924c), written after the introduction of the death instinct.

In Freud's later theory, sadomasochism derives its importance and power, so to speak, from a singularly effective form of instinctual fusion that protects the individual from the death instinct by diverting it outward (sadism) or binding it either internally or to an object (masochism). This amounts to a profound explanation of the human capacity to hurt oneself and one another, with both sexual and survival benefits. This idea can elicit at least as much if not more resistance than infantile sexuality. In dealing with sadomasochism, the analyst may confront resistances that are especially rigid, together with fixations on pregenital object relations, moral masochism, and negative therapeutic reaction.

Freud's conception of sadomasochism can be clinically validated by role reversal found among sadomasochistic couples, in the establishment of reverse relationships with another partner, and in the special durability of such relationships. The masochist's victory lies in the fact that the master cannot free him- or herself from the ties that bind.

For analysts who remained faithful to Freud's first theory of instincts, sadomasochism expresses mental destructiveness, sometimes in the most extreme fashion. For those who preferred the death instinct, sadomasochism instead offers protection from instinctual destructiveness, both internally and through cathexis of a particularly solid object relationship, albeit a pregenital one. Both camps are in agreement in referring to sadomasochism clinically in the analysis of borderline or narcissistic situations in which triangulation gives way to dyadic relations, but they view it differently, as either negative or positive, with regard to destructiveness. This difference would tend to dissolve if it were specified whether internal destructiveness or external destructiveness was involved, because only the latter is taken into account in terms of aggression.

DENYS RIBAS

See also: Sadism.