To some degree all of us are sadists. There was the mass sadism of the German people as they watched the extermination of innocent Jews, and there is the sadism of a spectator going to a prize fight in the hope that one of the participants will be knocked out. Sadism, with its accompanying feeling of aggression, has always afflicted mankind and seems to be indissolubly bound up with the human race. Wars, gladiatorial combats, manhunts, beast baiting, bullfights, public executions, inquisitions, and witch hunting have all pandered to man's instinct for cruelty. Perhaps the clearest expression of sadism exists in certain forms of corporal punishment, especially in flogging…
And so, too, with masochism, for masochism may very well be considered, as Freud suggested, a transformation of sadism.
This "transformation", or inversion of sadism may be considered as a character trait of a passive, willless, and fatalistic personality. As it was mentioned earlier in this work, it is extremely difficult to accept some experts' categorizing masochism as all instinct. The reason for this is that such a categorization nullifies, or at least totally counters, the instinct of self preservation and of perpetuation of the species. This does not, however, preclude the acceptance of sadism as an instinctual quantity. Man's aggressiveness, his success in subjugating not only others of the species, but the whole of nature and its elements as well, is evident on every page of man's history. Consequently, it might be said that man has a strong instinct to master, for without that instinct to subjugate, or with the failure of that instinct, neither self preservation nor perpetuation of the species would be possible. Sadism is that same instinct only uncontrolled and exaggerated.
In masochism, the sadistic instinct is still present, and it is still strong; however, the willpower of the individual being extremely weak – for any number of reasons that may become clearer through psychoanalytic delving – he or she surrenders that instinct to another individual, who does not suffer from lack of willpower, and permits himself or herself to be the object of conquest, subjugation, or total enslavement. The sexual aspect of such surrender inevitably enters the picture since sexual conquest is quite often the byproduct of even non-sexually intended advances.
The complex psychology of masochism is evident in any and every work that deals with the subject. Even case studies such as the five included in this volume do not offer anything more than a relatively small clue to the workings of a masochistic mind. The generally heard claims, "I like being hurt," or "I enjoyed the pain," or "I can't enjoy sex unless I am treated rough," must never be taken at face value. Such statements explain nothing. They only complicate the already complexly confounded workings of the masochist's conscious mind. The truth lies much deeper in the subconscious or even the unconscious.
An average, or "normal" person – one in whom the sadistic and the masochistic inclinations are in a psychological and emotional equilibrium and thereby cancel each other out usually finds sadistic and masochistic tendencies incomprehensible. He might consider sadism as a "monstrous" imbalance of man's sexuality and masochism as either a "repugnant" or pathetic situation. The fact is, however, that both sadists and masochists were at one time "average and normal" persons. It does not require much pondering on the subject to accept that sadists and masochists – and the reference here is to the "extreme" cases ("severity three and up") – are not born, they are made.
Not only is there an ever-present conflict of the two tendencies – the surfacing of either one of which signals a controlling action on the subject. In every individual, but the two tendencies may alternate in strength from one time to another, from one place to another and from one situation to another. In other words, sadism and masochism may very well be considered as relative rather than absolute. Samuel G. Kling, in his previously mentioned work, cites a case in which sadism and masochism alternate in an individual in reference to time.
… A manual laborer… likes to be beaten and chained by his wife, and to surrender himself entirely to her. She satisfies her husband's desires only to a very limited extent, so that their sexual relationship does not permit a full expression of the man's feelings… He also frequently feels a desire to perform sadistic acts on his wife…
The relativity of sadism and masochism in reference to situations or individuals might be apparent in cases where we have the conflicting tendencies present in one individual and a regular surfacing of masochism and sadism in two other individuals. In such cases, if A is masochistic, B is sadomasochistic, and C is sadistic, B might at one time act sadistically toward A and at another time masochistically toward C.
In retrospect, it might be said that the guideline for the control of any undue surfacing of either tendency should be an individual objectivity based on the knowledge of human nature in general and of the self's idiosyncracies in particular. Hopefully, the cases presented in this work will aid the individual in equilibrium to maintain that balance, and the person with either inclination becoming apparent to retain the equilibrium without which pleasure casts a dark shadow over happiness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrahamsen, David. The Road to Emotional Maturity. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1958.
Chaplin, J. P. Dictionary of Psychology. New Yrok: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1968.
Chesser, Eustace. Love and the Married Woman. New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1968.
Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. New York: Random House, 1936.
Kling, Samuel G. Sexual Behavior and the Law. New York: Pocket Book, 1969.
Krafft-Ebing, Richard Von. Psychopathia Sexualis: A Medico-Forensic Study. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965.