The ten cases of masochism thus far described, and the numerous analogous cases mentioned by those who report them, form a counterpart to the previously described group “c” of sadism. Just as in sadism men excite and satisfy themselves by maltreating women, so in masochism the same effect is sought in the passive reception of similar abuse. But group “a” of the sadists,—that of lust-murder,—strange as it may seem, is not without its counterpart in masochism. In its extreme consequences, masochism must lead to the desire to be killed by a person of the opposite sex, in the same way that sadism has its acme in active lust-murder. But the instinct of self-preservation opposes such a result; so that the extreme is not actually carried out. When, however, the whole structure of masochistic ideas is purely psychical, in the imagination of such individuals, even the extreme may be reached; as the following case shows:—
Case 54. A middle-aged man, married and the father of a family, who has always led a normal vita sexualis, but who says he comes of a very nervous family, makes the following communication: In his early youth he was powerfully excited sexually at the sight of a woman slaughtering an animal with a knife. From that time, for many years, he had reveled in the lustfully-colored idea of being stabbed and cut and even killed by women with knives. Later, after the beginning of normal sexual intercourse, these ideas lost completely their perverse stimulus for him.
This case should be compared with the statements made under Case 44, according to which men find sexual pleasure in being lightly pricked with knives in the hands of women, who, at the same time, threaten them with death.
Such fancies, perhaps, give the key to an understanding of
