explain them must first seek to distinguish in them the essential from the unessential. The distinguishing characteristic in masochism is certainly the unlimited subjection to the will of a person of the opposite sex (in sadism, on the contrary, the unlimited mastery of this person), with the awakening and accompaniment of lustful sexual feelings to the degree of orgasm. From all that has preceded it is clear that the particular manner in which this relation of subjection or domination is expressed (v. supra), whether in simply symbolic acts, or whether there is also a desire to suffer pain at the hands of a person of the opposite sex, is a subordinate matter.
While sadism may be looked upon as a pathological intensification of the masculine sexual character in its psychical peculiarities, masochism rather represents a pathological degeneration of the distinctive psychical peculiarities of woman. But masculine masochism is undoubtedly frequent; and it is this that most frequently comes under observation and almost exclusively makes up the series of observed cases. The reason for this has been previously stated (p. 139).
Two sources of masochism can be distinguished in the sphere of normal phenomena. The first is, that in the state of lustful excitement every impression made by the person giving rise to the sexual stimulus, independently of the nature of its action, is pleasing to the individual excited.
It is entirely physiological that playful taps and light blows should be taken for caresses,
From here the step is not long to a state where the wish to experience a very intense impression at the hands of the consort leads to a desire for blows, etc., in cases of pathological intensification of lust; for pain is always a ready means for producing an intense bodily impression. Just as in sadism the sexual emotion leads to a state of exaltation in which the excessive motor excitement implicates neighboring nervous tracts; so in masochism an ecstatic state arises, in which the rising flood of a single emotion
- ↑ Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2.
