The Multiple Meanings Of Masochism In Psychoanalytic Discourse
Abstract
THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF MASOCHISM IN FRANKLIN MALESON, G. M.D. PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE HE PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPT OF hfASOCHISX1 has undergone a dual evolution, in which expanding clinical description and understanding have been interwoven with shifting theoretical metapsychological constructions purporting to explain it. In the wake of this evolution, the term has acquired a confusing array of meanings and connotations drawn from varied levels of abstraction and from different eras in psychoandytic thought. There is little consistency or precision in its current usage. To briefly outline the scope of the problem, in a purely descriptive sense (i.e., addressing surface manifestations), the term masochism is applied to specific syndromes of sexual perversion and manifestly nonsexual character pathology, as well as to a wide diversity of more circumscribed actions, attitudes, or thoughts which may have little in common aside from an associated element of suffering or renunciation. This broad application may falsely suggest underlying similarity between fundamentally disparate entities. Dyizamicully, the term may suggest or emphasize differing factors for different analysts, e.g., T The author is grateful to Drs. Harold Kolansky and Joseph W.Slap for their most helpful suggestions in the preparation of this paper. FRANKLIN C. MALESON a harsh superego; conflicts