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MASOCHISM IN MODERN M AN by THEODOR R E IK Translated by M I â û a & E T H . B iS g e k . and G e r t r u d M . K u r t h GROVE PRESS, IN C N ew York COPYRIGHT © , 1 9 4 1 , BY THEODOR REIK This edition is published by arrangement with Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 57-9107 Grove Press Books and Evergreen Books are published by Barney Rosset at Grove Press, Inc. 795 Broadway N ew York 3 , N . Y . MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMBRICA CONTENTS PART I: PROBLEM PACK INTRODUCTION . 3 CHAPTER I. f r e u d ’s v i e w s . . . 9 PART II: PHENOMENA II. T H E SEEMING PARADOX O F MASOCHISM 39 III. T H E CHARACTERISTICS 44 IV. T H E SUSPENSE FACTOR 59 V. T H E DEMONSTRATIVE FEATURE VI. . 72 T H E PROVOCATIVE FACTOR . 84 PART III: DYNAMICS vn. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. T H E PSYCHIC PROCESSES 95 T H E IM PA TIEN CE O F T H E PA TIEN CE . IO 7 T H E FLIG H T FORWARD 11 5 ANTICIPANDO 1 25 T H E SECRET M EA N IN G O F T H E DISPLAY IN PUBLIC PRESENTATION TH R O U G H TH R O U G H EXAGGERATION THE OPPOSITE 136 AND 14 7 PART IV: ORIGIN XIII. T H E ORIGIN O F MASOCHISM FROM PHANTASY 169 XIV. T H E THEORY O F FREUD AND MY O W N O PIN IO N 187 PART V: SEXES XV. T H E RELATION TO FE M IN IN IT Y . XVT. MASOCHISM O F T H E W O M A N V 19 7 212 CONTENTS VI PART VI: EGO-GAINS CHAPTER XVII. XVIII. XIX. PAGE }} IN JU RED SELF-LOVE AND PRIDE . 2 T H E ANTICIPATED REHABILITATION . . 243 REST AND RETROSPECT . 264 PART VII: SOCIAL FORMS XX. XXI. XXII. SOCIAL MASOCHISM . 277 ORIENTATION IN T H E N EW TERRITORY . 292 TH E NEAR AND TH E DISTANT AIM . 306 XXIII. T H E REMOTEST GOAL . 333 XXIV. T H E PARADOXES OF CHRIST 343 XXV. XXVI. MARTYR AND MASOCHIST---CONTRASTED COMMON FEATURES 349 VIEW FROM T H E SUMMIT 360 PART VIII: CULTURAL ASPECTS XXVn. MARGINAL PROBLEMS . . . . XXVni. CULTURE, SUFFERING, AND T H E CRAVING FOR SUF FERING XXIX. GLEANINGS . XXX. VICTORY THROUGH DEFEAT 367 382 399 427 BOOKS BY THEODOR REIK 434 INDEX . 435 PART I PROBLEM Introduction “H O W did philosophers ever come to think that man is an ani mal which seeks pleasure and avoids pain?” This is not the intro duction to an abstract philosophical essay, but a question which was addressed by a gentleman to his companion on a ski trip in Switzerland. Under the conditions the skier describes in a letter to the N ew Statesman (London, January ijth , 1936), one can easily understand how such a question could come up. The re mark was made as “side by side we toiled with a contorted crab like motion up a frozen mountain in a biting wind, only to slide down again in a helpless tangle, to the accompaniment of the caustic comments of an attendant demon.” In such circumstances one is inclined to doubt that the search for pleasure and the avoid ance of pain are universal characteristics of mankind. The skier asked whether there can be any pleasure so laboriously won and so dangerously indistinguishable from pain as skiing. “If you do not sprain your ankle,” he continued, “you break your leg, and i