E-Book Content
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