You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Cooper introduced the panel by observing that there are certain topics in clinical psychoanalysis that represent the pivots of present conceptual capacity and clinical knowledge and are therefore topics of special interest, ambiguity, and complexity. These topics are taken up by panels such as this one, approximately once every decade.
Cooper went on to comment that periodically advances in analytic experience and new ideas provide a special focus for attention in one of these areas. This has been the case in recent years with our studies of narcissism. He noted that the clinical and scientific yield of the intensive study of narcissism in the past decade has been great, and this model of scientific advance prompts our renewed attention to our ideas about masochism and the masochistic character.
The Chairman reminded us that our major concepts concerning masochism come from an earlier period of psychoanalytic thinking and that a re-examination of masochism at this time, using our present knowledge of the separation-individuation process, the nature and structural consequences of early object relations, the role of the self in self-esteem regulation and affect development might help to clarify our understanding of masochistic phenomena. This, he emphasized, was the intent of this panel.
Cooper stated that, to expedite our proceedings, he would not attempt an extensive review of the literature, a task done by Charles Brenner in 1959 and more recently by Robert Stolorow. He did, however, quote a widely accepted definition of masochism found in