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This book is not an easy read; but then, why should it be? If the word ‘counter-intuitive’, when applied to the subject of sado-masochism did not beg so many questions, it might well seem appropriate to describe an area which the author therefore goes to great pains to identify, differentiate and come to some very definite conclusions about. The book boasts two forewords, the first by Eric Brenman, who quotes from the text to define the
author's intention: ‘Metaphysically speaking my aim is the isolation within a complex organism of a cell that I call the sado-masochistic monad in which I place the mental experience of destructive pleasure’ (p. 4).
Before attempting to reach this aim, De Masi makes the startling and rather convincing claim that, in spite of the huge importance accorded to sexuality in psychoanalytic theory, ‘psychoanalysts, like researchers in other disciplines, find themselves unable to penetrate in depth its intimate essence’ (p. 2). He therefore chooses to start from a phenomenological rather than a theoretical approach, in an attempt to understand ‘the central importance of sexual pleasure and the power it exerts over the psychic life of the individual’ (p. 3). From these excerpts it may be apparent that De Masi regards sexuality, and perversion in particular, as a predominantly mental phenomenon. After taking us through some historical material, such as Krafft-Ebing's observations, some ideas on ascetic masochism, and reviewing the case of the Wolf Man, he begins to wrestle with problems of definition. This is the most difficult part of the book to read, as he is clearly disagreeing with much of existing theory without first having described it, and it is not until Chapter Eight that the dominant theories are outlined in sufficient detail for his deviation from them to be really clear (I would suggest that any reader not steeped in sado-masochistic theory begin with this chapter).
Here are summarized the three paradigms which, although ‘disting