From Masochism to Psychic Pain

Stephane Mallarmé: Mon art est une impasse.

FIRST I SHALL GIVE THREE STATEMENTS by three patients on the same Monday. A young man in his mid-twenties started his session by saying: "I am feeling very anxious because I am meeting the parents of my girlfriend for the first time tonight." The second patient, a businessman in his late forties, started by saying: "The deal went through successfully last Friday and we have been celebrating it all weekend, yet I feel depressed today." The third patient, a woman in her late thirties, arrived, lay down, and was silent for some twenty minutes. I sensed she had started to cry quietly. Eventually she said: "I am in pain and I do not know why. My children came from school last Friday, and they have done so well the last term that we all went out and enjoyed yourselves. I arrived here eager to tell you that and now I am crying and in pain for no reason." I have had no difficulty in making sense to the young man why he was anxious. He had been living sexually with the girl for some months, and the associations soon led to oedipal feelings. One might explain the anxiety in terms of conflict between the super-ego and the id. The businessman's depression was not difficult to explain either. He is a self-made man, and every financial success causes him guilt. One might also utilise the concepts of conflict between ego and super-ego in that context. The pain of the female patient I found hard to make sense of. I was surprised to hear myself telling her that only a good familial experience had enabled her to come to a session and be in her pain, a pain she could not print psychically but to which she could now take