Freud's Theory and Trollope's Depiction of Moral Masochism

A huge, living daily increasing grievance that does one no palpable harm is the happiest possession that a man can have.

The true masochist always turns his cheek whenever he has the chance of receiving a blow.

Freud's concept of moral masochism applies to people who unconsciously seek suffering for its own sake. He thought that moral masochists were fundamentally motivated by unconscious guilt and the consequent need for self-punishment. These women and men sometimes achieve heroic stature, are admired as the bearers of the highest cultural values, and may be widely praised for their high standard of personal integrity and ethical conviction. Yet, just as often, they can be seen as priggish and prudish, spoilsports, even contemptible wimps. At the furthest extreme, they become tyrants and bullies, their masochism sliding into a psychological mobius strip with sadism. Moral masochists, from the most admirable to the nastiest, abound in Anthony Trollope's 47 full-length novels, and for sheer clinical utility, I can think of no better textbooks.

Freud (1924) developed his theory about moral masochism in a paper entitled “The Economic Problem of Masochism,” where he delineates three types of masochism: erotogenic, feminine, and moral. Freud's paper can be read, in part, as an answer to the riddle posed by the apparent contradiction that masochism puts to the pleasure principle. He called the pleasure principle “the watchman over our mental life” and alerted us to the danger to the self that masochism entails when the pleasure principle is “put out of action” (p. 161). The danger, alas, is equally grave to those related to the masochist, for the great irony is that the moral masochist who delights in self-sacrifice is all too ready to sacrifice others.

Just such a self-sacrificer is Lily Dale, whom we meet in The Small House at Allington (1864). , in his autobiography, called