The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 22, 1953, No. 2: Esther Menaker. 'Masochism—A Defense Reaction of the Ego.'

The author looks at masochism from the standpoint of the ego rather than from that of the means whereby libidinal gratification is obtained. If the developing early ego-functions, such as speaking, walking, etc., are frustrated, instead of being felt as a fulfilment they come to be associated with unpleasure, and are ultimately hated. Hence the

hatred of the self and the accompanying feelings of powerlessness which are the prototypes of the later feelings of worthlessness so characteristic of the moral masochist. Thus the potentiality for hating the self is laid down at an early (oral) stage as a result of traumatic frustration by the mother. The child has to accept the mother's rejection as if it were love, since only so can it preserve the illusion of a good object-relationship and protect the necessary symbiosis with the mother against the danger of separation and loss. Since the loss of the mother at this stage is tantamount to loss of the whole world outside the ego, this is a defence against psychosis. The feelings of worthlessness of the ego, and the aggrandisement of the object are also used later to protect the ego against the fear of loss and to sustain a fantasied gratification of love.

The basis for a later masochistic reaction in hatred of the ego functions is reinforced by identification with the mother's attitude towards the child as weak, helpless, dependent, and with whatever were the mother's strictures towards the child.