Castrophilia as a Character Neurosis1

In his paper 'The Economic Problem in Masochism', Freud (2) describes masochistic men who fantasy being in some way 'mishandled, forced to obey unconditionally, defiled, degraded. … The subject is placed in a situation characteristic of womanhood, i.e., he is being castrated, is playing the passive part in coitus or is giving birth'.

Freud explains 'The unconsciousness of the moral form of masochism guides us to a near clue. We have translated the words 'unconscious feeling of guilt' as meaning a need for punishment by some parental authority. Now we know that the wish to be beaten by the father which is so common is closely connected with the other wish, to have some passive (feminine) sexual relations with him, and is only a regressive distortion of the latter. If we introduce this explanation into the content of moral masochism, its hidden meaning becomes clear to us. Conscience and morality arose through overcoming, desexualizing the Oedipus complex; in moral masochism morality becomes sexualized afresh, the Oedipus complex is reactivated, a regression from morality back to the Oedipus complex is under way. This is to the advantage neither of the person concerned nor of morality. An individual may, it is true, preserve the whole or a certain amount of his morality alongside his masochism, but, on the other hand, a good part of his conscience may become swallowed up by his masochism. Further, the masochism in him creates a temptation to 'sinful acts' which must then be expiated by the reproaches of the sadistic conscience… or by chastisement from the great parental authority of Fate. In order to provoke punishment from this last parent-substitute the masochist must do something inexpedient, act against his own interests, ruin the prospects which the real world offers him, and possibly destroy his own existence in the world of reality'.

In the patient to be presented, more than a part of his conscience was dominated by his masochism. His entire life was do