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The quest for failure, for the experiencing of difficulties in life and the continual appeasement of a deep need for punishment constitutes a pattern with which the analyst must deal in most of his patients. Moral masochism of this kind, in which sexuality seems, at first glance, to play a minor role, has received a great deal of attention. Such attention has also been given to another form of masochism in which the centre of the stage is occupied by a very active fantasy life linked directly to sexual satisfaction; fantasies in which the subject imagines himself being humiliated, maltreated and at the mercy of another person.
In sharp contrast to such cases, the psychoanalyst in his normal psychoanalytic practice almost never sees the perverse masochist who actively experiences physical punishment, who in reality lives out with his body something which is only a fantasy for others, and who takes direct pleasure in this experience. Because such people are rarely seen by analysts, most analytic writings on the topic of masochism have been confined to moral masochism and to so-called feminine masochism, even though it is generally recognized, following Freud, that the common basis of these latter phenomena is to be found in erotogenic masochism.
The interest of masochistic perversions for psychoanalytic theory is so self-evident that one might expect that anyone given a chance to observe a case of this sort would apply himself to its study immediately. However, the observations reported and discussed in this paper were made more than ten years ago. This long delay (on my part) is no accident, and probably indicated something significant. The material presented here does not come from analytic treatment or from psychotherapy, but from two consultations. At that time I had the opportunity of pursuing the study of this case further but did not wish to. Similarly, I put off taking an active interest in the detailed material for a considerable time. The practices in