This paper explored several pathways along which masochistic (and sadistic) activity may be called into the service of the narcissistic function of restoring and sustaining the cohesiveness, stability and positive affective colouring of a precarious, threatened, damaged or fragmenting self-representation. It was suggested that the degree of structural deficiency and consequent narcissistic vulnerability of the individual will determine the motivational priority of the narcissistic function in his sadomasochistic formations, as well as the extent to which his narcissistic restorative efforts are primitively instinctualized.