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Harriet Basseches, Chairperson, introduced the subject by stating that some sadomasochism is found in every case. It is a matter of differing degrees. She noted that it may be natural to find pleasure in pain, both one's own and others' pain, although it may be a difference in kind when the severity of the sadomasochism functions out of the bounds of human expectations and becomes perverse.
Basseches recounted Freud's (1917) implication that a child's built-in potential for sadomasochism derives from both sexual and aggressive strivings. Shengold (1989) argues for the centrality of Freud's (1919) anal stage of development in organizing much of character and functioning. Klein (1957) sees the infant as struggling from the outset between love and hate toward the internalized essence of the caregiver. These theoreticians note the possibility of pathological, sadomasochistically tinged outcomes.
Other authors have focused on sadomasochistic behavior as defensive and reparative (Bach, 1994), and on the primitive superego underlying sadomasochists' thinking (Wurmser, 2007). Basseches introduced panelists Nancy Goodman and Paula Ellman, who presented patients showing murderous transferential feelings and sadomasochistic features, as well as eliciting certain transference-countertransference dynamics. Three discussants commented on the cases.
Nancy Goodman used the metaphor of the Leviathan, a sea-monster, in her presentation, Living with the Leviathan, to convey forces of sadomasochism in her analysis of Mr. B. The Leviathan expressed active and passive forms, as well as enactments, of sadomasochism within Mr. B's psyche, her own psyche, and interactions of their minds. The giant squid had tentacles, a sucking and chewing mouth, a magical anal sphincter, and special visual capacity. Because confronting any difference between himself and another person ignited terror of destruction, Mr. B used disavowal to view the world. Disavowal helped him perversely to know and not know, a