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De Monchy disagrees with those who feel that the components of the death instinct which are turned inward should be made to disappear, and predicts that 'the concept of masochism will undergo a development similar to that of narcissism'—i.e., narcissism was discovered first in its pathological form but later it was realized that a part of the libido is always tied to the individual himself and is a prerequisite for health and well-being. He believes there is considerable evidence that 'some moral-masochistic impulses are essential if we are to feel content with ourselves and are to make a satisfactory adjustment'. Thus for many people wholehearted devotion to a task is a prerequisite for happiness and 'the ego often accepts moral demands relatively willingly, in other words masochistically'. He feels that the difficulties in obtaining therapeutic results in patients with masochistic tendencies 'may depend partly on the analyst's tendency to deny masochism its dynamic role in the human mind'.
De Monchy seems to confuse the pathological with the normal, or to use terms denoting the pathological in describing the normal. It may be doubted that because the ego accepts the superego's demands relatively willingly, that this in itself means that the ego is behaving masochistically toward the superego.