Brief clinical descriptions illustrate the thesis that the psychic masochist pursues several goals: the proof that everyone is mean to him; the deeply repressed tendency always to be the victim of mistreatment; the more superficial search for an excuse to mollify a superego that objects to the unconscious gain from the 'pleasure in displeasure'. Such patients ingeniously create situations in which their 'victims' are trapped in a way that allows them no alternative to seeming to mistreat the masochist: hence the title of this paper.