Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

February 10, 1959. THE MASOCHISTIC CHARACTER: GENESIS AND TREATMENT. Charles Brenner, M.D.

The views of Freud elaborated by later authors relative to masochism are briefly reviewed. Formulations concerning the genesis of masochistic character traits and their place in psychic functioning are presented. There is a discussion of the problems involved in the treatment of these patients.

It is useful to view these problems in the following way. Masochism is a normal component of the human personality, e.g., the part it plays in superego formation and functioning. A need for, or a fear of punishment (castration) in the formation and functioning of the superego is of great significance in most cases. Taking the Oedipal strivings of a boy as a clinical example, the need or fear of punishment is a defense to avoid the fantasied castration which then is linked with passive, feminine Oedipal strivings. The difference between the normal and the masochistic character is one of degree. Masochistic tendencies are part of every individual's mental life. They exist with many sorts of neurotic symptoms, and with a variety of character disturbances. A clinical example is given in which alcoholism was specifically masochistic. Drinking bouts produced suffering and helplessness which led to being loved and gratified by the father. Another patient was terrified by his unconscious wish to be beaten, tormented, and castrated by a man, a wish which had given rise to a phobia that brought him to treatment. The author suggests that infantile factors may increase or diminish individual tendencies toward masochistic character formation, rather than act as a cause for the development of masochistic phenomena in later life.

The universality of masochism is based on the compulsion to repeat a state of primary masochism. Traumatic episodes invariably result in some degree of masochism in the child's psychic functioning. In practice, masochistic fantasies and character traits are a