Given the ubiquity of its manifestations, gross or subtle, in human life, the complexity of its metapsychological explication, the ineluctable nature of its ultimate determinants—biological and psychological, libidinal and aggressive—, it is not surprising that this treatise on masochism by the founder of the French Psychoanalytic Institute, should encompass much of the science of psychoanalysis. What is surprising, however, is that the author has succeeded in compressing into this small volume so remarkably large a portion of psychoanalytic theory and technique. He ranges in addition into the related fields of rearing children, pedagogy, and prophylaxis.

The six sections of the book begin with a historical survey of the concept of masochism, and in succession: erotogenic masochism;