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Edmund Bergler, who died in 1962, was one of the most prolific analytic writers of our time. He published twenty-four books and some three hundred articles, of which seventy-nine were selected for this collection. Though he explored an extraordinary variety of theoretical and clinical topics, he persistently reiterated his central theme—oral masochism.
According to his presentation, it is important to distinguish between the genetic and clinical pictures of masochism. From the genetic standpoint, infantile megalomania is disrupted by the inevitable frustrations in being fed and having other needs met, followed by feelings of motoric helplessness and rage. The aggression rebounds against the ego, and the guilt is libidinized. The superego 'objects' to the newly won pleasure and the ego turns to a new defense, presenting itself as an innocent victim. This sequence leads to the clinical picture, manifested by the following triad of the 'mechanism of orality'. (1) The individual repeatedly seeks out or provokes situations in which he is disappointed, refused, and humiliated, identifying the outer world with the 'refusing' preoedipal mother; (2) he responds with 'pseudo-aggression' toward those who