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Several years before his untimely death in 1991, Robert Stoller, who had previously enriched the psychoanalytic literature on human sexuality with his study of gender origins, began a series of books in which he offered his views on the relation between the sexual acts of the individual and the social and cultural norms in which the individual was raised. In Pain & Passion he explores the world of consensual sadism and masochism (S & M) by making an expedition to the S & M communities of West Hollywood, California. He sets forth with several guides, on safari, so to speak, to jot down the activities of those engaged in the “fetishes and bizarre practices” of both the “casual” and the “devoted” proponents of sadomasochism (i.e., non-obligatory and obligatory sadomasochism). Approximately one half of his book is devoted to question- and-answer interviews in a nonpsychiatric setting. A number of pages are devoted to listing practices, utensils, and bodily parts used in sadomasochistic performances. There is a six-page listing of the various methods used to inflict pain and humiliation on willing victims, e.g., the different hanging techniques used to achieve orgastic ecstasy from willing participants.
Since Stoller offers no psychoanalytic answers to the meaning