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The following abstracts are edited versions of English summaries which appeared in Forum and are published with the permission of the journal.
The term masochism, which was originally used in a specifically sexual sense to describe masochistic perversion, now covers a wide variety of clinical phenomena from the depressive-masochistic personality to extreme forms of self-destructiveness. Moreover, the term is used at varied levels of abstraction: descriptive, dynamic, and as a metapsychological construct. Because of the confusion engendered by its multiple meanings, many attempts at diagnostic and nosological clarification have been made. Psychodynamically, masochistic phenomena are multiply determined and serve multiple functions. While in the “classical” view masochism was considered a drive phenomenon and, with respect to “moral masochism,” an unconscious need for punishment for incestuous oedipal wishes, many contributions now emphasize its “narcissistic” functions: in acting as a defense against painful affects, especially the pain of separation; in establishing a symbiotic relationship with a mighty and idealized object whose empathic mirroring is sought; in gaining illusory omnipotent control over the object; and in defending against dissolution of self boundaries and fragmentation of the self. Structural assessment seems to be necessary for an adequate understanding of the predominant function masochism has in a given case.