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“…the pleasure of suffering…is the guardian of life.”1
Marilia Aisenstein’s explication of Freud’s evolving theory of masochism is, in the words of Julia Kristeva, an intensely contemporary book that presents readers with the subversive idea that primary erotogenic masochism constitutes the nucleus of the ego and is vital to our psychological survival and growth.2 Drawing upon historical and literary references as well as clinical vignettes, Aisenstein presents readers with a compelling discourse on the enigma of pain, the birth of desire, feminine masochism, thought as an act of the flesh, the destruction of thought processes, and submissive conformism. In so doing, she offers us a powerful and enormously useful clarification of what for many until now has been a complex and difficult to follow, clinically-distant metapsychological debate. Her book helps move us beyond a singular preoccupation with the pathological connotations of masochism to a more nuanced view, one that presents an understanding of primary erotogenic masochism as the guardian of life.
Following upon the theoretical changes in drive theory and psychic structure presented in 19203 and 1923,4 The Economic Problem of Masochism announced still another significant revision in Freud’s views. He began by stating that: