A Contribution to the Problem of Sado-Masochism

The technique of progress uses the reduction of complicated processes to routine. The more circumscript the phases are which we can establish and see in their original and teleological determination, the more detailed will our diagnoses be, making our therapeutic success easier and more frequent. Increased precision of diagnosis seems imperative too, as patients become more and more complicated and harder to reach because psychoanalytical knowledge is spreading among the public.

The notion of phase is a labor-saving device and provokes a definite expectancy as to general form and content; combined with a specific and universally known content, the term ‘phase’ is an excellent tool.

Freud has repeatedly postulated that all psychological phenomena follow physiological prototypes. Sadism psychologically reenacts early physiological processes like biting, which serve self-preservation and pleasure principle simultaneously. Primary masochism is the rest of the primary sadism libidinized to prevent self-destruction. Sadism is introjected secondarily and so reinforces the primary masochism. Sado-masochism was supposed to be merely a combination of both. Actually there is a stage in physiological development where sadism and masochism are experienced simultaneously. It is the time before the eruption of teeth, well known because it is so trying for child and environment. The phase of teething shows frequently, as concomitant side effects, increased salivation, decreased appetite, increased morbidity, decreased well-being, expressed in withdrawal, whimpering, crying and apathy. The child is unhappy, keeps rubbing his gums against each other, rubs with his fingers and with any available object. The itching and the furious attempts at decreasing the accumulating amount of irritation remind of the later frantic masturbatory activities, trying to relieve tension in an atmosphere of sado-masochism. The stage is recognized as pathological, and any intercurrent fever or morbidity is