Masochism and the Inner Mother

Freud was intrigued by the puzzling phenomenon of masochism from very early in his psychoanalytic explorations. Why would people seemingly seek out pain? The explanations he formulated to account for this paradox contained several features: indirect sexual gratification, sadism turned on the self, and the satisfaction of an unconscious sense of guilt via self-inflicted suffering. When he came to explain these features theoretically, he most often returned to the Oedipus complex. In his view, the superego forms as a result of the desexualization and deflection of direct sexual aims toward the parents as the Oedipus complex wanes. The masochist's oedipal resolution results in a harsh or punitive superego which, along with his presumed strong sexual instincts, are the precursors of self-inflicted suffering, indirect sexual satisfaction, and an unconscious sense of guilt. As Freud puts it in his classic paper “The Economic Problem of Masochism”:

Conscience and morality have arisen through overcoming, the desexualization of the Oedipus complex, but through moral masochism morality becomes sexualized once more, the Oedipus complex is revived and the way is opened for a regression from morality to the Oedipus complex. (, p. 169)

Central to Freud's conception is the way masochism enables the person to obtain unconscious sexual gratification. He speaks of the masochist's wish to be treated as a little, helpless child, especially a naughty child. Related to this is what he terms “feminine masochism,” the male's wish to be in a passive or homosexual relationship to the father. Treatment based on this theoretical conception of necessity focuses on the uncovering of these unconscious sexual wishes. The patient's guilt and masochistic actions can be overcome when his childish sexual wishes are recognized and given up.