ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the advantages of considering the varieties of expressions of sadomasochism from the theoretical perspective that suggests these phenomena are best understood as compromise formations. From this perspective all data referred to as sadomasochistic are thought to derive from conscious and unconscious fantasies. The chapter explores neurotic aspects of an analysand's experience, emphasizing the expression of sadomasochism in neurotic symptomatology and inhibition. Narcissistic gratification is one aspect of the complex of compromise formations that underlie all sadomasochistic experiences. These narcissistic fantasies of perfection may remain unconscious and unanalysed in work with many symptomatic expressions of sadomasochism. Narcissistic aspects of masochism are more likely to be analysed when one is working with tenaciously held self- destructive aspects of a patient’s personality. In addition to defining masochism descriptively, as Freud did, as pleasure in physical pain or in the pain associated with experiences of humiliation or subjugation, when one defines it theoretically as a compromise formation, a number of advantages ensue.
