ABSTRACT
A valid theoretical hypothesis cannot close itself off and disregard a part of the phenomena it sets out to explain, but must be open to all the constellations present. If any element cannot be integrated into the construction, that construction will thereby be weakened. There is an extraordinary continuity between the first infantile "games" and the coming into being of the adult perversion. In analyses of perverse patients the underlying fantasy that led to the perversion can be reconstructed; this complex fantasy will not be limited to the cruel behaviour but will refer back, via the sexual imagination, to the specific object relationship of the perversion. It is the imagination that accounts for the central role of the visual function in the construction of the perverse scene and for the importance of the aesthetic-voyeuristic component of the resulting pleasure. The sadist achieves orgasm when the masochistic object becomes yielding and dominable.
