ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to put sexuality back into formulations of sadomasochistic relations by finding it in the very constraint of rigidly held gender stereotyping and fixed role assignation. The sadomasochistic scenarios typical of pathological interactions are marked by rigidity, constriction of affect, gender stereotypy, and the imposition of harm. Patients with sadomasochistic tendencies often have had overstimulating parents who did not protect them from overwhelming traumatic experiences. Bader discusses the adaptive function of sadomasochistic play aimed at the achievement of increased sexual and psychological freedom. He describes an adaptive use of sadomasochistic scenarios, as they may provide a transitional play field to enact and experiment with the tension between sexual desire and aggressive power, culminating in intensifying erotic experience. The emphasis of the non-erotic dimension of so-called sexualized experience interprets sexuality defensively and symbolically; however, this 'deliteralization of sexuality' requires some embodiment in the concrete and literal, or metaphor has nothing from which to derive itself.
