ABSTRACT
Definition of sadism—Its existence in a primitive and rudimentary form in the love-bite—An expression of the will-to-power—Sexual subjugation and cruelty both expressions of the will-to-power—Lust and cruelty often co-existent—Sadism in reality an ancient phenomenon flourishing under another name — The notorious Marquis De Sade—The sensational affaire Keller—Orgy in a Marseilles brothel—The novels of De Sade—Subjective perversions —Various forms which sadism takes—The impulse to strangle—Jack the Ripper—Sadistic crimes of Sergeant Bertrand—Sadism which manifests itself in witnessing the infliction of pain, suffering or humiliation—Charles the Bad—Marshall Gilles de Rais and his eight hundred sadistic murders—The amazing case of Vacher the Ripper—Bizarre forms which sadism sometimes takes—Sadism as a cause of pyromania—The attraction of public executions—Catherine d’Medici and the massacre of Saint Bartholomew—Remarkable case of Edith Cadivec’s flagellating “school”—“Pricking”—Maiming of animals—Symbolic sadism—An indictment of sadism—Reasons for the prevalence of masochism—An old phenomenon so-named after Sacher-Masoch, its most vigorous and notorious disciple—Fallacious ideas respecting masochism being a peculiarly feminine phenomenon—Religious flagellation and its probable masochistic origin—Symbolic masochism—Risk of symbolic masochism developing into active masochism—Significance of Rousseau’s confession concerning the punishment inflicted by Mademoiselle Lambercier—Risks of corporal punishment causing the development of sadism and masochism in the whipper and the whipped.
