ABSTRACT
Freud had understood masochistic fantasies to be an inherent part of the libido, a component instinct, and therefore inherited. It is akin to, and a part of, the Oedipus complex; and his 1919 paper showed the various ways that sadomasochism can be inverted and expressed. Anna Freud's paper adds a further vicissitude. The primary fantasy can be desexualized, which advances it from being merely gratification to a potential for the capacity to represent, and thus to enable, a creative sublimation. His intention was a discussion and elucidation of masochism, but the paper actually discussed the vicissitudes of fantasy and sublimation. Anna Freud's contribution to sublimation and creativity later became an important point of contention with other views on the nature and occurrence of primary fantasies (or phantasies). The sense of guilt which attaches itself to the phantasy in his cases, as with this child also, is explained by Freud.
