ABSTRACT
According to Freud, "The specific unpleasure of physical pain is probably the result of the protective shield having been broken through in a limited area". It could, perhaps, be said, all the same, that in this particular case, the masochistic solution, in its therapeutic dimension, remained incomplete; given the presence within him of a fatal illness, it remained the province of masturbatory fantasy activity accompanied from time to time by self-inflicted enactments. It would seem that, very early on, Bob Flanagan "chose" the masochistic solution, a feminine erotogenic masochism that went all the way to the psychotic end of self-destruction through self-mutilation. The body, the skin, the scenario are duplicates and mirrors, the function of which is to catch, secure, and keep hold of the forces of psychical and biological unbinding that were at work inside Bob's body.
