Another place for moral masochism

Abstract

The category of masochism in its trans-structural nature will be analyzed here in the light of a reinterpretation of moral masochism in Freud based on some elements of the theory of the superego. It is, in other words, to elaborate an explanation for the etiology of moral masochism different from the Freudian explanation introduced in 1924 and supported by the classic Beating a Child (1919). Such is the suggested working hypothesis: In moral masochism, what would be revived from the Oedipus complex would be less the desire to be hit by the father and to be sexually and passively linked to him, and more the desire to hit the father, differentiating him if his. In other words, the masochist's apparent passivity would not cover up a nostalgia for the father or a denial of castration, but an attempt to discriminate against the other. It would be, therefore, a defense against the fusion and invasion of the object, however, in vain, since the desire for separation would operate on the plane of fantasy, a thousand leagues from reality, while the sufferings and sacrifices that the masochist inflicts himself would be real.