Sadomasochistic Relating
What’s Sex Got to Do with It
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9232008 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrea Celenza (0000-0001-9591-0565, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 527-543 |
| Publication date | 2000-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Psychoanalytic Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2828 • E-ISSN: 2167-4086 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/j.2167-4086.2000.tb00573.x |
| PMID | 10955286 |
| OpenAlex | W2035875310 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 14 |
The sexuality in sadomasochistic relating is most often viewed as defensive, functioning to erotize the repetition of earlier trauma, as a defense against painful affect, or as masking early, nonerotic needs for recognition and autonomy. However, this emphasis on the nonerotic dimension of so-called sexualized experience leads to symbolic interpretations of sexuality; this "deliteralization of sexuality" requires some embodiment in the concrete and literal, or metaphor is delinked from that which it is derived. Without discounting the validity of such formulations, this paper aims to put the drive (libido) back into formulations of sadomasochistic relations, and discusses the erotic dimension in sadomasochistic relations as an irreducible, hidden structure that both threatens and sustains the destructive attachment. It is suggested that sexuality is a driving force behind sadomasochistic interplay, while aggression may be recruited for defensive, concealing purposes. Through a case illustration, this paper demonstrates how sadomasochistic relating is symbolically penetrating, teasing, withholding, and intensifying in hate-inducing ways, all of which are designed to gratify and simultaneously harden the other. In many cases, sadomasochistic sexuality may be viewed as aggressivized, paradoxically, to maintain safety under the regressive pull of sexual and preoedipal longings
Human sexuality · Pornography · Psychoanalysis · Sadomasochism · Sociology · Gender Studies · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology
Masochism, Submission, Surrender
Some Comments on Masochism and the Delusion of Omnipotence From A Developmental Perspective
The Biblical Book of Job
Sadomasochism and the Defense Against Recall of Painful Affect
Sadomasochism in the Psychoanalytic Process, Within and Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Sadomasochism in the Perversions
Aggression and Love in the Relationship of the Couple
Sadomasochism, Sexual Excitement, and Perversion
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2020 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |