We have seen that the distinction between "sadism" and "masochism" cannot
be maintained; not only was even De Sade himself something of a masochist
and Sacher-Masoch something of a sadist, but between these two extreme
groups of phenomena there is a central group in which the algolagnia is
neither active nor passive. "Sadism" and "masochism" are simply convenient
clinical terms for classes of manifestations which quite commonly occur in
the same person. We have further found that--as might have been
anticipated in view of the foregoing result--it is scarcely correct to use
the word "cruelty" in connection with the phenomena we have been
considering. The persons who experience these impulses usually show no
love of cruelty outside the sphere of sexual emotion; they may even be
very intolerant of cruelty. Even when their sexual impulses come into play
they may still desire to secure the pleasure of the persons who arouse
their sexual emotions, even though it may not be often true that those who
desire to inflict pain at these moments identify themselves with the
feelings of those on whom they inflict it. We have thus seen that when we
take a comprehensive survey of all these phenomena a somewhat general
formula will alone cover them. Our conclusion so far must be that under
certain abnormal circumstances pain, more especially the mental
representation of pain, acts as a powerful sexual stimulant.
The reader, however, who has followed the discussion to this point will be
prepared to take the next and final step in our discussion and to reach a
more definite conclusion. The question naturally arises: By what process
does pain or its mental representation thus act as a sexual stimulant? The
answer has over and over again been suggested by the facts brought forward
in this study. Pain acts as a sexual stimulant because it is the most
powerful of all methods for arousing emotion.
The two emotions most intimately associated with pain are anger and fear. The more masculine and sthenic emotion of anger, the more passive and asthenic emotion of fear, are the fundamental animal emotions through which, on the psychic side, the process of natural selection largely works. Every animal in some degree owes its survival to the emotional reaction of anger against weaker rivals, to the emotional reaction of fear against stronger rivals. To this cause we owe it that these two emotions are so powerfully and deeply rooted in the whole zooelogical series to which we belong. But anger and fear are not less fundamental in the sexual life. Courtship on the male's part is largely a display of combativity, and even the very gestures by which the male seeks to appeal to the female are often those gestures of angry hostility by which he seeks to intimidate enemies. On the female's part courtship is a skillful manipulation of her own fears, and, as we have seen elsewhere, when studying the phenomena of modesty, that fundamental attitude of the female in courtship is nothing but an agglomeration of fears.