Sadomasochistic Perversion

Franco De Masi is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former President of Centro Milanese di Psicoanalisi and Secretary of the Training Milanese Institute. He is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist who worked for twenty years in psychiatric hospitals. Now he lives and works as a full time psychoanalyst in Milan. Currently his main interests are focused on the theoretical and technical psychoanalytical issues related to severely ill patients. He has published several papers in 'The International Journal of Psychoanalysis' and in the 'Rivista Italiana di Psicoanalisi'. He is author and editor of numerous books including 'Making Death Thinkable'.

• Forewords -- Introduction -- A precursor -- Problems of terminology and definition -- Sadomasochism and depression -- Feminine masochism, or the case of the Wolf Man -- Ascetic masochism -- The clinical area of perversion -- Theories of sadomasochistic perversion -- After the theories -- Areas of contiguity -- Infantile trauma and perversion -- Final notes on the three paradigms -- Psychoanalytic therapy of the perversions -- Evil and pleasure: a psychoanalytic view

'De Masi examines the terminology used in the analysis of sadomasochism and surveys extensively and in detail, the theories of other psychoanalysts. He further explores the relationship between sadomasochism and depression; it's relationship to psychosis, borderline states, and many other conditions. He leaves very few stones unturned. He discusses the nature of evil - reparable and irreparable - in the broadest way possible. The reader has a rare opportunity to increase his/her awareness of the operation of sadomasochism in clinical practice, drawing from many diverse views, as well as those of the author.'- Dr Eric Brenman, former President of the British Psychoanalytical Society, from the Foreword to the English Edition'This book's insistence on clarity and its invitation to delve more deeply and more radically into the phenomenon open the way to a positive approach based on the intuition that, if we know the "enemy camp", we shall be in a better position to work in the interests of our patients.'- Professor Francesco Barale from the Foreword