Variations in Sexual Behavior
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Two Examples: 2. Sadomasochism
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Two Famous Writers The Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing collected case studies of what he considered to be “sexual pyschopathologies”. He used the names of two famous writers to characterize two of them: Sadism and Masochism. (Left) Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), a French aristocrat, had written deliberately scandalous novels in which virtue was punished and evil rewarded. Through the obscenity of the action and the cruelty of his characters, he tried to refute the “enlightened” belief of his contemporaries that human beings are “naturally good”. (Right) Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836 -1895) an Austrian writer, revealed in some of his writings a devotion to dominant women, for example in “Venus im Pelz” (Venus in Furs, 1870). He was not amused by Krafft-Ebing’s labelling.
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The collective term “sadomasochism” refers to the phenomena of sexual sadism and masochism, which mirror each other. The essence of sadism is the domination of a sexual partner, and that of masochism is submission to a sexual partner. In the past, it was not always understood that these phenomena are two sides of the same coin and that the relationship between a sadist and a masochist is not what it may seem at first glance. Indeed, it is a paradoxial one. Occasionally, a sadomasochistic couple may even switch roles: One and the same person may play a sadistic, i.e. dominant role in one sexual encounter and a masochistic, i.e. submissive role in another. Before discussing any further details of this very complex phenomenon, the following brief historical sketch seems useful:
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