Volume 1

Sadism and masochism : the psychology of hatred and cruelty / by Wilhelm Stekel, M.D. Authorized English version by Louise Brink.

  • Wilhelm Stekel
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Sadism and masochism : the psychology of hatred and cruelty / by Wilhelm Stekel, M.D. Authorized English version by Louise Brink. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    we see merely the surface. Or an orchestra of which we hear only the parts that give us the melody. It is evident that deviat- ing tones in different voices would give a dissonance. This leads us to think that the law of bipolarity holds good also for thought. The polar voice conceals itself or finds expression as a symptom or a symptomatic action. Opposing streams force their way through at the same time (for example, proper grief and malicious joy at the death of a beloved being, often even deeply repressed necrophiliac and other sadistic instincts). An English patient, whom I analyzed after I had finished this work, furnished me a marvelous confirmation of this viewpoint. It might seem that the following dream had given me the figure of polyphony. But this present work had been already pub- lished in the Fortschritten der Sexualwissenschaft und Psycha- nalyse [Progress in Sexual Science and Psychoanalysis] (Vol. I, 1924, Verlag, J. F. Deuticke) when the patient brought me the following stereotyped dream, which I give here because of its importance: I am in a great concert hall in the conductor's chair. Before me a full orchestra, looking to me to lead them. Behind me a crowded and well-lighted auditorium. My conductor's chair is high and narrow, and I must hold myself upright and not lounge, lest I should fall off. I have no score and do not know what symphony is to be played, but all are ready and waiting for me to start. I dare not look round at the crowd behind me, though I feel their eyes upon me. I must make a start, as the whole orchestra relies on me to keep the various parts together in harmony and rhythm. I look round me anxiously to find where is the one instrument that is the most important and with which, if I can once get a complete understanding and sympathy, I shall be able to control the other parts and instruments without further difficulty. The great anxiety is that I do not know even upon which side of me this one all-important instrument is, but if only I can pluck up courage to make the first beat, I feel that I shall hear and know the leading instrument and shall at once feel the time of the sym- phony and understand its meaning and be able to interpret it sym- pathetically.