We have all heard of the words sadism and masochism, and probably used the terms separately or together (sadomasochism). Sometimes flippantly – ‘You are going camping in this weather – are you all masochists?’ Sometimes in all seriousness – ‘He hit her in the belly when she was four months pregnant – an act of pure sadism.’ Sadomasochism relates to both cruelty and submissiveness being present in one person, or in a relationship, usually sexual.
But you knew all that. You probably know too, that the words sadism / sadistic come from the name of the French Marquis de Sade (or more correctly, Dantien Alphonse Francois, comte de Sade.
Sade was born in 1740. He spent some time as a soldier, but is better known as a writer. And even better known for his cruelty and sexual perversions, for which he was condemned to death in 1772. He managed to escape from prison and spent much of the rest of his life writing salacious novels, like Juliette and Justine, in between – and during – further lengthy prison sentences. He died insane in 1814.
Less well known, is the Austrian lawyer, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Like Sade, Sacher-Masoch was a writer. He wrote about the life of Polish Jews and, more significant here, he penned works of erotic fantasy. In 1870, he wrote a novella Venus in Furs about bondage and submission, which wasmade famous as a song in 1967 by the group, Velvet Underground.
At about the same time he drew up a contract for his wife to sign in which he dedicated himself to being her slave in everything, especially sexual fantasies. This despite the fact that she did not want to co-operate, and later wrote her own book about how much she hated having to take part. Which begs the question who was the dominator/dominated in this relationship.
Sacher-Masoch’s work attracted the attention of the psychiatrist, Kraft-Ebbing, who named the predilection among some patients for enjoying submitting to pain masochism. Although he enjoyed ‘playing the victim,’ Sacher-Masoch, as his wife would testify, really only enjoyed this on his own terms and objected strongly to his name being used in this way – clearly there were limits on his appropriation of ‘victimhood.’ However, the term masochism caught on and, like sadism, is used well beyond the psychiatrist’s couch.
The names Sade and Sacher-Masoh may be linked forever in a sadomasochistic bond in many people’s minds, but the pair never met in real life, Sade having died over twenty years before Sacher-Masoch was born.
NB: Here is a ‘well I never!’ little nugget of information as a bonus for reading this far: Sacher-Masoch is the film star Marianne Faithfull’s great – great uncle on her mother’s side. I’m sure you would prefer a picture of her to an illustration depicting an act of sadomasochism. Besides, I don’t want my social media timelines full of whips and handcuffs for the foreseeable future …
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