A Defense of Masochism [Anglais] [Relié]

Ever since "masochism" was coined in the late 19th century by Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing, it has been misconceived as sadism's weaker counterpart, but Anita Phillips, editor of the British academic journal Interstice, explodes this myth, arguing that masochism is "highly autonomous." The art of acting out masochistic fantasies, she writes, is "being hurt in exactly the right way and the right time, within a sophisticated, highly artificial scenario." Phillips turns to Freud, Jung, Foucault, and Leo Bersani to fashion a new definition of masochism, delving into popular culture to demonstrate both its necessity and the major influence it has had on Western culture--from David Lynch's Blue Velvet to Jean Genet's The Miracle of the Rose, as well as the martyred images of Christ in the New Testament. She argues that masochism is a healthy part of the human psyche that takes secret pleasure in enduring imagined and real suffering at the hands of another when the subject knows that gratification is the ultimate outcome. Written with wit and authority, A Defense of Masochism is sure to provoke some highly charged discussions on the nature of sexuality. --Kera Bolonik

With wit, grace, and theoretical rigor, Phillips ventures into the black vinyl depths of masochism and reclaims it. In Phillips's view, the very concept of masochism has been misunderstood for some years now, stripped of import and culturally defused in a way that benefits no one. Her ``project,'' as she defines it, means rescuing masochism from - its identity as a sickness, as something pathological, and setting it back into the context of diverse human experience and artistic creativity.'' To do so, Phillips, editor of the British journal Interstice, takes an erudite approach, reconsidering the literary history of the term and its gradual perversion by an army of psychiatrists. From her perspective, masochism cannot be equated only with the death drive - it has too much to do with life. Perhaps her most compelling argument focuses on the link between creativity and masochism, in which she connects the intricacies of creative sublimation to the complexities of masochistic desire. And all artists, Phillips dares to suggest, are masterful masochists. In her definition, the term doesn - t apply to sexual practice so much as to a desire for self-shattering experience, anything that tears down ego-boundaries and releases the individual into a kind of bliss, or jouissance. And masochists, she writes, are adept at seeking out such experiences, taking in the whole life-and-death cocktail: hardship, pain, pleasure, ambivalence, ecstasy. Phillips makes insightful connections, using her intelligent, conversational prose style to defuse complex ideas. Although Phillips does go so far as to explain the very stylized rituals of S/M exchanges, her purpose is merely to emphasize their symbolic import, not to reduce masochism to an acceptable form of kinkiness. Instead, she hopes to simply take the pejorative sting out of the word, and examine the way in which masochism can infuse a single individual with multiple possibilities. A fascinating argument for the power of masochism to integrate Eros and Thanatos, dark and light, desire and its inevitable loss. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this provocative expose, Anita Phillips intelligently rescues masochism from the clinical discourses that have named it a pathological sickness and returns it to a context of diverse human experience and artistic expression. What emerges is a fresh and fascinating modern view of longing, curiosity, and eroticism.

Praise for A DEFENSE OF MASOCHISM: "It seems odd to say that a book on the subject could be charming, but A DEFENSE OF MASOCHISM is. Phillips has a wonderfully undogmatic way about her, and a sense of vigorous joy.... The relationship of sexual masochism to religious self-mortification, and the importance of masochism in romantic love are particularly well done....Riveting stuff." Carmen Callil, DAILY TELEGRAPH

"There are still a number of misconceptions about masochism and prejudices about masochism, most of which Anita Phillips dispatches here with aplomb...." --INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"[Phillips's] description of the way a masochistic fantasy plays out is both illuminating and exciting." --Sarah Dunant, THE TIMES

In the tradition of such candid works as Naomi Wolf's THE BEAUTY MYTH and Camille Paglia's SEXUAL PERSONAE, Anita Phillips's A DEFENSE OF MASOCHISM presents a cogent, accessible examination of the darker side of sexuality.

Sadomasochism is a growing sexual phenomenon of the nineties and a major influence on art, fashion, literature, and advertising. While sadism may be easy to comprehend, masochism often seems more complicated and elusive. Who are the masochists and what makes them tick?

Masochism has typically been defined as a "sexual perversion" and lumped together with such harmful nonconsensual practices as pedophilia and bestiality. But in this subversive work, Anita Phillips turns the tables and intelligently rescues masochism from the assumptions and the clinical discourses that have dismissed it as a sickness. In examining these issues, she asks:

Is the masochist really a victim or a clever manipulator? What if the masochist really likes himself well enough to undergo being despised?

In posing such provocative questions, Phillips challenges many tenets of feminism and psycho-analysis and introduces controversial ideas about perversion and perversity that challenge the legacy of traditional sexology. Using literary references as diverse as John Cleland's FANNY HILL and Pauline Reage's THE STORY OF O, she reveals the timeless marriage of pain and romantic love. She culminates her study with a stunning examination of the connection between spirituality and sexuality, skillfully connecting ideas of religious self-mortification with masochism. The result is an illuminating study of the psychological, social, and emotional motives at work in the masochist's realm of sexual fantasy.

In A DEFENSE OF MASOCHISM, Phillips calls for the breakdown of popular conceptions of "normal" human sexuality and argues for the coexistence of disparate ways of occupying one's skin and one's eroticism. This penetrating study offers keen insights into human desire and an understanding of the sexual politics of our time.

Anita Phillips is editor of the literary journal INTERSTICE and has written numerous articles on contemporary sexuality and art, as well as literary fiction. She lives in London, England.