Sadism

Book excerpt: Sadism: Psychoanalytic Developmental Perspectives is founded on the premise that paying close attention to what is happening in our internal world can help us understand the rise of sadism in the world of popular culture. Voyeuristic sadism as a form of entertainment appears to be on the rise, an increase corresponding with an upsurge in public appetite for sadomasochism as a recreational activity. This book acts as a forum in which psychotherapists present psychoanalytic perspectives on the phenomenon of sadomasochism at different stages of the human lifecycle: in childhood, adolescence, adulthood and in later life, and consider its developmental roots. Over the last half-century, through books, movies, computerized video games and drama, the stories we are being sold as representing aspects of contemporary culture market two commodities: sadism and victory. How might we understand this, and can psychoanalysis help us make meaning of this aspect of human relating?