Predisposition to sadomasochistic organization in the context of sibling configurations. Part I

Psychoanalytical concepts

Abstract

Sadomasochistic organization of personality is a phenomenon not only of personal but also of cultural scale, which is a consequence of the archetypically significant place of sadism and masochism in society. In the works of Freud and his followers the topic of sadomasochism takes a significant place, and, of course, the authors are discussing not only and not so much a deviant form of sexual practices as a character stock, but the formation of the logic of mental apparatus functioning, a structure that is quite far removed from the concept of pleasure in an adult, sexual sense.

The sibling dimension is paradoxically both ubiquitous and largely ignored in psychoanalytic studies. Meanwhile, it is in this lateral environment that so much space is formed for rivalry, competition, struggle of intentions, and the playing-out of conflicts with parental projections. These complex and contradictory feelings are not controlled by the central law of the Father, yet they contain a rather strong potential for aggression and feeling of guilt, as well as a serious risk of early sexualization, forming a special preposition for the emergence of sadomasochistic organization.