Para além da dor: a incidência do masoquismo nas elaborações freudianas do aparelho psíquico

Abstract

This study investigates the incidence of masochism in Freud’s elaborations on the psychic apparatus, seeking to answer in which ways masochism contributes to psychic constitution. It traces how Freud, throughout his work, shifts the status of masochism from an initial conception linked to sadism to a central position in psychic life. In the first phase, during the first two decades of psychoanalysis, masochism appears as the passive aspect of the sadistic drive and as something that escapes the logic of the pleasure principle. In this configuration, when pain becomes the drive’s goal, the psychic economy is shaken, since the drive positions the individual as an object of satisfaction, in contradiction with the predominance of the pleasure principle and its regulatory function. The second phase begins with the theoretical turning point 1920, when Freud introduces the notion of the death drive. From then on, masochism comes to be considered prior to sadism, assuming a constitutive and fundamental role in the organization of the psychic apparatus. This reformulation finds its expression in the second topic, in 1923, which broadens the conception of both the psyche and masochism. Therefore, masochism is seen here beyond pain, as a dimension that organizes the subject—a masochistic dimension of life that supports the experience of living. Its drive-related binding, especially after the formulation of the death drive, inscribes it as a part of life capable of repositioning the individual in the face of suffering. The evidence for this conception is present throughout Freud’s writings, which constitute the main theoretical framework of this study. Thus, masochism ceases to be merely a deviation of libidinal economy and becomes a privileged path for understanding how each individual deals with the constitutive demands of their psychic life.