ABSTRACT
TAVELLA, Marcelo. The Concept of Masochism in the Works of Freud. 2006, 143 p.
Dissertation (Mastership) - Psychology Institute, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 2006.
This dissertation is a theoretical research in psychoanalysis which aim is to investigate the
concept of masochism in the Freudian thought by means of an approach that makes possible to
connect it to other figures of passiveness, such as a destitution, seduction, the death drive and
femininity. According to Freud, in spite of the binomial activity - passivity present in the
human sexuality, this drive would be related to a complete activity. Then, masochism as a
figure of passiveness places itself as a paradox since the beginning of the Freudian thought as a
restraint to the thesis of dream as a desire performance, or being it as a barrier to the
fundamental proposition of the pleasure principle. The development of the masochism concept
would then show itself in an underground way in Freud, since what shows in the first place is
the positivity of the drive, its efectiveness. In the same manner, the so called Theory of
Seduction, wich gives emphasis to a condiction of passivity of the subject, is also forsaken in
favor of an activity of the subject in the fantastic plan, and that, nonetheless, gives
psychoanalysis its ground and its basis. The seduction, as well, will move in an underground
way in the Freudian thought and will call in questions starting with its primay reference of
passivity and of destitution towards another one that at the same time cares and haunts. The
point of reversal in which the calming processes gain a bigger importance is the pulsional
theory of 1920, with the hypothesis of death drive. Through it, masochism gains in importance
over sadism, allowing a better understanding of certain clinical fenomena and can be proposed
as a key-concept in the own structure of the psycho subject. In spite of the fact that after 1920
the concept of masochism became richer by means of its connection to the new pulsional
dualism as well as with the second topic; despite the fact that the seduction returns in Freud by
means of the maternal care, the active way, positive, will continue to have a certain privileged
place in his thought. A proof of this are the emphasis in the paternal and phallic referential and
the difficulty in understanding and the connection in his thought to femininity, a figure of
passiveness, related to castration as from a phallic referential and connected to masochism
towards the paternal power. It becomes necessary, therefore, to debate such questions in order
to produce, in a larger concept, the human activity-passiveness and the conditions by which the
subject places itself concerning the alter-like relationships. It is in this sense that the
"abandon" of the Seduction theory brings to first plan the activity connected to fantasy, the
masochism fantasy allows a dialectic movement which permits to conceive a passive start a
return to an crucial element of the Theory of Seduction, as well as an activity, an action, an
ethical dimension unavoidable as long as being author and actor of its scenes.
Key-words: Masochism, Sigmund Freud, Metapsycology, Psycoanalysis, Death Drive.