The Joy of Torment

A search for answers on the subject of sadomasochism: its origins, forms and functions, nature, and societal status. An international group of distinguished psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts investigate the riddle of sadomasochism from heuristic, ontogenetic, nosological, psychodynamic, sociocultural, and therapeutic perspectives. With contributions from Prachi Akhavi, Salman Akhtar, Ruth Axelrod-Praes, Lisa Crilley, Victoria Curea, Tom DeRose, Nilofer Kaul, Otto Kernberg, Arsalan Malik, Jack Novick, Kerry Kelly Novick, Philip A. Ringstrom, Louis Rothschild, Asmita Sharma, and Benny Weiss-Steider.



Salman Akhtar, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. His more than 450 publications include twenty-three solo authored books - Broken Structures (1992), Quest for Answers (1995), Inner Torment (1999), Immigration and Identity (1999), New Clinical Realms (2003), Objects of Our Desire (2005), Regarding Others (2007), Turning Points in Dynamic Psychotherapy (2009), The Damaged Core (2009), Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009), Immigration and Acculturation (2011), Matters of Life and Death (2011), Psychoanalytic Listening (2013), Good Stuff (2013), Sources of Suffering (2014), No Holds Barred (2016), A Web of Sorrow (2017), Mind, Culture, and Global Unrest (2018), Silent Virtues (2019), Tales of Transformation (2022), In Leaps and Bounds (2022), and In Short (2024) - as well as sixty- nine edited or coedited volumes in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar has delivered many prestigious addresses and lectures including, most significantly, the inaugural address at the first IPA-Asia Congress in Beijing, China (2010). Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Best Paper of the Year Award (1995), the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians' Sigmund Freud Award (2000), the American College of Psychoanalysts' Laughlin Award (2003), the American Psychoanalytic Association's Edith Sabshin Award (2000), Columbia University's Robert Liebert Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychoanalysis (2004), the American Psychiatric Association's Kun Po Soo Award (2004), the Irma Bland Award for being the Outstanding Teacher of Psychiatric Residents in the country (2005), and the Nancy Roeske Award (2012). He received the Sigourney Award (2013), which is the most prestigious honor in the field of psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar is an internationally sought speaker and teacher, and his books have been translated in many languages, including German, Turkish, and Romanian. His interests are wide and he has served as the film review editor for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and is currently serving as the book review editor for the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. He has published eighteen collections of poetry and serves as a scholar-in-residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. His Selected Papers (Vols I-X) were recently published and released at a festive event held at the Freud House & Museum in London. Lisa Crilley, LMFT, is a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, clinical supervisor of young psychotherapists and associates, and senior candidate in psychoanalysis who is deeply invested in matters of psychic growth. Her particular clinical interests include personality development, complex trauma, compulsive ways of self-regulating, and primitive and psychotic states. Her rigorous training, which involved earning her master's degree from Antioch University Los Angeles and continuing her studies at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), laid the groundwork for her to become a vibrant, assiduous leader at LAISPS and in the psychoanalytic community. Crilley proudly represents LAISPS on the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS) board and the International Psychoanalytical Studies Organization (IPSO).



Acknowledgments About the editor and contributors Introduction PART I: CONCEPTUAL ASPECTS 1. Freud's changing views on sadomasochism Tom DeRose 2. Freudian sadomasochism and its contemporary incarnations Louis Rothschild 3. Masochism and the delusion of omnipotence from a developmental perspective Jack Novick and Kerry Kelly Novick PART II: CULTURAL ASPECTS 4. Misogyny, sadomasochism, and pornography Asmita Sharma and Prachi Akhavi 5. The strategic confluence of altruism and sadomasochism in martyrdom Arsalan Malik 6. Society, sadism, and a satirical take on the family Victoria Curea PART III: CLINICAL ASPECTS 7. Childhood grievance, defensive idealization, and sadomasochistic failure of mourning Lisa Crilley 8. Sadomasochism in couples psychotherapy Philip A. Ringstrom 9. Sadomasochism, sexual excitement, and perversions Otto Kernberg 10. On cruelty Salman Akhtar 11. Analytic struggles and sadistic maneuvers Nilofer Kaul 12. E-sadomasochism and clinical psychoanalysis Ruth Axelrod-Praes and Benny Weiss-Steider References Index