The social generality of sadomasochism: A study in the political as personal.
Item
-
Title
-
The social generality of sadomasochism: A study in the political as personal.
-
Identifier
-
AAI8801688
-
identifier
-
8801688
-
Creator
-
Chancer, Lynn Sharon.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Stanley Aronowitz
-
Date
-
1987
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Sociology, Individual and Family Studies | Psychology, Social
-
Abstract
-
Sadomasochism is commonly associated with only sexual and violent manifestations, associations which deflect attention from the possibility that it might be a more general dynamic characterizing a broad range of interpersonal relationships in society.;At the heart of this phenomenon is a pattern of dominance and submission which is based on symbiotic dependence on the part of both sadist and masochist, and which closer examination reveals to be a fundamentally dynamic rather than static form of interaction between self and other. In the latter tradition, ideas taken from Margaret Mahler suggest that both the sadistic and masochistic positions represent failures to achieve a necessary balance between independence and dependence, or, for the child, between the attainment of both a satisfactory symbiosis and separation-individuation period in relation to parent/caretaker figures.;Several important social applications of the characteristics deduced from the 'S&M' paradigm can be made. Given patriarchal structures as described by Millett, de Beauvoir and others, the traditional nuclear family creates a tendency for gendered sadomasochism to emerge, with women tending to be cast in a relatively more masochistic position, men in a relatively more sadistic one. Yet, patterns in the family as well as other institutions lead to shifting transmutations from sadist to masochist and vice versa. The emergence of both sadism and masochism in the same person is exacerbated by other social structures, such as the nature of capitalist bureaucracy as described by both Weber and Marx. A workplace structured bureaucratically may lead to the masochist personae being adopted in relation to a superior, the sadistic relative to an inferior. The developed analysis is also applied to a comparison between the psychological/subjective state of the capitalist and that of the worker in terms of the sadomasochistic dynamic. However, analysis of this dynamic in the work sphere is not limited to capitalist manifestations since similar characteristics are also found in present day 'communist' societies, leading one to conclude that change is possible only if personal (or psychological) as well as political (or sociological) factors are given equal significance. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
