Masochism revisited: reflections on masochism and its childhood antecedents.

Masochism, originally described as sexual perversion by Sacher von Masoch, was elaborated by Freud to include personality pathology, and further developed by Bieber and others. The DSM-III included sexual perversion and personality pathology as separate diagnoses, but were totally eliminated from the DSM-IV. It is the author's thesis that the masochist's self-abnegating language is diagnostic--a disguised attack expressing fear, hate, and contempt of others.

The roots of creativity.

The various factors which seem to be important in the creative child with extraordinary potential include: A good biologic endowment, often with high intelligence and a correlation between special sensory sensitivities and other physical requirements to implement the special interest. There is also sometimes the capacity to utilize or else compensate for deficit. The fostering of interests by a parent or interested adult. Specific kinds of ongoing encouragement. Sometimes there is self-selection of interest by the child. The child must feel valued and loved. The family background and relationship of parents centers on the child. The time, place, and institutions foster the development of interest and value of the work and the child's belief in its value. The child is allowed freedom of development, without undue inhibition or restriction. Creative people have shown uneven development--the child is not "age-specific" generally. Gifted children have been observed to tolerate isolation and even loneliness well--these are often necessary conditions for developing skills. For some creative people, early object losses seem to be frequent. The creative child is curious and a keen observer. The creative child has an uncanny ability to make connections--to perceive similarities in the apparently dissimilar. The creative child is not hampered by conventional thought. The creative child has a capacity for love and devotion--or at least a positive orientation; a spiritness or passion; and a spirituality or unworldliness. It has been said that the poetic truths in a work of art are only half understood by its creator. Generally conveyed subliminally, these truths are revealed in different ways to different audiences at different times. Such is the view of William Livingstone (1987), and considering the childhood antecedents of creative work helps to understand why this is so.

The working wife and mother--a "new" woman?

Determined efforts by women to bring about soical, economic, legal and other changes have met with definite though limited success, but also brought increased violence toward women. Wives and mothers with careers still carry the major burdens of household, child care, and social responsibilities, stress causing slippage into more gender-stereotyped roles. Highly achieving and successful women appear to have a greater sense of independence and determination that career success is more important than any other aspect of life.

Analyzability and capacity for change in middle life.

The stimulus for this paper was the analyst's surprise at the capacity for change in a number of middle-aged patients, some of whom would not have been considered good analytic prospects even if young, especially since they had all had extensive, unsuccessful previous psychiatric and psychoanalytic treatment, in two instances with the author herself. Factors of change in what now constitutes "old age," and of analyzability, rigidity, motivation and readiness for change, countertransference factors, and the significance of a late-appearing corrective emotional experience were all considered, along with a brief re-evaluation of what the analytic process really is, and how change comes about.

Vulnerability to violence: masochism as process.

The recent growth of violence toward women, including rape, assault, wife-battering, and marital rape, has raised questions of whether any personality trait or psychological difficulty furthers their vulnerability. Freud's concept of feminine masochism is re-examined and translated into a culturally determined process which, if properly understood, could be changed to help women prevent or at least reduce their own victimization.

Treatment of crises in the lives of women: object loss and identity threat.

A review of crises occurring in practice within a year's time suggested that these related essentially to object loss or threat to identity, at any age level, although certain phases find women inherently more vulnerable. Therapeutic efforts call for special sensitivity to the effects of rapid cultural change, and altered goals and expectations of women.