On Masochism

Drawings of Masochistic Character structure in child and adult, by Marianne Bentzen

A discussion of the Reichian character structure of masochism from the perspective of the founder of Biodynamic Therapy, Gerda Boyesen.

The biodynamic approach sees the person, as a person, with love. I am trained as a spiritual director as well as a biodynamic massage therapist, and the training for each is similar. Both are work of true accompaniment and deep-seeing insight into the true being of the person, in the light of the Divine. Biodynamic therapy looks for the life of the person, their true self. This is the place where the person would be without their character armour.* 

Wilhelm Reich, in his book Character Analysis (1933), laid out some classifications for how the human body tends to adapt itself to life experiences, interesting to biodynamic practitioners. Reich sees character armour developing with trauma and circumstance. Like a harsh relentless wind or lack of sunlight bending a tree to a different direction, the body shapes itself by the forces applied to it.

Startle reflex, when it isn’t fully released from the body, causes the body to move and grow in restricted directions. ​A child hearing their parents arguing and shouting at her will bring up her shoulders in shock so many times that the shoulder tension gradually stops releasing itself and the body changes its shape in line with the tension. 
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In the following, I discuss Gerda Boyesen’s article, “Masochism and Masochistic Energy — an Insight” (published 1982 in the Journal of Biodynamic Psychology, Volume 2).** I discuss “masochism”, the development of a masochist character structure from a biodynamic perspective, where it comes from, and how the body takes it on. I go on to discuss the extension, or development, of the definition of the "Masochist Character" that Gerda makes.

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Gerda Boyesen

Gerda describes a man with a masochist character structure to his body. He is Richard, one of her students. In the therapy training group that he was a part of, Richard connected with a "pact" he had made as an eleven month old baby, “to protect his mother and never, ever make her sad or hurt her; to keep sorrow and pain out of her.”

At the point he made this pact, a spit came into Richard’s life. He could no longer be free to be himself (to be a child) at the same time as maintaining his vow to “do his utmost” to protect his mother. If he was free to be a child, he might hurt his mother inadvertently and he might not want to help her. Gerda described a split between the mind and body, the Ego and the Id. Gerda says, “in Biodynamic Psychology, the ‘Emotional Regulators’… can create muscular armour and a rigid Super-Ego [in a neurosis].” The muscular armour is used by the Super-Ego to “suppress and inhibit natural impulses from the child, especially those that conflict with its direction of repression.” 

The child, then, is restricted in his or her development of the “primary personality”, and a “secondary personality” is formed. “The Super-Ego’s control eventually solidifies as the muscle tension becomes chronic” and a conflict emerges. The conflict is that feeling feelings that aren’t in line with the Super-Ego’s restrictive structure, though naturally pleasurable, become unpleasant, fearful and confusing. 

It was when he went into this place of the pact to protect his mother in his group work that Richard could feel his own (latent) feelings of impotence. The pact he had made was not something he was actually capable of fulfilling to the extent that he had wanted to, he was too young and it was too much. He was always going to fail.

Gerda describes Richard as a well functioning man, successful in his work as a therapist and psychologist and in his family and social life. ”He is what one could call a fully integrated personality in a social sense and from a quantitative concept of health. There was, however, on the qualitative side, a body-mind split which meant that the life energy… did not flow fully.” When this original conflict was “reactivated” by the group work, the blocks to his “libido flow” kicked in and Richard felt his “latent [fear] and underlying feeling of impotence.” In contradiction to appearances, Richard “lives, acts and functions without the full libido flow, and thus will never really feel content and that his life is fulfilling [while the restriction is there].”

Gerda says that “a pact a child makes with itself is incredibly powerful and one of the most difficult things to reach. This is because it is both secret and sacred at the same time. It is not told to anybody and has the power and involvement of the child’s whole being. Until it is reached, though, the neurosis cannot really be resolved, because the pact will always maintain the neurosis and neurotic pattern.”

For Richard, the pact was reached by the group work in his training with Gerda.

Gerda goes on to describe what makes this pact masochistic instead of healthy: it is only that the eleven month old Richard had taken on too much. He had committed to do “everything” but it would have been healthier for him to commit to do everything he could, everything he was able to, ie, nothing beyond his own capabilities! With Gerda's suggestion, Richard changed the pact to “I will do my best — what I can” and this "brought a smile to his face". With this, “the neurosis dissolved and became a healthy decision.”

“It is the pact with himself that keeps the suffering, and when that changes then so can the suffering.”

Richard’s healing of his neurosis was completed by following his own instinct to ask the group to hold him, physically, and to “cradle” him. With this, “he had allowed himself to be a little child again, without a care, and had allowed himself to receive.”

The most wonderful part of Gerda’s article is her attitude of love towards Richard, and her insight into the goodness of his eleven month old’s heart that led to this pact, which, if typically described as “masochistic” might come with a stigma and base misunderstanding.

Gerda says Richard, “took a very special burden on himself as a little boy. If he had not cared so much for his mother or if he had not been so full of love or wished to help, comfort and protect her so much, then he would not have reacted this way and become neurotic. It was from the very, very best qualities of mankind that he had acted, and now become neurotic and masochistic, and I believe that this raises a large question about the whole terminology and concept of masochism.”

Richard acted from a quality of nobility, love and strength, from his Higher Self, and this is what had made him neurotic. Gerda notes that,

“intelligent children are more prone to neurosis; because, perhaps, they understand more. Here was an instance of a little boy of eleven months old understanding so much, and reacting in an adult fashion, but with a little child’s body and abilities. So, again, it was from the best qualities that the neurosis developed. He reacted from the qualities of his Higher Self, such as intelligence, understanding, love, protection and concern and not from the qualities, of his Lower Self, like hatred and anger, which is often the case.”

This good child had “probably avoided the important ‘temper-tantrum’ phase, which brings individuality and self-assertion, and the freedom from the usual overlay of an internalised Super-Ego mechanism.” Richard could never be “difficult or impossible… he probably felt he had to protect her against himself, or a part of himself.” But the reality was, “it was too early; the burden was too heavy. It was doomed to make him neurotic and misuse his libidinous energy and force. This went into character armour and muscle armour in order to increase the strength, instead of flowing freely as a result of the strength. This is typical of the masochistic pattern.”

But, Gerda says, Richard is a person, “Richard is Richard and no-one else” and “we want him out of his character pattern” so she only has types and character classifications in the back of her mind as “working concepts.” This makes room for challenges to the textbook classifications. Gerda remembers how she was touched by “this little boy carrying such a heavy burden of love on his young and unformed shoulders.” The pleasure he was getting out of the neurotic compromise wasn’t egotistic, but altruistic: he “wasn’t getting anything for himself from the pact he made, which was the neurotic solution to his mother’s, and hence his own, distress. ‘Masochistic’ is thus inappropriate as it implies egotistic pleasure from pain and suffering. [Whereas] this form of masochism derived a psychological satisfaction from managing to cope with difficulties for the good of a loved one.” It was a pleasure of giving, not a pleasure of suffering that motivated the young Richard in his pact. It has, says Gerda, “more to do with the Higher Self.” 

“Noble motivation… [might be] neurotic or unneurotic… but none of this takes away from the nobility of the higher qualities. I believe it to be very important that the origin of the forces within is recognised, and that those which emanate from the Higher Self are recognised as such and protected as such, and do not get dismissed as being just part of the neurosis. This is essential to my work.” 

“Conflicts between the Lower Self and the Higher Self can lead to Super-Ego formation, but this was not the case with Richard. His was a conflict between the Higher Self andthe Super-Ego. He made a sacred and holy pact from his Higher Self, but he was a child and the burden was too heavy. The Super-Ego’s demands were too great for his little boy. It took on the Higher-Self decision and made it compulsive. The neurotic solution was to adopt masochistic patterns. However, it came from motives that were of understanding and love. This was not egotistic, but altruistic. One can say that the child didn’t want to lose his mother, but there was no question of this. However, his heart couldn’t take it that she was unhappy and he wanted to do something for that. Isn’t that the most noble part of humanity?”

It is, and I agree with Gerda that it is imperative that we don’t “interpret the Higher Qualities through baser motives.” Gerda says, our future lies in a “move towards a psychology of the Higher Self, [where] we can value the noble qualities, recognise their origin and acknowledge the Higher Nature and the Divine… [the] beginnings of Esoteric Psychology.” This is the motivation Gerda has in her desire to discuss and broaden our understanding of the Masochistic Character.

* Character armour as described by Wilhelm Reich. See the following for more information, discussion and quizzes on character armour and character structure: https://www.bodynamic.com/blog/shapes-of-experience/ ,  https://bioenergetics.org.uk/characterology/ and https://reichandlowentherapy.org/Content/Character/Overview/general_character.html

** The 'New' Collected Papers of Biodynamic Psychology, Massage & Psychotherapy: 2022, published by Courtenay Young, available here: www.bodypsychotherapypublications.com/pub_22.html


By Ruthie Baigent; first published here, 8th December, 2024

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