Customer Reviews

Sadomasochism: Etiology and Treatment (Master Work)

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This is a reprint of a seriously out of date work originally published in 1982. It is highly judgemental and written for practicing clinicians interested in curing this 'deviant' behavior. My guess is the publishers expect to capitalize on the surge of interest in bdsm over the last decade. Fortunately the psychoanalytic profession has moved forward since then.

This book disappoints me. Suzanne's preceding book of poems, Touch Me, was very pretty indeed and approached the subject of her sado-masochism tendencies with great tact and delicacy. But now in this book, by writing it in prose, we see only the dark side of its settings, stripped of their protective coloration of verse. The result is distressingly coarse and ugly and dull as a pink rubber eraser with pencil holes in it. We now are forced to read the graphical descriptions of the author's sordid Abscheulichkeit. Why did she feel the need to remove the verse and let in the worms of prose? By that prosaic act, she turned her stories from delight to crudeness. For this one, she didn't change her name enough. Her fans don't want to know this is her.