What the psychopathist since
Kraft-Ebbing designates as masochism, is the pathological degeneration
of this particular emotion, which is very common and appears in various
forms, but does not seem to me to be at all morbid. Certainly it is
morbid when a man allows himself to be insulted, bound and flogged, but
it is fairly normal when his passionate admiration is roused by an
imperious woman, who passes him by like a queen without even noticing
his abject adoration; when he longs to kneel down before her and kiss
her feet, which in reward would spurn him. Quite normal, too, is the
boyish happiness in serving an admired and adored woman (Kraft-Ebbing
calls this pageism) described so beautifully in Dostoievsky's novel, _A
Young Hero_, and fairly common among troubadours and minnesingers. (I
need only mention Ulrich von Lichtenstein.) There are numerous degrees
of this feeling--we frequently come across it in the novels of
Dostoievsky, Jacobsen, Strindberg, D'Annunzio, and others--but the
essence of it is always contained in the fact that the man, although
yearning to worship the beloved woman, cannot maintain himself in the
sphere of spiritual love, and aspires to direct physical contact.
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