As sadomasochism is generally understood to be a sexual deviance in which a person feels pleasure or satisfaction through the infliction or experience of pain, power or humiliation. The term arises from a contraction of the two terms sadism and masochism. A distinction can be made between inclinism (lat. inclinare: to turn towards) or consensual sadomasochism and non-inclining sadomasochism.

Term

The terms sadism and masochism were first used in a scientific context by Richard von Krafft-Ebing in 1886 in Psyc hopathia sexualis. Here he refers to the works of the writers de Sade, whose novels mix pornographic content with fantasies of violence, and Sacher-Masoch, who depicts the pleasure gained through pain and submission in several works.

After Sigmund Freud in 1905 in his Three Treatises on Sexual Theory sadism and masochism as illnesses arising from a faulty development of the child’s psyche and thus fundamentally influenced the further assessment of the subject for decades to come, the Viennese psychoanalyst Isidor Sadger finally coined the term „sado-masochistic complex“ in 1913 in his article On the sado-masochistic complex coined the compound term „sado-masochism“ for the first time.

Colloquial use

Sadomasochism – in all its variants represented by the letters SM – is also found in the multi-layered acronym BDSM, which is made up of Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochism. In colloquial language, the term sadomasochism, or the abbreviations sadomasochism or SMdescribe sexual practices from the field of BDSM without further specification. The term is also often used to describe mixed forms of sadomasochism or BDSM with various fetishistic practices.