Saturday, August 31, 2013

Reader's Diary (Week 35)

The masochistic frame of mind should not be confused with that of normal self-giving in love: the latter means self-giving of one person to another, in freedom, with an eye to objective values, but without reference to an extinction of one's own will and a wilful destruction of one's own personal dignity; in masochism, by contrast, one's experience of the beloved person, and her proximity, is not important at all (even if the approach be one of service, entreaty, or submission); it is, rather, an abstract experience of the other person as a subjugating power that encapsulates sexual pleasure, a power which, far from confirming and enriching the personal being and value ties of the masochistic 'lover', constricts and chokes them.
(Kolnai, 1930)

Personal note: in the blog i have already shared some interesting thoughts about masochism (and intentionally left out popular views of Freud, Deleuze and others from that line of thinking - as being simply contradictory to my own experiences and thoughts). By the definition above i am not a masochist. Kind of funny.

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