The definition of masochism is "the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one's own pain or humiliation." I am interested in the non-sexual pleasure which is derived from pain. So, the question—, 'what pleasure can one derive from pain?'
Paradoxically, the pleasure masochism derives is a certain type of control over our actions. This is to say, masochism gives us the ability to gain control by giving control to someone else. When we give up our control we also give up our agency. Any forms of guilt or responsibility which we might have is transferred to someone else. Therefore, Masochism provides us with an uninhibited reality.
Psychoanalytically, our superego is turned off and therefore we no longer need to negotiate between our ego and id. In short, masochistic actions outsource our super ego to someone else. What is right or wrong, what is ethical, is totally given up when we masochistically submits it to another person (or institution). We are then able to conform to the norms of our surroundings without considering our place in the world.
Let's consider some societal masochistic examples. When people cut themselves they take control of a situation which seems controllable. When they are in unending painful and distressing emotional states, by cutting themselves they get to choose when it hurts—instead of it always hurting. In short, the pain exists only when they choose, this is a way of managing the pain.
Psychologically, masochism is a product of the internalisation of the self-object / self-image. If I have a negative self-image of myself, as in I think I am undeserving of love or I am just problematic, it only makes sense to hurt ‘that person’ because they deserve it. Here we can see a disassociation between the self-concept and the self-object. The pain is legitimized when we put on a ‘double consciousness’, the opinion of society and act in its name.
Let's consider a ‘double consciousness’ when it is projected by a love-object (a person or thing we love). If I am in a bad relationship with my parents, I will project the bad relationship onto myself in order to justify my bad parents. I need to believe that I am unlovable. For example, the reason my dad beat me when he was drunk because of something I did, not him. I must internally subject the anger and sadness I feel as a way of making sense of this happening because I have not divorced my identity from my parents. I receive security, comfort, pleasure when I protect myself from a situation which I cannot cope with (having to divorce myself from my family) by disassociating myself into a self-concept and a self-object to overcome the problem of inherent badness of my parents.
A Small Place is an essay by Jamaica Kincaid which critiques the tourism industry and how it has affected her home country Antigua. Particularly she writes that the tourism industry personally alienates the people of the country by introducing the country as a tourist destination, an identity which makes money. She continues to speak of the tangible exploitation which is involved as the black people of the island are not compensated for their ‘exotic’ role in making the island a destination for tourists.
Kincaid especially draws issue with the ownership which the tourism industry has over the island economy and how if one wants to be successful on the island, it is largely dictated by the industry itself. So, in other words, one has to adopt the “double consciousness” of the western industry in order to partake in it. That is to say that in order to experience wealth and prosperity in one's home country, they actively have to play a role in destroying it. One has to adopt two consciousnesses, their person desires to have a better life and at the same time play a role in making their life worse, because this is what is required of western countries in trying to turn the island into a tourist destination-commodity.
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Parasite
Parasite is a movie about a family, the Kim’s, who are working class Koreans who take up assistant work for a very wealthy family, the Parks. The Kim’s get their assistant work jobs by cheating out a woman who used to work for the family. The Park family is very nice however they do not realize that characteristics which are inherent to their wealth actively abuse the Kim’s until they reach a breaking point. Because the Parks have the Kim's salaries as leverage, there is an invisible level of service which the Kim’s succumb to out of fear of poverty. This is further elevated by the lack of safety net which the family is offered by their society
The Kim’s experience the ultimate masochism because they have to monitor the Park family’s every move to try and make them happy. This monitorization causes them to absolutely submit themselves under the wealth of the Parks. Towards the end of the movie, it is revealed that the previous housekeeper kept her husband in the basement so that he wouldn't be homeless. There is a very cinematic moment where the husband, who has gone completely mad, turns on the lights for the family in the house. The Park’s think that it is automatic lighting but in reality it is a man obsessed with serving them even though he is unnoticed. In the final scene it becomes apparent that the husband in the basement has become obsessed with Mr.Kim, expressing immense masochism and false consciousness