[The concept of masochism].

The terms masochism and masochistic behaviour are clinically used for acceptations extending well beyond the relatively well-defined limits of sexual perversion. If it is indeed rather unusual to see a masochist pervert identified as such among psychiatric hospital or ambulatory patients, yet you very often find in a medical record the term masochist applied to a patient without there being any question of his sexual habits. This enlargement of the concept masochism has its roots in the works of Freud who introduces, next to the masochist perversion, notions of feminine and moral masochism. The aim of this paper is to re-situate in the light of psycho-analytic theory, the specificity of the various masochistic formulas in order to render them their semiologistic value, more particularly in connection with the therapeutic indications involved.