bought for £1 and well worth it! a very interesting little book, can be read in one go!

many interesting ideas about cases that have appeared in the papers, along with gender-stereotyping, replacement babies, malignant bonding - it's all there.

just get past the initial preachy first few pages where it's very freud-like and condemnatory and the rest of it offers good explanations and case studies, and how sadomasochism is in films such as Thelma and Louise, and how it has been a theme in literature and art.

And I want to see which page it falls open at. Bloody hell - page 23! ;-)
Thanks J...should be illuminating!

Wow. I read this on the train, and apart from trying to hide the cover from prying eyes, found it totally absorbing. I have to agree with quadrat that the first few pages were a bit school-marm, but the rest was fascinating. I got a bit lost in Repetition Compulsion And The Body As Torturer bit (and had to get put right by quadrat). One issue which didn't appear to be tackled which I would have liked to have seen was how sadomasochistic behaviour arises where the abuser/victim is not themselves repeating abusive behaviour from childhood. And was a little non-plussed by the bald statement that "a degree of sadism and masochism is present in all sexual relationships" followed in the next sentence by a reference to Fred and Rose West! And is a perversion not a perversion if you merely fantasize and don't act it out? Thought-provoking stuff. Do I dare unleash this on the good (but apparently, to varying degrees, sexually sado-masochistic) burghers of Horsham!? Perhaps Brighton would be better...

RELEASE NOTES:

To britpz - enjoy!

an extremely interesting insight into sadomasochism - really made me think. I shall be releasing it at the meet up on valentines day :)