Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

In 1893, a German psychiatrist named Richard Krafft Ebing invented a new word. It was masochism, the deriving of pleasure from being offended, dominated or mistreated. The word was inspired by the unusual life history of an Austrian named Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

Leopold, born in 1836 into an affluent Austrian family, was a respected legal scholar who earned his doctorate at age 19. He was also a professional actor, and the author of several historical publications. Despite his success, however, Leopold was haunted by childhood demons.

The boys' earliest years were orchestrated by a formidable governess named Handscha, who captivated him with dark tales of tyrants and cruel domineering mistresses. Then, in 1848, Leopold's policeman father was involved in a series of tumultuous landowner revolutions in the city of Prague. The 12 year old Leopold von Sacher-Masoch witnessed these bloody conflicts from the windows of his home.

These cruelties and dark visions later sought expression in Leopold's relationships with women. Chasing dreams of martyrdom, he sought wives and mistresses willing to tyrannize him. He insisted his lovers be clad in furs while they thrashed him with whips. To perfect his own torture, he arranged for men to steal away his women.

He died in an asylum in 1895, but he is immortalized in the term masochism, the aberration acted out by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.

Radio Script > Masochism