> I briefly had a look at a thick, black book written by the Austrian
> psychologist Wilhelm Stekel called _Sadism and Masochism: The Psychology of
> Hatred and Cruelty_. I spent the next hour crying and throwing up.
>
> Here is a quote:
>
> "The pleasure in cruelty manifested by civilized man arises from his
> egocentric point of view ... All displeasure is granted to other people, if
> only we may be spared. Only the martyr takes another's pain upon himself; to
> be sure, because the consciousness of this affords him pleasure. He is a
> pathological character and already belongs in the field of sexual
> pathology."
>
> Does anyone know who Wilhelm Stekel is and what he stands for?