Personal identity can be construed in two ways: in terms of the characteristics of an agent, and in terms of what happens to him. Ideally, these two aspects are mutually exclusive, as Sade seems to think. A mature agent is not an object, but only a subject. His victim is a pure recipient without an identity of his own. Such a separation between direct and ironic identity, however, cannot succeed in psychological terms. It takes place only in a utopian social order – an artifact created by means of a social contract.
To understand the Sadean person we must look first at his/her constitution from the point of view of personal identity. To do so is to crack the cosmic shell of nature, so that from its uniformity an individual emerges ready for action. The definition of the polarity between nature and personality is
first displayed (to move like a scavenger),
then defined (to tear apart like an avenger), and finally
used by Sade (to enjoy like a predator).
Sade’s basic motive is to keep the distance between opposites as minimal as possible, so that a person remains both rigid and independent, his pleasure coming from nature but his action remaining as his own.
The axiom of painful pleasure can itself be understood in three different ways:
first, “a shared pleasure is a betrayal of the self,” or enjoyment is a zero-sum game;
second, it is a necessary condition of pleasure that one suffers before the promised enjoyment, just as hunger precedes an enjoyable meal;
third, pain itself is a pleasure.
Sade subscribes to the third view in particular. The soul feels excitement when it clashes with what is unexpected or what offers resistance. This is pain in its basic functional sense. Mental energy is always directed where the resistance is, and the collapse of a barrier is intrinsically motivating. Once resistance is overcome by this energy, it discharges into the void created by the vanishing of the initial obstacle. The image is that of a thrusting force penetrating a medium which opens up, creating a hollow space, and making possible the discharge of energy and matter into the void. This is at once orgiastic pleasure and pain, or suffering in a more demanding sense. Such psychology also leads to vice and crime.
Are there any other kinds of painful pleasure we can think of?