The anatomy of prejudice during pandemic lockdowns: Evidence from a national panel study.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a spike in the reporting of hate crimes (Human Rights Watch, 2020). However, the extent to which the pandemic affected prejudice across a general population-not merely among those disposed to hate crimes-remains unclear. Also unclear is the extent to which prejudice was restricted to specific minority groups associated with the virus, or whether prejudice spilled over to other minority groups. To address these questions, we use panel data collected from participants in a large national longitudinal (panel) study of New Zealanders before and during the early COVID-19 pandemic and systematically quantified social warmth ratings across a broad range of minority-groups (The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, N = 30,327, years 2018-2020). We discover reduced warmth toward Chinese, Asians (broadly defined), immigrants, Muslims, refugees, Indians, and the mentally ill. In absolute terms, warmth towards Chinese decreased the most (0.11 SD). Notably, changes in warmth were not detected toward NZ Europeans, Maori, Pacific Islanders, the overweight, or the elderly. Overall, these findings suggest that in New Zealand, pandemic prejudice may spread beyond minority groups associated with the virus to other groups perceived as non-prototypical of national identity.

A normalization model for repeated letters in social media hate speech text based on rules and spelling correction.

As social media booms, abusive online practices such as hate speech have unfortunately increased as well. As letters are often repeated in words used to construct social media messages, these types of words should be eliminated or reduced in number to enhance the efficacy of hate speech detection. Although multiple models have attempted to normalize out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words with repeated letters, they often fail to determine whether the in-vocabulary (IV) replacement words are correct or incorrect. Therefore, this study developed an improved model for normalizing OOV words with repeated letters by replacing them with correct in-vocabulary (IV) replacement words. The improved normalization model is an unsupervised method that does not require the use of a special dictionary or annotated data. It combines rule-based patterns of words with repeated letters and the SymSpell spelling correction algorithm to remove repeated letters within the words by multiple rules regarding the position of repeated letters in a word, be it at the beginning, middle, or end of the word and the repetition pattern. Two hate speech datasets were then used to assess performance. The proposed normalization model was able to decrease the percentage of OOV words to 8%. Its F1 score was also 9% and 13% higher than the models proposed by two extant studies. Therefore, the proposed normalization model performed better than the benchmark studies in replacing OOV words with the correct IV replacement and improved the performance of the detection model. As such, suitable rule-based patterns can be combined with spelling correction to develop a text normalization model to correctly replace words with repeated letters, which would, in turn, improve hate speech detection in texts.

Anti-Asian Hate's Impact on Asian American Social Workers: Implications for Professional Training and Education.

This article explores the impact of recent incidents of anti-Asian hate and violence against Asian American social workers, clients, and communities. Asian Americans represent a small but growing proportion of the U.S. population. Yet, Asians are underrepresented in the social work profession-approximately 3.6 percent of the social work workforce and 2.1 percent of licensed social workers are Asian, and data on underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the workforce continue to omit details on Asian people. Recent social and political framing of the COVID-19 pandemic as attributable to Asian people has fueled racist rhetoric and incidents of hate and bias crimes against Asian people. Through exploratory research to understand the experiences of Asian American social workers in the proliferation of anti-Asian hate, authors identified that more should be done to support and meet the needs of Asian American social workers, clients, and communities by improving social work education and training, by addressing the social work workforce and agency practices, and by expanding upon advocacy and community building.

The association between exposure to hate speech or perceived discrimination and mental health problems among Korean residents in Japan.

This study evaluated the effect of perceived discrimination and racism on the mental health state of Korean residents in Japan, with a particular focus on the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and psychological distress. Surveys were sent to Korean residents in Japan and a total of 240 valid responses were received. The valid response rate was 27.1%. The participants answered several questionnaire items, including demographic information and questions pertaining to their experiences of perceived discrimination, along with three self-reported measures of mental health, i.e., the Japanese version of Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The results indicated that Korean residents in Japan experience hate speech and discrimination with a markedly high frequency (92.9% and 100%, respectively), and that factors such as employment discrimination and exposure to hate speech via social networking services were significant predictors of probable PTSD and psychological distress.

Asian Hate, religion, and perceived changes in physical health: exploring the flip side of minority stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Prior research suggests that racism is associated with adverse mental health outcomes for Asians in the United States. Relatively less research has been conducted to examine the effects of racism on physical health, particularly the changes in physical health among Asians and Asian Americans. This study aims to fill in this gap in prior research. DESIGN: Survey was conducted via Qualtrics in March 2023. A panel sample of 356 Asian and Asian American adults from across the US was collected. Ordinary Least Squares Regression was employed to examine the interrelationships among racism, religion, and perceived changes in physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Contrary to conventional wisdom, more frequent experience with blatant racism was associated with a perceived improvement in physical health after controlling for subtle racism, anxiety, acculturation, and various sociodemographic variables. Interestingly, this robust relationship was more significant among Asians who attended religious services more frequently. Additional three-way interactions revealed that the interaction between blatant racism and religious service attendance on perceived changes in physical health was more significant for US-born Asians and Asians of Indian or Japanese ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Racism exerts a significant influence on physical health outcomes among Asians and Asian Americans. However, this relationship was contingent upon the specific aspect of racism and intersected with religiosity, acculturation, and ethnic identity.

Prototypes of Hate and Expectations of the Model Victim.

This research explored the content of hate crime prototypes in a North American context, with particular attention to how such prototypes might influence blame attributions. In Study 1a, participants were recruited from a blended sample of universities (n = 110) and community members (n = 102) and asked to report their thoughts about typical hate crime offenses, victims, and offenders. These open-ended responses were coded, and common themes were identified. In Study 1b, a new group of participants (n = 290) were presented with these themes and asked to rate each for their characteristics of hate crimes. Studies 1a and 1b confirmed the presence of a clear prototype of hate crimes, such that (a) perpetrators were believed to be lower status White men with clear expressions of bias, (b) hate crime offenses were believed to be acts of interpersonal violence accompanied by slurs or verbal abuse, and (c) hate crime victims were thought to be members of a marginalized group who remain passive during the offense. Study 2 explored the consequences of victim prototypes on assessments of victim blame. Participants (n = 296) were recruited from York University and presented with a case vignette that varied the prototypicality of a victim of hate, depicting him as either Black or White and either passive, verbally responsive, or physically confrontational in the context of an assault. Participants showed greatest sympathy for the Black victim who passively ignored verbal harassment but increasingly assigned blame when the Black victim spoke or reacted physically. When the victim was White, participants showed little variation in their assessment of blame as a function of the victim's behavior. These results suggest that Black victims are subjected to greater behavioral scrutiny than White victims and that sympathy for victims of hate may be contingent on their passivity in the face of harassment.

Experiences of childhood, intimate partner, non-partner, and hate crime-related violence among a sample of people living with HIV in the epicenter of the U.S. HIV epidemic.

Introduction: Experiences of violence among people living with HIV (PLWH) are thought to be highly prevalent but remain inadequately captured. As a first step toward acceptable, trauma informed practices that improve engagement and retention in care for PLWH, we must acquire more comprehensive understanding of violence experiences. We examined experiences of various forms of lifetime violence: adverse childhood experiences (ACES), intimate partner violence (IPV), non-partner violence (NPV), and hate crimes among diverse sample of PLWH in Atlanta, Georgia. Methods: Cross sectional data collected from in- and out-of-care PLWH (N = 285) receiving care/support from Ryan White Clinics (RWCs), AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs), or large safety-net hospital, February 2021-December 2022. As part of larger study, participants completed interviewer-administered survey and reported on experiences of violence, both lifetime and past year. Participant characteristics and select HIV-related variables were collected to further describe the sample. Univariate and bivariate analyses assessed participant characteristics across types of violence. Results: High prevalence of past violence experiences across all types (ACES: 100%, IPV: 88.7%, NPV: 97.5%, lifetime hate crimes 93.2%). People assigned male at birth who identified as men experienced more violence than women, with exception of non-partner forced sex. Participants identifying as gay men were more likely to have experienced violence. Conclusion: Among our sample of PLWH at the epicenter of the United States HIV epidemic, histories of interpersonal and community violence are common. Findings emphasize need for RWCs, ASOs, and hospital systems to be universally trained in trauma-informed approaches and have integrated onsite mental health and social support services.

Revisiting the Harm of Hate: A Quasi-Experimental Approach Using the National Crime Victimization Survey.

Early legal challenges to the 1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act were originally excused on the argument that hate crimes "hurt more," but there remain some empirical gaps on this topic. Although many works have concluded that biased offenders cause greater harms to their victims relative to unbiased perpetrators, this effect tends to be sensitive to individual and situational factors like victim and offender characteristics, bias motivation, weapon use, or crime location. This type of confounding has the potential to introduce selection bias in the estimation of victimization harms among biased criminal incidents. With data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (2010-2020), I use propensity scores and inverse-probability weighting to show that, on average, victims of bias motivated offenses are more likely to report later physical and emotional harms despite not suffering greater initial injury in incidence. Findings also demonstrate that the harm of hate varies across different bias motivations, with such crimes directed toward those on the basis of disability, gender, and sexual orientation causing greater short- and long-term individual trauma and damage.

Validation of the multidimensional bystander responses to racist hate speech scale and its association with empathy and moral disengagement among adolescents.

Our understanding of how bystanders respond to hate speech is limited. This may be due, in part, to the lack of available measurement tools. However, understanding adolescents' responses to hate speech is critical because this kind of research can support schools in empowering students to exhibit courageous moral behavior. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Multidimensional Bystander Responses to Hate Speech Scale (MBRHS) and to explore demographic differences and correlates of bystander behavior in school hate speech. The sample consisted of 3225 seventh to ninth graders from Germany and Switzerland. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a model with seven factors. We found that adolescents with immigrant background and boys showed particularly unfavorable response patterns. In addition, our study suggests that empathy is positively correlated with the factors comforting the victim, seeking help at school, and countering hate speech but negatively correlated with helplessness, revenge, reinforcing, and ignoring. Moral disengagement showed the opposite correlational pattern. The findings indicate that the MBRHS is a psychometrically valid and reliable measure that could aid in measuring varied responses to hate speech. In addition, this work highlights the relevance of empathy and moral engagement training in anti-hate speech prevention programs.

Direct and indirect effects of social dominance orientation on hate speech perpetration via empathy and moral disengagement among adolescents: A multilevel mediation model.

Although it is known that social dominance orientation directly affects hate speech perpetration, few studies have explored the mechanisms by which this effect takes place during adolescence. Based on the socio-cognitive theory of moral agency, we aimed to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the direct and indirect effects of social dominance orientation on hate speech perpetration in offline and online settings. The sample included seventh, eigth, and ninth graders (N = 3225) (51.2% girls, 37.2% with an immigrant background) from 36 Swiss and German schools who completed a survey about hate speech, social dominance orientation, empathy, and moral disengagement. A multilevel mediation path model revealed that social dominance orientation had a direct effect on offline and online hate speech perpetration. Moreover, social dominance also had indirect effects via low levels of empathy and high levels of moral disengagement. No gender differences were observed. Our findings are discussed regarding the potential contribution to preventing hate speech during adolescence.

"I AM NOT A VIRUS": COVID-19, Anti-Asian Hate, and Comics as Counternarratives.

Ever since the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, East Asians across the globe have been ostracized, othered, pathologized, and subjected to numerous anti-Asian hate crimes. Despite contemporary China's rapid modernization, the country is still perceived as an Oriental and primitive site. Taking these cues, the current article aims to investigate the Sinophobic attitudes in the wake of COVID-19 through a detailed analysis of sequential comics and cartoons by artists of East Asian descent, such as Laura Gao and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. Drawing theoretical insights from Alexandre White's "epidemic orientalism" and Priscilla Wald's "medicalized nativism," this essay investigates how these chosen comics function as counternarratives through first-person storytelling. In so doing, these comics, while reinstating the dignity of East Asians, also challenge and resist the naturalized methods of seeing that justify violence and dehumanization. The article further argues that Sinophobia and anti-Asian hate crimes are motivated as much by the origins of COVID-19 in China as by the political, economic, and technological variables that have shaped modern China.

Desensitization to hate speech: Examination using heart rate measurement.

Exposure to hate speech (HS) leads to desensitization of listeners. Yet, most evidence of this process has been obtained using self-report measures. In this paper, we examined desensitization to HS using an unobtrusive, psychophysiological measure. In an experimental electrocardiogram study (N = 56), we observed heart rate (HR) deceleration after reading comments that contained HS. This suggested a substantive psychophysiological reaction of participants to hateful comments. However, such HR deceleration was not observed among participants preexposed to HS. People exposed to hateful comments thus appeared to show different HR responses to HS compared to people who were not previously exposed to such comments. Consequently, not only does frequent exposure to HS influence an individual's beliefs as observed in earlier studies, but it also impacts psychophysiological reactions to derogatory language.

Racial Hate at the Intersection of Online and Offline Worlds: The Joint Impact of Online and Offline Racism on the Mental Health of Racially Minoritized Individuals.

With the everyday influence of social media and online platforms, racially minoritized individuals face the risk of experiencing racial discrimination in both offline and online contexts. Yet, there is scant research on how online and offline racism could jointly impact the mental health of racially minoritized individuals. Thus, the study examined online racism as a moderator in the link between offline racism and mental health issues. Using data from 651 racially minoritized emerging adults (Mage = 22.15, SD = 3.39), a moderation analysis was conducted using the PROCESS macro with bias-corrected bootstrapping (10,000 resamples). Experiencing more offline racism was significantly associated with greater mental health issues. Online racism was a significant moderator in the link between offline racism and mental health issues. The link between offline racism and mental health issues was not significant at low levels of online racism. However, the link was significant and strengthened at mean to high levels of online racism. The results suggest complex interactions in understanding the compounding impact of online and offline racism on mental health costs among racially minoritized individuals. Implications for future research on understanding the interplay between online and offline racism are discussed.

Os Discursos de Ódio na Contemporaneidade: Da Face Subjetiva à Face Política / Hate Speeches in Contemporaneity: From the Subjective to the Political Aspects / Los Discursos de Odio en la Contemporaneidad: De la Vista Subjetiva a la Vista Política

O presente artigo propõe apresentar algumas contribuições da psicanálise para entender os aspectos subjetivos e políticos presentes no ódio. No atual contexto sociopolítico brasileiro este afeto tem figurado enquanto discurso predominante e espaços como as redes sociais digitais têm se tornado cada vez mais um campo fértil para a sua propagação e legitimação, sendo por vezes sustentado e fomentado pelo aparato institucional público. Esta pesquisa teve como ponto de partida a releitura e reflexão crítica dos textos freudianos, como os que trazem os conceitos de identificação e narcisismo, centrais para entender o que mobiliza e potencializa a incidência deste afeto bem como seus efeitos na contemporaneidade. Neste percurso foi constatado que o ódio comparece sempre na relação com o outro a partir da intolerância a alguma diferença que representa uma ameaça às ilusões narcísicas do sujeito. Embora seja considerado um afeto constitutivo do ser humano, é também um fenômeno cultural, social e político, podendo tornar-se potencialmente destrutivo para a humanidade quando o objetivo se torna segregar pessoas e grupos a fim de se eliminar as diferenças.

This article presents some contributions of psychoanalysis to understand the subjective and political aspects of hatred. In the current Brazilian sociopolitical context, hatred has figured as a predominant discourse, thus, spaces like digital social networks have become a fertile field for its propagation and legitimation, sometimes with the support and instigation of the public institutional apparatus. This study has as its starting point the critical reflection of Freudian texts that address concepts of identification and narcissism, central to understanding what mobilizes and enhances the incidence of this emotion, as well as its effects in contemporary times. In this analysis, it was found that hatred always appears in relationships based on intolerance to differences that might represent a threat to the subject's narcissistic illusions. Although it is considered a constitutive emotion of the human being, hatred is also a cultural, social and political phenomenon, and can become potentially destructive for humanity if used to segregate people and groups in order to eliminate differences.

Este artículo se propone presentar algunos aportes del psicoanálisis para comprender los aspectos subjetivos y políticos presentes en el odio. En el contexto sociopolítico brasileño actual, este afecto ha figurado como un discurso predominante y espacios, como las redes sociales digitales, se han convertido cada vez más en un campo fértil para su propagación y legitimación, siendo a veces apoyado y fomentado por el aparato institucional público. Esta investigación tuvo como punto de partida la relectura y reflexión crítica de textos freudianos, como aquellos que traen los conceptos de identificación y narcisismo, centrales para comprender lo que moviliza y potencia la incidencia de este afecto, así como sus efectos en la contemporaneidad. En ese camino, se constató que el odio siempre aparece en la relación con el otro a partir de la intolerancia a alguna diferencia que representa una amenaza para las ilusiones narcisistas del sujeto. Aunque se considera un afecto constitutivo del ser humano, también es un fenómeno cultural, social y político, y puede volverse potencialmente destructivo para la humanidad cuando el objetivo pasa a ser segregar personas y grupos para eliminar las diferencias.

Discurso do Analista e Democracia em Risco: Por Que o Psicanalista Não Pode Ser Bolsonarista? / The Analyst Discourse and Democracy at Risk: Why Can't the Psychoanalyst Be Bolsonarista? / El Discurso del Analista y la Democracia en Riesgo: ¿Por Qué el Psicoanalista No Puede Ser Bolsonarista?

O objetivo deste trabalho é responder por que um psicanalista não pode ser bolsonarista. Para isso, partimos da articulação entre a noção de pós-verdade e verdade sob uma perspectiva psicanalítica. Por meio de uma revisão teórica, discorremos sobre tais perspectivas tendo como cenário o contexto brasileiro das últimas eleições presidenciais e da gestão da pandemia de COVID-19. Articulamos pós-verdade e verdade a uma terceira noção, a autoverdade, a partir da discussão sobre a importância que assume o discurso do psicanalista quando este se posiciona diante dos outros discursos propostos por Lacan, sobretudo em um contexto de risco à democracia. Concluímos que a partir da dimensão clínica, eixo central de sua prática, o psicanalista não pode ser bolsonarista porque, ao ocupar o lugar de a, não estabelece com o outro uma relação de manutenção de um gozo destrutivo, gozo que não leva em conta a responsabilidade subjetiva cujas incidências mais prementes se dão sobre a vivência da alteridade.

The objective of this work is to answer why a psychoanalyst cannot be a bolsonarista. For this, we start from the articulation between the notion of post-truth and the truth in a psychoanalytical perspective. Through a predominantly psychoanalytical theoretical review, we discuss such perspectives against the brazilian's last presidential elections and the management of the COVID-19 pandemic background. We intend to articulate the discussion about the importance that the psychoanalyst's discourse assumes when it takes a position in relation to other discourses, proposed by Lacan, especially in a democracy risk's context. We conclude that from the clinical practice, the central axis of his job, the psychoanalyst cannot be a bolsonarista because, by occupying the place of a, he does not establish with the other a relationship of maintenance of a destructive jouissance, jouissance that does not take into account the subjective responsibility whose most pressing incidences are on the experience of alterity.

El objetivo de este trabajo es responder por qué un psicoanalista no puede ser bolsonarista. Para ello, partimos de la articulación entre la noción de posverdad y la verdad en una perspectiva psicoanalítica. A través de una revisión teórica predominantemente psicoanalítica, discutimos tales perspectivas en el contexto brasileño de las últimas elecciones presidenciales y la gestión de la pandemia de COVID-19. Nosotros partimos de la discusión sobre la importancia que asume el discurso del psicoanalista cuando toma posición en relación a otros discursos, propuestos por Lacan, especialmente en un contexto de riesgo para la democracia. Concluimos que desde la dimensión clínica, eje central de su práctica, el psicoanalista no puede ser bolsonarista porque, al ocupar el lugar de a, no establece con el otro una relación de mantenimiento de un goce destructivo, goce que no tomar en cuenta la responsabilidad subjetiva cuyas incidencias más apremiantes son sobre la experiencia de la alteridad.

Do Narcisismo das Pequenas Diferenças ao Gozo Narcísico / From the Narcissism of Small Differences to Narcissistic Jouissance / Del Narcisismo de las Pequeñas Diferencias al Goce Narcisista

A proposta desse ensaio é retomar a incursão de Freud, a partir da Primeira Guerra Mundial, na fonte do sofrimento que vem das relações entre os humanos, indicando a novidade que significou o conceito de narcisismo das pequenas diferenças na apreensão dos movimentos coletivos que declaram uma inócua expressão de hostilidade ao outro, ou os que promulgam ações destrutivas e mortíferas contra o outro eleito como seu inimigo absoluto. Com o advento da pulsão de morte, Freud redimensiona o conceito de narcisismo das pequenas diferenças e introduz a ideia de que a satisfação das pulsões que atingem a mais cega fúria de destruição, está conectada a um gozo [Genuß] narcísico. Esse gozo, na leitura de Lacan, é um mal porque comporta um mal à alteridade. É com esse legado que nos propomos pensar a extensão da psicanálise ao discurso decolonial e outros discursos contra hegemônicos, através do diálogo interdisciplinar, na leitura das linguagens de ódio que enfrentamos em nossa época.

The purpose of this essay is to resume Freud's incursion, from the First World War, on the source of the suffering that comes from the relationships between humans, indicating the novelty that meant the concept of narcissism of small differences in the apprehension of collective movements that declare an innocuous expression of hostility to the other, or those who enact destructive and deadly actions against the other chosen as their absolute enemy. With the advent of the death drive, Freud re-dimensions the concept of narcissism of small differences and introduces the idea that the satisfaction of drives that reach the blindest fury of destruction is connected to a narcissistic jouissance [Genuß]. This jouissance, in Lacan's reading, is an evil because it entails an evil to alterity. It is with this legacy that we propose to think about the extension of psychoanalysis to the decolonial discourse and other counter-hegemonic discourses, through interdisciplinary dialogue, in the reading of the languages of hate that we face in our time.

El propósito de este ensayo es retomar la incursión de Freud, desde la Primera Guerra Mundial, sobre el origen del sufrimiento que proviene de las relaciones entre los humanos, señalando la novedad que significó el concepto de narcisismo de las pequeñas diferencias en la aprehensión de los movimientos colectivos que declaran una expresión inocua de hostilidad hacia el otro, o los que ejecutan acciones destructivas y mortíferas contra el otro elegido como su enemigo absoluto. Con el advenimiento de la pulsión de muerte, Freud redimensiona el concepto de narcisismo de las pequeñas diferencias e introduce la idea de que la satisfacción de las pulsiones que alcanzan la más ciega furia de destrucción está ligada a un goce narcisista [Genuß]. Este goce, en la lectura de Lacan, es un mal porque implica un mal a la alteridad.Es con este legado que nos proponemos pensar la extensión del psicoanálisis al discurso decolonial y otros discursos contrahegemónicos, a través del diálogo interdisciplinario, en la lectura de los lenguajes de odio que enfrentamos en nuestro tiempo.

Local deprivation predicts right-wing hate crime in England.

We argue that community deprivation can increase the risk of right-wing radicalization and violent attacks and that measures of local deprivation can help improve forecasting local hate crime rates. A large body of research stresses how experiences of deprivation can erode the perceived legitimacy of political leaders and institutions, increase alienation, and encourage right-wing radicalization and hate crime. Existing analyses have found limited support for a close relationship between deprivation and radicalization among individuals. We provide an alternative approach using highly disaggregated data for England and show that information on local deprivation can improve predictions of the location of right-wing hate crime attacks. Beyond the ability to predict where right-wing hate crime is likely, our results suggest that efforts to decrease deprivation can have important consequences for political violence, and that targeting structural facilitators to prevent far-right violence ex ante can be an alternative or complement to ex post measures.

"No one can hate you more than I do": The perverse interplay of life and death drives in Roman Polanski's film Bitter Moon.

In this paper, the authors explore the depiction of perversion and the associated interplay of life and death drives in Roman Polanski's 1992 film Bitter Moon. To begin with, a theoretical discussion is presented regarding perverse organizations of mastery and sadomasochism. Perversion is viewed as an expression of the death drive under erotic disguise, in which the destructive fingerprint of the death drive is revealed at every stage, having as its ultimate purpose the destruction of the other. Based on these theoretical insights a dialogue is developed with Polanski's film, which brings to life the theory of sadomasochistic relations through the multidimensional aesthetic medium of cinema. It is shown how Polanski's cinematic oeuvre conveys the essence of the difficult and complex experience of perverse relations, where the life and death drives and their transformations are manifested. The portrayal of the sadomasochistic relations in this film contributes to the experiential knowledge with which the authors promote insight that would potentially enrich the clinical work with patients with perverse organizations.