Sadism founders because enslaving another’s freedom is inherently self-contradictory.

Evidence

What the sadist seeks to appropriate is in actuality the transcendent freedom of the victim. But this freedom remains on principle out of reach. And the more the sadist persists in treating the other as an instrument, the more this freedom escapes him. He can act upon the freedom only by making it an objective property of the Other-as-object; that is, on freedom in the midst of the world with its dead-possibilities. But since the sadist’s goal is to recover his being-for-others, he misses it on principle, for the only Other with whom he has to do is the Other in the world who has only “images in his head” of the sadist assaulting him. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 999 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: What the sadist really seeks to appropriate is the Other’s freedom, not the flesh.; Sadism seeks to capture an unconditioned freedom within a determined technical mechanism — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 996; Sadism is an illusory attempt to capture freedom through flesh (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Sadism fails because the victim’s transcendent freedom fundamentally escapes capture #expands (0.90) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 999