sadism

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Read Next

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Britannica's Book Bingo. Take our reading challenge! Books range form greatest, banned, and counterculture.

Britannica’s Book Bingo

Discover

Adolf Hitler (Nazi, nazism, German leader).

9 Things You Might Not Know About Adolf Hitler

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Demystified - Do Lemmings Really Commit Mass Suicide? illustration

Do Lemmings Really Commit Mass Suicide?

Panoramic view at sunrise of moai, Ahu Tongariki, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile

6 Lost Civilizations

The Lost Colony of Roanoke, North Carolina, where 115 people mysteriously disappeared c. 1590. John White discovers the word Croatoan carved onto a tree upon his return to the deserted Roanoke Colony in 1590

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

World Data Locator Map: Australia

Is Australia an Island?

Panoramic view of moai, Ahu Tongariki, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile

8 of the World’s Most-Remote Islands

sadism: Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Topics

masochism paraphilic disorder dark tetrad sadomasochism narcissism pedophilia antisocial personality disorder Machiavellianism exhibitionism voyeurism zoophilia

Key People

Marquis de Sade

Marquis de Sade

French author

Koch, Ilse

Ilse Koch

German war criminal

Peter Kürten

German serial killer

Bruno Lüdke

German serial killer

Quiz

44 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Health and Medicine Quizzes