Disavowal Statement: We reject Dieter Duhm’s 1972 “Sadism & Masochism” chapter
We — the Tamera community — reject the chapter “Sadism and Masochism” from Dieter Duhm’s 1972 book Angst im Kapitalismus [Fear in Capitalism], which resurfaced in a recent press article about Tamera. This chapter was written years before the founding of our community and doesn’t represent what our community stands for. The passage contains offensive and very problematic statements about women’s psychology and sexualized violence. Dieter Duhm himself is disturbed by what he wrote back then and apologizes for his words.
By the Tamera community, June 15 2025
At the time, Dieter Duhm attempted to explore the origins of fear and violence from a psychoanalytic lens. However, by pathologizing women, lacking care for victims and failing to acknowledge the perpetrators’ responsibility, we find this chapter to be very harmful. It trivializes and can be understood to justify rape as it generalizes scientifically unfounded claims and doesn’t distinguish between phantasized and real violence.
We recognize the impacts of these words – especially in how they contribute to a long history of silencing, invalidating, and retraumatizing survivors of sexual violence.
To all people who have been impacted by these words, to survivors of sexual violence and our friends, we say: We’re deeply sorry for not denouncing this chapter much earlier.
We state clearly:
- Rape is cruel violence. No victim has ever benefitted from rape.
- Responsibility for rape lies with the rapist, not the victim. No matter what fantasies the victim might have had, what they wore and when or where they were.
- Consent is non-negotiable. Any attempt to blur the line between consent and coercion is a dangerous distortion of human dignity and autonomy.
- Survivors deserve belief, respect, and care. We reject psychological or spiritual theories that frame their trauma as rooted in repressed unconscious desire.
- We reject any justification for rape.
We also acknowledge that Dieter Duhm’s later work engages with sexuality in much more nuanced and responsible ways. However, this intellectual development doesn’t excuse mistakes in earlier writings—and we accept responsibility for addressing them.
One of our guiding intentions as a community has been to understand the roots of violence and create ways of living that break cycles of trauma and harm, victim and perpetrator. And as well as the belief that healing sexual violence requires new social structures based on deep trust in which people can recognize and transform the traumatic patterns that keep perpetuating violence.
Confronting this chapter has prompted us to reflect more honestly on our own practices. We recognize that we’ve promoted sexual freedom without sufficient trauma awareness or education about consent and boundaries. This has caused harm.
We are listening, reflecting, and discerning our next steps. What we do know is this: we are committed to accountability, learning, and repair — and to becoming a community that protects and upholds the dignity of all.