The author relates the many adolescent martyrs and murderers in the work of the writer Mishima to his own life, leading to reflections on masochism and sadism as after-effects of early traumatic experiences. As long as Mishima managed to successfully sublimate through the accomplishment of a literary work, his masochism could be used as a « guardian of life » in an attempt to overcome trauma – afterwards (« après-coup ») – and unfold a hidden message. However, the writer seems to have been subsequently overwhelmed by the destructive potential of detached death impulses and carried away to his death by a mortified masochism without repairing his primordial narcissistic injuries and without curing the primary object deprivation.