How does sadism and masochism work in this game? Are they mutually exclusive?
In earlier builds you got special titles or passives for having one of the two a lot higher than the other (all those have been reworked so I can't give you exact details on them yet), but raising both at the same time works fine if you're not trying for one of those. Sadism means you get pleasure from hurting people and like stepping on them and kicking them in the dick, masochism means you get pleasure from being hurt and like giving rimjobs (unless you disabled that).
The sadist progression also means it's impossible to keep slut level at zero long term even in a perfect combat build, because she starts to get off on beating up prisoners.
Sadism also unlocks some new combat skills like kicking prisoners in the dick for massive damage; with combos, the Confidant buff, and willpower, I'm easily seeing damage values in the tens of thousands which makes it a really handy way for a combat sadist to remove a troublesome opponent. I dunno if masochism has similar skills to unlock; I'll probably explore that on my next playthrough.