The Victorian era saw the pathologization of sexual masochism, based principally on intuitive clinical opinions, moral judgments, and dramatic reports of cases in forensic psychiatry (Freud, 1920 Krafft-Ebing, 1895). During the Enlightment and for some time after, medical doctors in Western Europe prescribed flagellation as a cure for erectile dysfunction (Apertus, 1928 Debay, 1862 Doppet, 1788 Meibomius, 1761 see also Boileau, 1700 for the use of flagellation to enhance sexual arousal in women). 1400) recommend such painful stimulation as biting, scratching, spanking, and hair pulling to enhance sexual arousal. 1150), and Arabic The Perfumed Garden (Al-Nafzawi, 1886, original ca. In contrast, classic books such as the ancient Indian Hindu Kama Sutra (Vatsyayana, 1883, original circa 400), medieval Indian Koka Shastra (Kokkoka, 1965, original ca. This absence of consensual use of sexual power (and sexual fetishism) in preliterate societies has prompted anthropologists and sociologists to hypothesize that such practices can only emerge in well-developed, complex, symbol-based cultures (Gebhard, 1969 Weinberg, 1994). Sexual power plays (i.e., acts of domination, submission, humiliation) apparently did not exist in modern preliterate societies (Gebhard, 1969 Stoller, 1991) or before the early modern period (1500–1800 Bullough, 1976). While using pain as a source of sexual pleasure (masochism) has been practiced for a long time, consenting, playful sexual submission (not to be confounded with forced submission) seems to be a relatively recent behavior in history (Baumeister, 1989). It is first worth noting that sexual masochism and sexual submission have very different histories. These themes will provide answers to two main research questions: 1) What are the personal origins of inclinations to practice m/s? and 2) What are the reasons or motives to practice m/s? Although most of these references are hampered with important methodological flaws, they will serve as a theoretical background for the qualitative construction of themes in this study. The following sections contain a review of the best literature available so far concerning the origins and reasons to engage in sexual masochism or sexual submission (m/s) activities. How can a person seek and enjoy being flogged, whipped, sexually dominated, and/or bound? The main goal of this study was to determine the origins of and reasons for engaging in sexual masochism or submissive behaviors. However, the reasons why certain people enjoy feeling physical pain in an erotic context (sexual masochism) or take erotic pleasure in being restrained, controlled, humiliated, and/or disciplined (sexual submission) are not clear. 66)Īs stressed by a growing number of reviews, rates of mental illness are not higher in BDSM practitioners compared with the general population (e.g., Brown et al., 2019 De Neef et al., 2019). Why is it that love inflicts, and seeks to inflict, pain? Why is it that love suffers pain, and even seeks to suffer it? In answering that question, it seems to me, we have to take an apparently circuitous route, sometimes going beyond the ostensible limits of sex altogether but if we can succeed in answering it we shall have come very near one of the great mysteries of love. The relation of love to pain is one of the most difficult problems, and yet one of the most fundamental, in the whole range of sexual psychology. Possible reasons for choosing m/s over more common means of mind alteration are discussed. These results concord with accounts found in non-academic books and small-scale studies suggesting that m/s interests are often present early in life and usually practiced to reach an altered state of mind associated with sexual arousal.
Reasons to engage in m/s were related to one of three main types of activities: use of interpersonal power experiencing physical pain and altering one’s state of mind. The origins described were seen as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Sixteen themes emerged from this analysis, eight related to the origins of interest in m/s and eight to the reasons for engaging in m/s. A qualitative content analysis was performed on narratives from 227 m/s practitioners. A thorough review of the literature was conducted, as well as a search in Internet forums and an online survey to obtain testimonies that provide information on the origins of interest in m/s and the reasons for engaging in it. However, the reasons for engaging in such behaviors are not well understood, especially for sexual masochism or submission (m/s). A growing number of studies have demonstrated that BDSM (Bondage/Discipline-Domination/Submission-Sadism/Masochism) practices are not signs of mental illness.