I've never had the opportunity to engage in BDSM type activities, but such activities make up almost all my fantasies.

I don't know if I count as being "into BDSM" by the standards of people who actually practice the lifestyle, but anyway, the fantasies and desires are there.

I am puzzled by this. I can't for the life of me figure out why it should be that I have these kinds of desires. And I've had them ever since I can remember--since before I understood what sex is!*

I'm starting this thread to open up discussion of theories of the psychology and psychological origin of this kind of thing. Is it just that "there are different kind of people in the world?" Or are there particular kinds of events or childhoods or whatever that are particularly likely to produce a, shall we say, "BDSM friendly" sort of person? Are there particular personality types drawn to BDSM activities?

My own personal motivation is just to work through my perplexity over this (what I encounter as an) odd fact about myself. I simply can't account for the kinds of thoughts that go through my head in connection with sex. I figure a discussion like this might help, or might help me get over any need to work through the perplexity.

But my personal motivation for this post shouldn't control the thread. I'm not here just to "talk about me" so much as to hear what people think about the topics I'm bringing up.

Mumei

*That may seem strange, but I should clarify, my fantasies dating before my discovery of the nature of sex did not involve explicitly sexual acts. But they involved bondage and pain--both the giving and recieving thereof--as well as slavery and a sort of "fetishizing" (if that's the right word) of the notion of a challenge to one's endurance. And despite the lack of actual "sex acts" in these pre-sex fantasies, they were clearly sources of a sexual kind of pleasure for me.