Which is more effective? Which do you prefer? Can you have one without the other?

My answers:

These questions are tricky as many of the bdsm community (in my experience and only my experience so don't get offended-I don't mean you) don't like to use the term psychological domination. It sounds too creepy for a lot of people, I guess. We like terms like behavior modification instead of brainwashing and conditioning, but honestly there isn't much difference-if any-between them. Part of the reason we aren't accepted in the vanilla community is that the tactics even the best of us use are dangerously close to abuse and that scares the hell out of people. It's the whole gun in a cops hand vs. a gun in a crooks hand thing, only with crops instead of guns. Anyway I'm diverging here. The point is that psychological domination gets a bigger rap than physical and I think that's because it's more dangerous, more willful, and more effective. It also can stand alone as a domination technique. Physical domination is easer for the public at large to handle. Lots of pretty vanilla folks play with handcuffs and give their partner a good swat on the ass now and then. But you can spank your partner till the cows come home and that isn't domination unless you add some kind of psychological element to it.

So to sum up I think psychological domination is more effective. If I had to choose between the two I would choose psychological, but I prefer to use both at once (cause it's hot! ) I think that you can have psychological domination without physical, but I don't think you can reverse that.

Your thoughts?

P.S. If there are any long time members itching to tell me to try the search feature, please don't. I realize these topics have probably been debated before but since I read a post today that says 50-60 new members are signing up every day, I think we should be allowed to have new discussions without being told, "Sorry, we already hashed that out here, now go read it and be quiet." Even if you all don't mean it that way, and I'm sure most of you don't, it comes off that way sometimes and makes it harder for noobs like me to come out and say hi.