Quote Originally Posted by Asia
From a boring but more legal and scientific viewpoint -

Try the DSM-IV [the clinicans manual] - you'd be glad to know that BDSM is not considered as a psychological 'deviancy' by courts of law. *A fetish is only considered worthy of 'treatment' is that is the only way to achive sexual gratification*

My favourite example: a man who could only get aroused by the sight of paper clips but nothing else

I found this recent paper in a quite highly rated peer reviewed RAE journal by Prof. Bruce Gross - an accomplished, respected and reknowned researcher - to be of great interest: www.acfei.com/pdf/cases/PleasureOfPain.pdf

The reference list should help you located further papers of interest, if your into the more scientific understandings of BDSM.
~kiss~
Asia
xxx
Thank you for that article Asia. It is odd that there is a dearth of information on how the courts have treated BDSM related issues with the help of the scientific community. This is one of those rare papers that address the situation through the fetish of paperclips.

However, I didn't see how it related to the practical advantages of using a BDSM checklist of preferences and likes or the dislikes of your partner.

The checklist contains a listing of things involved in BDSM play, like watersports, humiliation play, age play, anal, oral, etc and the responder indicates their level of interest in that particular play by choosing the appropriate icon. This type of checklist is especially useful for cyber play, doms in training and newbie subs.

This post is directly linked to this topic:

http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3512

I didn't make that clear in the previous post.