Does anyone here question BDSM?

[WyldWyl]

Actually, this is seeming like a reasonable place to mention a theory i've been mulling over for the last little while. I even hopped on my university's database of psychological journals and did a little research on the ideas, to see if some studies had been done. And I found a grand total of...one. And not a very good one at that. It simply suggested that the aetiology of masochism in males might stem from associations in childhood. Basically a neo-freudian approach. (Hebb, 2001)

But my own personal theory (who knows...might even get to write a paper on it one day) is that there is (at least in the case of masochism, which I realise isnt the same thing as submission, but it's germain to the topic as a whole) a certain neurochemical difference in people who take satisfaction in pain and those who don't. Note here that I don't wish to characterise it as a disorder or as being abnormal...just a slight different. Whilst stimulation of pain receptors in all people causes the release of endorphins as a natural analgesic, I think this response is heightened in masochists, or that the feedback loop to regulate the response may be in some way impared. So if we can extend this idea to the other aspects of BDSM, we may all be in someone neurologically different to our vanilla brothers and sisters, if I might use that term.

But does that mean that BDSM as a whole is unhealthy? Well, I suppose that depends on what's caused the change to our respective neurochemistries, and to the extent that chemistry is linked to health. (Not even to open the can of worms about how you measure 'health' objectively) I would guess that it depends to a huge degree on the person in question, their motives, life-experience, partners, etc.

<edit> On the other hand, the ICD-10 and the DSM-IV(R) (international guides to categorising mental disorders and psychopathology) stopped categorising things like masochism as psychosexual disorders about the same time they dropped homosexuality as one, so legally and medically, you couldn't be sectioned/institutionalised for engaging in BDSM unless they could convincingly argue that it stemmed from some other problem that made you an immediate danger to yourself or others.</edit>

So. Is BDSM by it's nature unhealthy? My answer is a resounding...maybe. Let me gather more experience and maybe i'll come up with something more enlightening.