A submissive is a person who can override her self preservation instinct and allow control of her body and mind by another person. Through the choices she makes she in fact holds the ultimate control of the intensity or depth of the relationship. She may be punished or tormented beyond her limits, but as long as those limits exist (broken or intact) she is still submitting. A slave has no such choices and is unable or unwilling to make them. A slave is thus, a non-person.