Science on BDSM

[RickBulow74]

Yep, my intellectual brain is at it again, ....I wanted to see what science has to say on BDSM and have decided to share some of the data I came across here....not that there is that much (easily) available, lol....I am interested to hear what do you think about the data presented.

Of all the paraphilias the least researched are sexual sadism and sexual masochism. Known collectively as "sadomasochism" to professionals, those who practice this alternative sexual lifestyle tend use the term bondage-domination-sadism-masochism, or BDSM.

Recently, BDSM has entered the plotline in episodes of several popular primetime television series, made-for-TV movies, and motion pictures. This increased focus on BDSM by the entertainment industry may have been sparked by the national news coverage surrounding the trial of the BTK serial killer in 2005, primed by the prior arrest and conviction of John Edward Robinson, the first known cyber serial murderer who attracted his victims through a shared interest in BDSM (Gross, 2005). The increased focus on BDSM may be the natural byproduct of increased prevalence in the general population, increased openness within the BDSM community, and/or increased societal curiosity regarding more extreme alternative sexual practices. The near absence of empirical research on BDSM makes it impossible to know the exact factor(s) underlying the thematic trend.

A key difficulty in researching BDSM is the lack of formalized, uniform definition of terms, agreed-upon by scholars and practitioners of this alternative form of sexual expression.

In the late 1890s, sexologists considered human sexual masochism a natural evolution of that evidenced in lower mammals. Over 40 mammalian species have been identified that bite while mating; among humans, approximately 25% of both men and women report having been sexually aroused by a partner's bite. Masochism became defined as sexual algophilia, or the "fondness or love of pain" during sex.

There is evidence of BDSM occurring across time and cultures, with perhaps the most widely known example being the Kama Sutra. As suggested by the Kama Sutra and as raised by Ellis in 1927, "pain" may not be an appropriate term or applied concept in the context of sadomasochism, in which (regardless of the underlying reason) pain is experienced as pleasure resulting in sexual gratification. This paradox led to a paradigmatic shift away from a singular focus on pain, as pain itself is not perceived as erotic for every practitioner of BDSM and may be included in only one of many BDSM rituals practiced by those who do. As BDSM includes the desire or need for submission, domination, and humiliation for sexual gratification (often without requiring pain), the definition of BDSM shifted to a focus on the construct of an erotic power exchange. (source)


Results from a research project by Dr. Pamela Connolly among a group with bondage and sadomasochistic interests (BDSM) showed that “no evidence was found to support the notion that major disorders -- including depression, anxiety, mania/bipolarity, and obsessive-compulsivity -- are more prevalent among members of the BDSM community than among members of the general population”.

“Indeed, if anything, our findings suggested that members of the BDSM community are less likely than others to present with major disorders.”

Moreover, BDSM players had no greater levels of psychological sadism or masochism, disorders in which the sufferer either derives pleasure out of genuine cruelty (not the play-acting kind) or compulsively seeks out harmful levels of pain.


A survey using computer-assisted telephone interviews with 20,000 Australian men and women presented at the World Association of Sexual Health congress in Sydney (2007), showed that BDSM may actually make men happier.

Men into BDSM scored significantly better on a scale of psychological wellbeing than other men. (I really want to hear what Doms here have to say about this theory. And I wonder, does this apply to male subs too?)

BDSM’ers were no more likely to have suffered sexual difficulties, sexual abuse or coercion or anxiety than other Australians.

"This seems to imply that these men are actually happier as a result of their behaviour, though we're not sure why," says Dr. Juliet Richters of the University of New South Wales. “It might just be that they're more in harmony with themselves because they're into something unusual and are comfortable with that. There's a lot to be said for accepting who you are.”

Researchers said the study helps break down the reigning stereotype that people into bondage and discipline were damaged as children, abused and were therefore “dysfunctional”. (This brings about question...where does the perception that BDSM practitioners (especially subs) were abused comes from then?....and I tend to think it has less to do with archaic psychiatric stand and more to do with the personal impression people get....I used to subscribe to that theory, but having surfed the net and the Library, I now wonder if its only PC feel good crap...because as someone who has never been abused, I do feel like the odd one out because the impression one gets is that almost all submissives have been abused.)



Statistics

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, a national organization committed to supporting the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms of alternative sexual expression, conducted an informal survey of SM practitioners in 1998-1999.

GENDER (Now this surprised me, because I always thought that there were more women into bdsm than men.)
Men 51%
Women 46%
Transgender 1%
Intersexual 2%

ORIENTATION
Heterosexual 40%
Homosexual 22%
Bisexual 36%
No Response 4%

AGE
18-22 3%
23-29 15%
30-44 49%
45-64 31%
Over 65 2%

EMPLOYMENT
Student 8%
Part time 5%
Full time 62%
Self employed 22%
Unemployed 1%
Retired 2%

INCOME (please remember this is 10 years old research)
Under $ 10K 7%
$10-24K 17%
$25-49K 37%
Over $50K 39%


5-10% of the U.S. engages in SM for sexual pleasure on at least an occasional basis (Lowe, 1983).

12% of females and 22% of males reported erotic response to a SM story (Kinsey, Martin, Gebhard, 1953).

55% of females and 50% of males reported having responded erotically to being bitten (Kinsey, Martin, Gebhard, 1953).

14% of men and 11% of women have had some sexual experience with sadomasochism (Janus & Janus, 1993).

11% of men and 17% of women reported trying bondage (Lowe, 1983).

I find this intriguing and informative. Would you object is I were to post this elsewhere and see what others say on this?

[damyanti]

I find this intriguing and informative. Would you object is I were to post this elsewhere and see what others say on this?

Not at all, ...but if they say something interesting, let me know,.

[damyanti]

Special thanks to blythespirit for making me think in this direction, but...frustratingly I couldn't find anything regarding the "giver"/sadist.


These are extracts from the ScienceForums.net thread titled BDSM and biochemistry


On this thread we have argued about the steps who can produce this pleasant sensation when the pain and humiliation are produced in certain situations from certain people to certain other people. For example the action of the endorphins could be stronger in masochist people (perhaps they have excess of certain receptors for these neurotransmitters); dopamine could act more in pleasure areas than in pain areas in submissive people…


Sex hormones like estrogen, and genes appear to play a big part in how individuals' bodies, and emotions, react to pain.

In fact, their newest preliminary data suggest that variations in women's estrogen levels -- like those that occur throughout the monthly menstrual cycle, or during pregnancy -- regulate the brain's natural ability to suppress pain.

When estrogen levels are high, the brain's natural painkiller system responds more potently when a painful experience occurs, releasing chemicals called endorphins or enkephalins that dampen the pain signals received by the brain. But when estrogen is low, the same system doesn't typically control pain nearly as effectively.

Pain has both physical and emotional components. If prolonged, it also becomes a stressor that influences our emotional states, and the interplay of gender, hormones, genetics and brain neurochemistry appears to induce our individual response to it.

When pain or other sources of stress become significant and threatening, groups of cells in the brain release chemicals called endogenous opioid chemicals, commonly known as endorphins or enkephalins. The endorphins bind to receptors on nearby brain cells and regulate how the brain interprets and regulates the pain-related signals those cells are sending to one another. The effect is called antinociception, because the neurotransmitters typically suppress the pain response, as opposed to nociception, which is the actual perception of pain.

Mu-opioid receptors are found throughout the brain, but are concentrated in areas that scientists know to be involved in our physical and emotional responses to stressors, including pain. Natural endorphins aren't the only thing that can bind to them; so can painkiller medications such as morphine, some anesthetics, and illegal drugs such as heroin. No matter what's binding to the receptors, the effect is a quelling of pain and our response to it.



I think that this tendency to BDSM it’s produced by the interneuron connexions that are formed during the very first years of life. And I am specially interested in the interaction of the feelings with the perception of the pain and humiliation. Because submissive and masochist people like being humiliated or produced pain by people that are attracted to, but we hate the same that other people having a toothache or being humiliated at work.


One area about which I am curious is the potential difference between enjoying physical pain versus enjoying psychological pain. Do those who like cutting themseleves also get some strange satisfaction out of grief or feelings of loss?


Well, in many respects, yes it is (hard-wired into your brain). Everything is. All experience alters our neurophysiology, including what activates our pleasure centers and what we crave. While it's all built on the substrate or foundation with which we were born, and is limited to our biology, the structure itself is generally a result of experience. It's not "hard" wired, per se, since new connections are continually formed and old connections continually trimmed, but it's definitely "wired" in a plastic sense.

Also, it's more than just the brain. It's the entire nervous system and many subsystems each playing their little part, like a single instrument helping contribute to the overall performance of a beautiful symphony.


Although our neural connexions are constantly changing because that is the way how learning and memory processes work, this are only little changes if we compare them with the high number of connexions in the brain. So, most of the connexions are already formed at three years old. When a baby has just born, any stimulus will produce big changes in synaptic connexions, but when we are adults we need very powerful stimuli to produce any notorious change.


There are people more submissive that get their pleasure mainly because the dominant get pleasure. The submissive is happy being humiliated by a dominant person who likes humiliating the first one, but that doesn’t mind that the submissive person like to be humiliated for anyone. When the dominant part produces physic pain on the submissive part, the submissive part gets pleasure because this pain made him/her feel subdued to the dominant one.

The masochist person obtains directly his/her pleasure through the pain. But I don’t know about any masochist person that gets pleasure when he hurts himself by accident and I don’t think that there are pure masochists or submissive persons. I think that each submissive person has more or less or masochist and vice verse.
When the painful stimulus is produced, first, the substance P prompts the physical sensation of pain, but the production of endorphins calm this physical sensation and even can produce a pleasant sensation. I suppose that a masochist produces great amounts of endorphins against the painful stimulus and so, pleasure can get not realizing of pain. The amount of pain for the threshold not being gone beyond would be different in each person.

But only in certain situations this pain is pleasurable: Feelings have to be implicated in order pleasure overcomes pain. The production of endorphin prompts the release of dopamine. Although dopamine is a “pleasure hormone”, main artist in the reward pathways, some works seem to indicate that it could be the cause of the psychological displeasing feeling of the pain.
D1 receptors seem to produce the displeasuring effect, while D2 would produce pleasure. So, my idea is that submissive people are prone to drive this dopamine to an area where there will be most of D2 receptors instead the area where the pain routes arrive with most of D1 in them. And this detour would be prompted by the nervous stimulation produced by the feelings. Perhaps submissive people have “pleasure areas” with D2 very near “displeasure areas” with D1, and that lead to “confusion”.


Extract from a paper about the capsaicin, the causing for the chilli peppers being spicy, which activate a pain pathway, causing in that way pleasure.

“So what is this addiction that chili eaters have with eating spicy food. If capsaicin initially induces powerful discharges of substance P in the pain pathway (and later reduces our sensitivity to pain), so much that many people hate to eat spicy food, then how is it that so many of us cannot eat without it in our foods? This is due to the fine line between pain and pleasure. When there is an increased concentration of B-endorphins (an opioid agonist), this stimulates the dopaminergic system to release more dopamine, which activates the reward circuit. This reward circuit is also known as the limbic system area, which runs in the brain from the ventral tegmentum, to the nucleus acumbens”