It is my no.1 hard limit.

The moment he does that we really have nothing more to discuss. To me it says he is immature, inarticulate, overgrown brat that doesn't care about me or the relationship and is only in it for the "sports".

When one party needs time off or cooling off period, and its agreed to beforehand with set rules and time tables, that is fine, we all need that occasionally.

But I dont buy fanciful tripe that silent treatment in BDSM as punishment is something different than it is in vanilla world i.e. sulking bordering on emotional abuse or playing sadistic mind fucks. I know you can make it sound logical in print, the problem is that in practice it never translates itself as such. It is immature, it is callous and cruel, and just because it is effective in short term doesnt mean its "punishment", it is abandonment. It scars the submissive, it irrevocably damages the trust and by that relationship.

Now, as with everything else, some people get off on that....so to each their own.