Talk:Pain play

It seems to be a bit opinion based to me. As though the article is trying to sell the idea to the reader rather than being NPOV. --OGoncho 10:50, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. I think it would benefit a lot from citing sources for various claims, and sticking to a descriptive, rather than persuasive, style. &mdash; Matt Crypto 11:45, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree. The last sentence: "Many people seem to lack the ability to eroticise pain or have yet to learn how to tap into that ability, though many benefit from the effect of endorphins after vigorous exercise." in particular is not NPOV. Tranzid 22:45, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Having had quite a bit of experience in this realm, I would like to point out that the author is obviously an expert in the subject, and is speaking in very clinical terms. The he topic at hand, being a human emotional response, is subjective by nature, and the author does a very good job of objectifying it. The general community is mosly unaware of the intricate balances at work in a sadomasochistic situation, and the idea of what happens in such pain plays are completely foreign to most people. In addition, one must also note the topic at hand is 'pain play'; 'play' enphasizes that it is an activity done for fun and enjoyment, also a subjective topic by nature, requiring one who enjoys it to speak about it.

For example, can you imagine a soccer player describing an American football game? The mechanical aspects would be described, possibly even in detail, but the whole point of the game, strategically and emotionally, would be lost. Pain and play seem oxymorons for the general public, however to the BDSM community, pain play (both sadistic and masochistic play) is seen as a routine activity done for increased intimacy between partners, sexual gratification, as well as spiritual and emotional growth and connection, all pleasurable experiences. Describing that part of it really gets to the heart of what it's about, and inspires the deeper understanding that people looking up the topic are really looking for.

Lastly, the final sentence is simply fact. Most people cannot or do not eroticise pain, or know how to transmute it into a pleasurable experience. It's a learned response, and not everyone wants to learn it. Those who do are known as 'masochists'. It is also fact that some people come by it naturally, and have a latent ability to do so, and are known as 'natural masochists'.

Sadism and masochism?
Am I missing some distinction between this and the Sadism and masochism article? If not, I'd suggest a merge - especially as that article seems to be better written, with less POV and more references. Mdwh 02:22, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

No one seems to have objected, so I'm redirecting it. I don't think there's anything in this article worth keeping that's not already in Sadism and masochism, but feel free to move material across. This article is lacking sources and seems to have POV issues, but there seems little point spending time working on it if there's no clear distinction between this article and Sadism and masochism; we might as well focus our efforts on the latter article. Mdwh 21:27, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Addiction and self harm
A very important point that should be mentioned is the addictive conditioning regarding those who get into pain play and Self Injure. I have been a SI sufferer and when receiving therapy with a psychologist, a major factor I discovered is the highly addictive nature of "pain play". I think this addiction relates to the subsequent endorphin levels. I found through my SI that the more pain that is induced, the higher the pain threshold. When the pain is controlled this is what happens. It becomes pleasurable - and addictive. (For those who have never self harmed, that would be difficult to understand) This is a fact that I had to understand to reduce my SI behaviour. Furthermore my SI behaviour was as a result of childhood pain (corporal punishment or smacking) and sexual abuse. I think the author could mention "pain play" relating to self-injurers to help SI sufferers and raise further awareness on this issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Svetlanov (talk • contribs)


 * You are probably looking for the article self harm - this article focuses on pain play in the sense of sadism and masochism. And in fact, both those articles mention the possibility of the behaviour being addictive (though we have no source for it). To be honest this article should probably be merged into sadism and masochism - as I say above, I'm not sure how it differs, and this seems a rather poor article. Mdwh 10:45, 21 July 2006 (UTC)