DEVIATIONS LINKING PLEASURE WITH PAIN: SADISM

Sadism has existed ever since the first humans walked the earth. But the term – sadism, sadist – has only been in use for a hundred years or so. It comes from the name of the Marquis de Sade, who wrote a number of books and committed many acts of violence in fulfilment of his very particular sexual impulses. He was imprisoned for this a number of times, and finally condemned to death.

The sadistic instinct does not necessarily have sexual overtones, but here we shall speak of it only as a sexual stimulant without which some people cannot get sexual satisfaction.

The sadist needs to inflict and witness pain in his sexual partner. He cannot conceive of pleasure that does not involve pain. We shall return later to the question of women treated as “sex objects”, as there are many mistaken ideas on the subject – but in the case of the sadist’s attitude to women the term is quite clearly applicable. The sadist uses a woman as the object of his perverted instincts. The tortures he inflicts on her excite him sexually until he is in a condition to possess her, vaginally or anally, without thinking of giving her pleasure after the suffering he has inflicted. He is concerned only with his own pleasure, and indeed he will often merely masturbate during or after the sadistic act.

Flagellation, inflicting cuts, burns or pin pricks, spiked collars, pinching, squeezing of the breasts, forcing objects into the vagina or anus – all these are common practice in sadism, and can even end in the death of the victim.

Sadism is unfortunately not only practised by isolated sex maniacs. Tortures of the most appalling kinds have been inflicted with pleasure throughout the history of mankind, from wars through “holy” inquisition to heavy police interrogation techniques.

Sadism is a typically male perversion, while masochism is – to a lesser extent – said to be a tendency of women. This very largely explains the milder sado-masochistic games many couples indulge in before or during the sex act. We deal with these “innocent games” in a later chapter.

There does not seem to be any direct connection between sadism and other types of sexual deviancy. Sadism is as common among heterosexuals as it is among gays or bisexuals.

In fact sadism is an integral part of human life in general. Everyone has their sadistic side. Most of the time it only comes out in the open under provocation: when someone insults you you may feel like hitting them; when a child is naughty you give it a slap.

These occasional sadistic outbursts are a leftover from the natural aggressiveness of non-civilized man. Civilization has not quite eliminated that aggressiveness. It is no more marked in the successful, ambitious and powerful (politicians, union leaders or top managers who have had to be aggressive to get there) than it is in the unambitious, for whom it may act as a release from the frustrations of powerlessness.

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