1 / 28

The Science of SM

The Science of SM. Evelyn Comber, Brad Sagarin, Sarah Hanson, Valerie Burns, Tracy Tittelbach, & David Wietting. Getting into the room. Language. SM includes D/s, BDSM, bondage, discipline, leather, kink Top = Master, Dominant, Daddy, Sir, Sadist Bottom = slave, submissive, boi, masochist

jess
Download Presentation

The Science of SM

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Science of SM Evelyn Comber, Brad Sagarin, Sarah Hanson, Valerie Burns, Tracy Tittelbach, & David Wietting

  2. Getting into the room

  3. Language • SM includes D/s, BDSM, bondage, discipline, leather, kink • Top = Master, Dominant, Daddy, Sir, Sadist • Bottom = slave, submissive, boi, masochist • SSC = RACK (Risk Aware Consensual Kink), RISSCK (Risk Informed Safe Sane Consensual Kink)

  4. Sadism would … correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual instinct which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement. Freud (1938)

  5. [Masochism is] nothing but a continuation of sadism directed at one’s own person in which the latter at first takes the place of the sexual object. Freud (1938)

  6. [Masochism is] a peculiar perversion of the psychical sexual life in which the individual … is controlled by the idea of being completely and unconditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex; of being treated by this person as by a master, humiliated and abused. Krafft-Ebing (1965)

  7. Abused as children • Irrational guilt • Filled with unconscious rage and the desire for revenge • Fragile sense of identity • Indistinct personal boundaries between themselves and others Ross (1997)

  8. Hamilton’s 1929 survey of 200 married men and women: 51% 28% Men 32% 29% Women “Pleasant thrills” frominflicting pain “Pleasant thrills” fromreceiving pain

  9. Clinical Criminal Consensual

  10. Demographics • Higher education and income • Higher divorce rate • No higher incidence of childhood abuse • Socially well adjusted

  11. Demographics Con’t... • Many realize SM tendencies at an early age: • Gay men before straight men (all before 16 yrs) • Men before women

  12. Dom…Switch…Submissive

  13. An Interesting Find… • Prediction: • Dominant men would have lower self-esteem than submissive men • Dominant men would have higher rates of sexism than submissive men • Findings: • Dominant men displayed higher self-esteem than submissive men • Dominant men had lower rates of sexism than submissive men Damon (2002)

  14. Taxonomies • Study of 184 members of 2 SM clubs: • 51% from heterosexually-oriented Kinky Club • 49% from gay male-oriented MSC-Finland • 22 women, 162 men Alison et al. (2001)

  15. Taxonomies Alison et al. (2001)

  16. Before, During and Aftercare

  17. Stark et al. (2005)

  18. Testosterone Sagarin et al. (2009)

  19. Cortisol Sagarin et al. (2009)

  20. Relationship closeness Sagarin et al. (2009)

  21. Dr. Bert Cutler (2003) • Partner selection, power dynamics, and sexual bargaining in self-defined BDSM couples. • Compatibility ≠ identical kinks • Sexual gift-giving • Great diversity in relationships • Orientation • Exclusivity • Bedroom vs. 24/7 Cutler (2003)

  22. Recommendations: MWA Your partner treated you as a sex object… response choices: Never Rarely Sometimes Often How much did this hurt/upset you? versus How much did this hurt you? How much did this upset you? Comber (2007)

  23. Items that ask about abuse: • False positive items • “I feel like I am programmed to react a certain way to my partner” • “Your partner whipped you” • Accurate items • “Your partner kidnapped your children.” • “Your partner shot you with a gun” • Ambiguous items • “I insisted that my partner have oral or anal sex, but did not use physical force.” Comber (2007)

  24. Therapists should be … • Asking clients to identify their safeguards, negotiation practices, and how they differentiate between abuse and consensual activities. • Every participant (56/56) mentioned consent when asked the question “What is the difference between BDSM and abuse?” Comber (2007)

  25. Doms are at risk too… While it is important to be diligent in regard to abuse probes when the individual is submissive, it is equally important to ensure that dominant individuals have safeguards in place to protect them from unwarranted abuse accusations as they are more at risk for false allegations. Comber (2007)

  26. Clinical Criminal Consensual

More Related