The Guardian has a new article on a subject dear to both masochists and sadists hearts – pain. Its basic premise is that the perception of pain is highly contextual and complex. Someone might have a serious injury but power through the situation. The same person on another day might stub their toe and spend 10 minutes hopping up and down and swearing about it. Pain is perceived in the brain and so our mental state is a big factor in how intense we think it is.
It’s an interesting article but I don’t think its conclusions will be surprising to kinky folk who play with pain. I know my tolerance varies significantly, depending on things like stress, arousal, uncertainty and past history with my play partner.
One thing I hadn’t thought about was the how the perception of risk can affect tolerance…
“If we think ‘this is terrible, this is awful, it’s going to do me serious damage’ – those types of people will have lower tolerance.” This includes people who tend to be anxious or who catastrophise pain.
The perception of the damage being done can have a substantial role. A violinist is more likely to report higher levels of pain when a pain stimulus is applied to their dominant playing hand than when their other hand is subjected to the same stimulus, Moseley says – because an injury to their dominant hand could end their career.
That makes sense to me and is a useful thing to keep in mind when planning sessions. If you want to play harder then being able to relax and not worry about the end result is important. If you’re stressing about marks or injuries it’ll hurt all the more.
I hope this gentleman is feeling relaxed and worry free, otherwise that’ll really sting. I’m not entirely sure of the source here, but it looks like something from the Cruel Punishments site.