1. The Science of SM
Brad Sagarin, James Ambler, Ellen Lee, & Kathryn Klement
Northern Illinois University

2. 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)

3. [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)

4. [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)

5. Filled with unconscious rage and the desire for revenge
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)

6. Hamilton’s 1929 survey of 200 married men and women:
51%
28%
Men
32%
29%
Women
“Pleasant thrills” from inflicting pain
“Pleasant thrills” from receiving pain

7. Clinical
Criminal
Consensual

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

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

11. Relationship dynamics
Partner selection, power dynamics, and sexual bargaining in self-defined BDSM couples (Cutler, 2003)
Great diversity in relationships
Compatibility ≠ identical kinks
Sexual gift-giving

12. Testosterone
Sagarin et al. (2009) 12

13. Cortisol
Sagarin et al. (2009) 13

14. Relationship closeness14

15. Relationship closeness
Sagarin et al. (2009) 15

16. Before, During and Aftercare

17. Psychological Functioning of BDSM Practitioners (Connolly, 2006)
132 respondents
56 women, 73 men, 3 transgendered individuals
Ages 25-74
Recruited in Southern California via through BDSM clubs and organizations

18. Psychological Functioning of BDSM Practitioners (Connolly, 2006)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2, 567 items)
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III, 175 items)
Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI, 100 items)
Postraumatic Stress Disorder Scale (PDS, 49 items)
Multiscale Dissociation Inventory (MDI, 30 items)
Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II, 21 items)
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI, 21 items)

19. Psychoanalytic theorizing
Depression
Anxiety
Obsessive-compulsion
PTSD
Dissociation
Psychological sadism
Psychological masochism
Narcissism
Borderline pathology
Paranoia

20. BDSM practitioners vs. normative samples
BDSM practitioners lower than normative samples
BDSM practitioners not statistically different
BDSM practitioners higher than normative samples
Depression
Obsessive-compulsion
Dissociation
Anxiety
Narcissism
PTSD
Psychological sadism
Psychological masochism
Borderline pathology
Paranoia
Out of body experiences
Missing one’s freeway exit because one’s mind is elsewhere
Ego self-involvement
Connolly (2006)

21. Altered states of consciousness
Physiological short term changes in the brain caused by SM related activities

22. Flow
The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.
Csikszentimihályi (1991)

24. Conditions under which flow happens
Engagement in activity chosen for its own sake
Perceived challenges are high while skill level is also high
Clear goals that are regarded important
Immediate feedback indicating success at task
Highly focused attention

25. Characteristics of flow state
Intense concentration on task
Deep sense of involvement and merging of action and awareness
Sense of control over one’s actions
Enjoyment in activity
Distorted sense of time

26. Consciousness as a Process

27. The self is sometimes burdensome
Escape from the Self
The self is sometimes burdensome
"The greater the demands in my outside life, the likelier I am to feel submissive sexually."
Baumeister (1988)
Wiseman (1996)

28. Transient Hypofrontality Hypothesis
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL):  
Important for directed attention, temporal integration, and working memory
Working memory deficits cause:
Less abstract thinking
Less access to memory
Less self-reflective consciousness
Less cognitive flexibility
These lead to subjective changes
in consciousness
Dietrich (2003)

29. Transient Hypofrontality Hypothesis
Common experiences of altered states of consciousness:
time distortions
disinhibition from social constraints 
changes in focused attention
Transient Hypofrontality States
-Runner’s High 
-Meditation 
-Dreaming 
-Day dreaming 
-Hypnosis 
-Various Drug Highs
Specific variations:
reduction of pain
feelings of floating
feelings of peacefulness
little consistent logic
difficulty with memory
feeling of living in the here and now
little active decision making
Dietrich (2003)

30. Subspace
“With my girl, she was punishing me, and I felt a deep sense of pain and pleasure, sort of a one with nature and my environment, it was incredible.” “It’s very dreamlike. I knew that I felt good, and I was aware of my partner, but I was not paying attention to anything else.” “I felt intense pleasure and pain, I almost felt like I was flying and for a moment I thought I would pass out. I felt like I was separating from my own body.” “An almost trance like state. Pain didn’t exist in any form.” “While bottoming with my partner, I was able to let go to the point of losing touch with reality while my partner spanked me.” “While being dominated I stepped back inside myself. After getting the rush from playing I lost track of what was going on, nothing seemed to affect me while I was down inside myself.”

32. The Stroop Test

33. Read the word

34. Green

35. Red

36. Blue

37. Yellow

38. Name the color

39. XXXXX

40. XXXXX

41. XXXXX

42. XXXXX

43. Read the word

44. Yellow

45. Green

46. Blue

47. Red

48. Name the color

49. Green

50. Red

51. Yellow

52. Blue

53. Correlation does not imply causation!

54. An experiment to test the causal effects of topping and bottoming
Recruited switches willing to be randomly assigned to the top or bottom role
Friday, March 29th, 2013 at the Arizona Power Exchange (APEX)
With generous support from:

55. Participants 14 participants, 10 women, 4 men
Mean age= 40.86, SD=12.46, Range: 23-64
Sexual Orientation
1 gay/lesbian
10 bisexual/pansexual
3 heterosexual
Race
All participants were Caucasian

56. Participants BDSM experience (years) BDSM experience (# scenes)
M=6.86, SD= 5.07, Range: 1-17
BDSM experience (# scenes)
M=386.65, SD= , Range:
Experience with study partner (# scenes)
M= 39.64, SD= 79.73, Range: 0-250

57. Procedure Informed consent Pre-scene Stroop Practice Stroop
Baseline Stroop
Baseline saliva sample
Baseline survey
Pre-scene Stroop
Pre-scene saliva sample
Pre-scene survey
Scene
Post-scene Stroop
Post-scene saliva samples (x3)
Post-scene survey

58. How well did the scene go?
Very Well
Very Poorly

59. Open-ended thoughts
“It went better than I expected since it was random I did not know how well it would go.”
“It was fun and since I had never played with (#6) before it was nice the variety and different style.”
“Incredibly sensual and sexually charged, less about pain than sensuality and sensation.”
“He got my masochist to come out then fed her pain. I liked it.”

60. Very strongly affected
Impact of observation
Very strongly affected
Not at all affected

61. Self-other overlap

62. How intense was tonight’s scene?

63. What activities were most intense?
“the connection between us.”
“heavy flogging at end.”
“Being bitten on the tender sides of my stomach and ribs.”
“Biting the spot where her heart chakra is.”
“no one thing. It all added up to a very intense/gratifying scene.”

64. Sexual, Spiritual, SM

65. What activities were sexual?
“Watching my partner as I brought her to orgasm!”
“the sounds she made, the element of control”
“Being bitten on the nape of the neck and having full body contact. There was also full chakra contact that was sexual in the energy exchanged.”
“using toys on my partner's breasts and genitals.”

66. What activities were spiritual?
“The connection between us.”
“the music drums/beat”
“laughter”

67. What activities were sadomasochistic?
“Some intense cane strokes”
“It was an impact/sensation scene. The bristle brush on the nipples and clit and caning.”
“paddles and floggers used hard”
“Being bitten and scratched.”
“Spanking”

68. Stress

69. Sexual arousal

70. Positive affect (excited, determined, attentive, …)

71. Negative affect (distressed, irritable, nervous, …)

72. Altered states (Stroop)

73. Altered states (flow) 36 items (1-5 plus “not applicable” option)
“I was challenged, but I believed my skills would allow me to meet the challenge”
“I did things correctly without thinking about trying to do so”
“Time seemed to alter (either slowed down or speeded up)”
“I really enjoyed the experience of what I was doing”

74. Altered states (flow)
Exercise: 3.88
Yoga: 3.85
Sports: 3.68

75. Conclusions Incredible community support for research
Participants volunteered for more intrusion!
SM activities
Increase intimacy
Decrease stress and negative affect
Increase then decrease sexual arousal and positive affect
Facilitate flow

76. Topping and bottoming caused
Different perceptions of scenes
Tops: Sexual > Spiritual > SM
Bottoms: SM > Sexual > Spiritual
Different perceptions of scene intensity
Tops saw scenes as more intense than did bottoms
Altered states
Objective evidence of altered states of consciousness in bottoms

77. Future directions

78. For more information:

79. Thank you http://www.niu.edu/user/tj0bjs1/bdsm.html
Brad Sagarin