Foreword
The connection between sex and spanking has long been understood by sexual sophisticates, and one of the by-products of the Sexual Revolution has been a growing interest in erotic spanking. To understand why this should be so, we must examine the underlying psychological factors involved in sadism and masochism. The tendency to cause pain to the sexual object was designated in its two forms by German neurologist Baron Richard von Krafft-Ebing as sadism for the active form, and masochism for the passive form. Other authors prefer the narrower term, algolagnia, which emphasizes the pleasure in pain and cruelty.
In 'Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex', Sigmund Freud describes the universality of algolagnia:
The roots of active algolagnia, sadism, can be readily demonstrated in the normal individual. The sexuality of most men shows an admixture of aggression, of a desire to subdue, the biological significance of which ties in the necessity for overcoming the resistance of the sexual object by actions other than mere courting. Sadism would then correspond to the aggressive component of the sexual instinct, which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement. The concept of sadism fluctuates in everyday speech from a mere active or imperious attitude toward the sexual object to an absolute attachment of the gratification to the subjection and maltreatment of the object.
Put in everyday words, Freud is saying that aggressive behavior is a natural component of sexual courtship. The desire to subdue, to conquer, to possess are normal features of sexual attraction, and it is only through the vagaries of the human mind that certain forms of aggression become exaggerated and have distinct erotic connotations. One might then ask why spanking is one of the most popular forms of sexual aggression involving distinctly sadomasochistic overtones?
The answer seems to be that spanking has an appeal to the unconscious regions of the mind, because the act of spanking is itself a symbolic form of sexual intercourse. The instrument of punishment is in effect a phallic symbol which, like the penis in ordinary intercourse, plays the aggressive role. The punishment is generally inflicted on the buttocks, which is the area closest to the genitals. Moreover, the most popular spanking position, the over-the-knee position, places the genitals of both parties in the closest possible contact short of intercourse. In addition, the redness achieved by the victim's buttocks during the punishment resembles the color of the sexual organs, while the victim's squirming and twisting movements are highly suggestive of coitus.
Thus, we see that spanking is in itself a form of substitute intercourse. Moreover, the various stages of a spanking-the undressing, the initial spanks, the reddening buttocks, the progressively faster squirms, and the victim's breathless howls that become more and more intense-are in effect reenactments of the various stages of sexual intercourse. Thus, it is not difficult to see why spanking is usually preferred to other forms of sexual aggression.
In THE HEADMASTER, English author William St. Cyr artfully illustrates the erotic connotations of spanking. All of the rituals and ceremonies, the uniforms and procedures, traditionally associated with spanking are shown in their true erotic context. The protagonist, Frank Hopkins, is the Headmaster of an English girls' school in the late-nineteen-thirties, where it is his duty and pleasure to discipline recalcitrant teenage girls.
The arrival of the Second World War brings an abrupt end to Frank's world of sensual debauchery ... but only temporarily. Sent to America on a secret mission to find a Nazi spy, a former pupil of his, he finds that his talents as an erotic disciplinarian can be put to patriotic purposes. His victims, attractive young American girls in their twenties, learn the erotic connotations of spanking from their talented English instructor. Sex drives of which they were only dimly aware are activated by Frank's punitive caresses, and a furious competition develops for his unique services.
The story, allegedly based upon an unreleased dossier in the files of the British Foreign Service, brilliantly illustrates the underlying erotic connotations of sex and discipline, and demonstrates that intense sexual drives can be unleashed when the proper stimulus is applied. We seriously recommend THE HEADMASTER to all readers, but particularly to those who harbor some doubt as to the Freudian adage that sex is pain and pain is sex.
-The Publishers