Introduction
Over the years and years of human existence, it was generally assumed that pain and pleasure were opposites, two separate poles which would never come together. But through all those years many people have discovered that, rather than being totally opposing forces, pain and pleasure are very closely linked.
Take, for example, the thrill and excitement of the crowds in the Coliseum of ancient
Rome as they watched gladiators battle to the death, or saw lions devour helpless Christians. Or take the Marquis de Sade of Eighteenth Century France, the man who took the idea of mixing pleasure with pain and turned it into an art. This is where sadism-the derivation of sexual satisfaction gained through inflicting pain upon another-received its name. The corollary of sadism, masochism, is used to describe someone who gets their sexual satisfaction from receiving painful treatment. That is, someone who enjoys getting hurt.
Even in today's civilization, millions of Americans not only watch, but participate in a ritual which involves a great deal of sadism and masochism-the game of football, the main purpose of which is to inflict damage on the opponent.
Of course, by no means is such enjoyment in any was sick, or symptomatic of any illness. Quite the contrary. In some way, each and every one of us has a little bit of both the sadist and the masochist in him. These are basic, primitive urges that must find some form of release.
Football, of course, is only one form of release which can serve as an outlet for these pain and pleasure tendencies. Many people, however, prefer sports of the indoor variety (i.e.; those that take place in the bedroom).
It is not at all unusual, nor is it in any way perverted, for a perfectly happy, normal married couple to resort to such games as spanking, bondage and discipline to add some spice to their normal sexual routine. Indeed, I know of many instances in which a failing marriage has been saved by the introduction of such practices.
However, there is one area in which the mixture of pleasure and pain can have certain undesirable repercussions. I am referring to the teenage girl.
I have been studying the psyche of young, growing women for some time, and I feel that I speak with some authority when I say in the greatest number of instances most teenage girls are emotionally unequipped to handle the introduction of pain into their initial sexual experiences.
Most people tend to think of puberty, which in a girl ranges anywhere from when she is ten to when she is eighteen, as a time merely of physical developement. Indeed, it is a time when a young girls breasts do begin to grow and her body begins to take on the curves of womanhood. She begins to. menstruate sometime in this period, and she gains the ability to feel sexual excitement in her clitoris and in her vagina.
But these are only physical changes, and a young girl in puberty undergoes far more than mere bodily metamorphosis. For the physical changes that occur also result in a state of mental and emotional instability. The pubescent teen finds that she is no longer a little girl, and must learn to cope with the emergence of the woman that she will one day be.
The larger breasts, the curved hips, the new genital sensations that a young girl finds herself becoming endowed with force her to change into what is, for all intents and purposes, a completely new and different personality. Suddenly she finds that she is attracted to members of the opposite sex, for reasons which she at first is not at all sure of. Her mind struggles to understand and to adapt to the new world of adulthood. She is in a state of flux. It is a time when most of her ideas and habits concerning the world will be ultimately forged. Thus, by definition, it is a period when the young girl is highly impressionable and open to suggestion.
This is why I say that introducing a young girl to painful sexual experience is something that can have results far exceeding those desired or expected. For although there is nothing in itself wrong with bondage and discipline, it is something that should only be handled by an adult, rational mind.
In the course of the last year, I have done a study of young girls who, in the years of their sexual development, were introduced by older men and women to the world of pain. In most cases the introduction takes place innocently enough. But in others, I find the motives of the person or persons doing the introducing to be, to say the least, insidious, having an effect on the young girls that could possibly damage their sexual functioning in future years.
Here are a few examples of what some of my teenage patients had to say.
Suzy S., age fifteen: "We were, you know, what everyone calls 'parked.' We were making out in the back seat of his car, and he was feeling me up and pushing his finger into my pussy. But then he wanted to ball me, and I told him not to. That got him real mad. He said that I was being a bad girl, and that he was going to punish me!"
Janet Q., age sixteen: "I got home late from a date one night. I'd been out fucking my boyfriend, over at his apartment, and I was real tired, so I told him to leave me along. 'No daughter of mine is going to speak like that to me!' he yelled. Then he pulled off his belt and started to whip me with it."
Leslie J., age fourteen: "He got home on leave from the army. I was so glad to see him at first, but then I realized that somehow he'd changed. Oh, Doctor, you should have seen the look in his eyes when he tied me up! 'This is how we do it in Nam!' he told me."
Debbie D., age fourteen: "I mean, they actually hid a tape-recorder under my bed! And when they heard the tapes, and found out that I'd been going around with Tim, they got real angry. He held me down while she spanked me. Then they tied me in their bed, and she started to eat my pussy while he made me suck his cock!"
Bridget O., age thirteen: "Whenever you get called into Mr. Woods's office-he's the principal, you know-it never means something good. And I was even more scared because I knew what he wanted to see me about. Then he took out the paddle and made me pull down my jeans and kneel on the floor with my bare ass in the air!"
Angela C, age twelve: "He told me that I was the brattiest kid he'd ever met. 'Well, since your parents are gone all weekend, I think it's up to me to punish you for being so naughty!" he said. Then he carried me up to my room. I tried to fight him but it was no use."