For the first Monday Kink of 2021 we are looking at pain and catharsis. 

We read about endorphins, the brain’s natural opiate, from On the Safe Edge by Trevor Jaques and talk about different ways of understanding the pain threshold. We celebrate how endorphins can soothe emotional pain as well and physical.

The potential for pain as a therapeutic tool is unpacked by way of the idea of therapeutic kink and manufactured opportunities for catharsis. We define this term from Ian Buchanan’s Dictionary of Critical theory to understand it’s roots in the dramas of Ancient Greece. 

We end by looking at how pain as meditation gives us access to the healing potential embedded in our flesh. The consensual ownership of the masochistic space is seen as a tool of empowerment and release. 

Patrick Califa is quoted from The Whole Lesbian sex book to drive home the therapeutic potential from a top’s perspective. 

Also read https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/when-bdsm-is-therapeutic/412249/

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