ABSTRACT
Participation in extreme rituals (e.g., fire-walking, body-piercing) has been documented throughout history. Motivations for such physically intense activities include religious devotion, sensation-seeking and social bonding. The present study aims to explore an extreme ritual within the context of bondage/discipline, dominance/submission and sadism/masochism (BDSM): the 'Dance of Souls', a 160-person ritual involving temporary piercings with weights or hooks attached and dancing to music provided by drummers. Through hormonal assays, behavioural observations and questionnaires administered before, during and after the Dance, we examine the physiological and psychological effects of the Dance, and the themes of spirituality, connectedness, transformation, release and community reported by dancers. From before to during the Dance, participants showed increases in physiological stress (measured by the hormone cortisol), self-reported sexual arousal, self-other overlap and decreases in psychological stress and negative affect. Results suggest that this group of BDSM practitioners engage in the Dance for a variety of reasons, including experiencing spirituality, deepening interpersonal connections, reducing stress and achieving altered states of consciousness.
Subject(s)
Ceremonial Behavior , Dancing/psychology , Masochism/psychology , Sadism/psychology , Female , Humans , Hydrocortisone/analysis , Male , Middle Aged , Motivation , Sexual Behavior/psychology , Spirituality , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
After a historical survey in which the history of the term "psychosomatic" and its invention during the 19th century are retold, as is also the history of modern psychosomatics, the author offers a more personal view, the result of her experience as a classical psychoanalyst and as a practitioner for 27 years at the Paris Institute of Psychosomatics. She develops her current understanding of the theories of the Paris School of Psychosomatics, and selects and elaborates a certain number of concepts essential for clinical work with patients suffering from somatic illnesses. Detailed case studies of two very different patients who are both ill with cancer offer an attempt to show the relevance and application of this specific approach, but which still remains based on psychoanalysis and the most rigorous Freudian metapsychology.
Subject(s)
Psychoanalysis , Psychophysiologic Disorders/psychology , Psychosomatic Medicine , Female , France , Freudian Theory , History, 20th Century , Humans , Masochism/psychology , Models, Psychological , Psychoanalysis/history , Psychoanalytic Therapy , Terminology as TopicABSTRACT
This article deploys sadomasochism as a framework for understanding medical practice on an institutional level. By examining the case of the factitious illness Munchausen syndrome, this article analyzes the operations of power in the doctor-patient relationship through the trope of role-playing. Because Munchausen syndrome causes a disruption to the dyadic relationship between physicians and patients, a lens of sadomasochism highlights dynamics of power in medical practice that are often obscured in everyday practice. Specifically, this article illustrates how classification and diagnosis are concrete manifestations of the mobilization of medical power.