Do you experience pleasure with bread? Do you find satisfaction in being beaten or do you delight in suffering at the hands of others? If you answered “yes” to the questions above, you may be a masochist.

“Sexual masochism refers to recurrent and intensely arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the (real, not simulated) act of being beaten, tied up, or otherwise made to suffer. Blindfolding, whipping, and humiliation in the form of defecation , urination or forced imitation of animals are other methods used by these patients. Masochists inflict pain on themselves through electric shocks, punctures or asphyxiation and about 30 percent also engage in sadistic behavior, “revealed the editors of PsychologyToday.

Masochism is named after the Austrian writer and journalist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who was born in 1838. The term “masochism” was coined in 1886 by Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing after reading the works of Sacher-Masoch.

Leopold was a bright boy who later became a teacher and a well-known man of letters. He gained notoriety with the publication of “Venus in Furs”, a novel that revealed Sacher-Masoch’s fantasies and fetishes that he attempted to live out with his mistresses and wives. In that novel, Sacher-Masoch vividly described the pleasure he derived from suffering at the hands of beautiful women.

From this novel we get a true picture of masochism, a sexual deviation in which gratification is derived from being flogged and tortured.

There are many theories that explain the proliferation of masochism in our world today. In Leopold’s case, three incidents apparently played a role in his strange behavior.

First, he was fascinated with the sufferings of saints and martyrs as a child. Leopold was also haunted by a dream that he was the slave of a cruel woman.

While hiding in a closet, young Leopold saw his aunt having sex with a stranger. The woman was caught by her husband and beaten. Later, Leopold’s hiding place was discovered and he too was beaten up by his aunt. This incident apparently led Leopold to associate pleasure with pain.

“Sexually masochistic behaviors are usually evident in early adulthood and often begin with masochistic or sadistic play in childhood. The disorder is characterized by intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviors in which the individual is humiliated, beaten , bound, or made to suffer in some way,” Psychology Today explained.

“The fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning,” he added.

In some cases, masochism is an expression of disappointment and failure. Some people want to experience pain in order to forget their frustrations in life. Others do it when they feel sorry for themselves.

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