Nature, Man and Woman by Alan W. Watts

Author:Alan W. Watts [Watts, Alan W.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307822987
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-07-11T04:00:00+00:00

It is easy enough to see the sensational or physiological identity of these feelings in some of the milder forms of physical pleasure and pain, and even in some of the strong forms of moral pleasure and pain. But it is exceedingly difficult to see it when these sensations become more acute. Nevertheless, there are special circumstances of heightened feeling, such as religious devotion and sexual passion, in which far more poignant types of pleasure and pain lose their distinction. Ordinarily, such ascetic disciplines as self-flagellation, wearing hair shirts, and kneeling on chains are adopted to do violence to the desire for pleasure. Yet it is possible that asceticism is a way of genuine spiritual insight because it leads eventually, however unintentionally, to the realization that in the ardor of devotion pleasure and pain are a single ecstasy. Consider, for example, Bernini’s celebrated effigy of St. Theresa of Ávila in rapture, pierced by the dart of the divine love. The face is equally expressive of ravishment or torture, and the smile of the angel wielding the dart is accordingly compassionate or cruel.

Perverse and abnormal as they are usually regarded, we should also consider the phenomena of sadism and masochism—better designated by the single term algolagnia, or “lustful pain.” Merely to dismiss these phenomena as perverse and unnatural is to say no more than that they do not fit into a preconceived notion of order. The very fact that they are human possibilities shows that they are extensions of ordinary feelings, revealing depths of our nature which are usually left unexplored. Distasteful as they may be, this should not prevent us from trying to discover whether they throw any light on the problem of suffering.

The sadist is really a vicarious masochist, for in inflicting pain he identifies himself emotionally with his victim, and gives a sexual interpretation to his victim’s reactions to pain. For masochism or algolagnia is the association of the orgiastic convulsions of pain with sexual ecstasy, and involves far more than that the two types of reaction look somewhat alike to an external observer. The masochist finds in pain of certain types a positive stimulant to sexual orgasm, and as the intensity of his feeling increases he is able to delight in harsher and harsher degrees of pain. The standard Freudian explanation is that the masochist so associates sexual pleasure with guilt that he cannot permit himself this pleasure unless he is also being punished. This seems to me to be doubtful and, like so much Freudian reasoning, unnecessarily complex, stretching facts to fit theories at all costs. For masochism is found in cultures where sexuality and sin are not allied to anything like the degree to which they are wedded in the Christian West.3 It would be simpler and more reasonable to say that the masochist intensifies or stimulates sexual reactions by inducing similar reactions arising from pain. To this it should be added that the masochist’s desire to be subjugated or humiliated is allied to the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.