Hurts So Good
An exploration of why people all over the world love to engage in pain on purpose--from dominatrices, religious ascetics, and ultramarathoners to ballerinas, icy ocean bathers, and sideshow performers Masochism is sexy, human, reviled, worshipped, and can be delightfully bizarre. Deliberate and consensual pain has been with us for millennia, encompassing everyone from Black Plague flagellants to ballerinas dancing on broken bones to competitive eaters choking down hot peppers while they cry. Masochism is a part of us. It lives inside workaholics, tattoo enthusiasts, and all manner of garden variety pain-seekers. At its core, masochism is about feeling bad, then better—a phenomenon that is long overdue for a heartfelt and hilarious investigation. And Leigh Cowart would know: they are not just a researcher and science writer—they’re an inveterate, high-sensation seeking masochist. And they have a few questions: Why do people engage in masochism? What are the benefits and the costs? And what does masochism have to say about the human experience? By participating in many of these activities themselves, and through conversations with psychologists, fellow scientists, and people who seek pain for pleasure, Cowart unveils how our minds and bodies find meaning and relief in pain—a quirk in our programming that drives discipline and innovation even as it threatens to swallow us whole.
- Hard Cover
- 256 pages
The other day after suffering a migraine and napping it off, I woke up without pain and honestly, I felt euphoric, just as I normally do after any bouts of physical suffering finally end.
That night I picked up this book and read these words: “Today, when I use the word *masochist*, I am describing something universal, timeless, human: the deliberate act of choosing to feel bad to then feel better.“
She further explains that this is to feel the engineered biochemical relief that follows painful stimuli and that it’s not weird nor rare.
While my migraine was far from consensual, the euphoria that came after the pain, along with those words, really resonated with me.
And I think a lot of Masochists probably already know and experience this, but having it framed in this digestible and almost scientific way (the book does continue on to get into the deeper science of it all) has given me a new appreciation for pain.
And I will be asking to have my ass beat the fuck up more often
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