Is it possible for someone to actually like pain? I’ve always thought of pain as the antithesis of anything desirable. It is that which drives one to avoid or extinguish its source. Yet you hear of cases of sadist-masochist relationships in which, so it is said, the masochist is one who enjoys being in the submissive position. I can’t fathom this. I can fathom the masochist feeling helpless to do anything about his/her miserable lot and therefore giving off the impression he/she is content in that position. I can fathom him/her accepting the position for some kind of payoff elsewhere or in some other way. I just can’t fathom them liking a position of pain and suffering.
It means the deriving of sexual pleasure from physical pain. It goes on to say
According to this, the pain is actually experienced as pleasure since the physiological reaction is to release endorphins. This suggests that the pain only looks like pain from the outside - that is, physically assaulting, cutting, or otherwise damaging the body in some way - but what it actually feels like is pleasurable. If this interpretation is correct, then it’s not a genuine case of “liking pain”.
Although, if we want to talk about physiology, we should note that there are multiple centers in the brain for pain and pleasure, and it’s not impossible that some pleasure centers might be activated at the same time as some pain centers. How would we describe that experience? Would the pain and pleasure cancel out leaving a “net hedonism”? Would it really result in feeling “pleasurable pain” or “painful pleasure”? Or would the pain and pleasure be felt as coming from different sources, and therefore couldn’t be said to “mix” together - for example, I could feel pain in my left hand but pleasure in my right hand. Rather than say that I feel a sensations that’s a mix of pain and pleasure, I’d probably just say that I feel pain in one location and pleasure in another, and that I don’t like the painful sensation (just as I always don’t like pain) but I like the pleasurable sensation (just as I always like pleasure).
And all that is physical/sexual pain/pleasure. What about the emotional or idealistic pain and pleasure? Could one like emotional pain?
If these people have suffered in their life, maybe childhood, it would seem they actually like pain and suffering. But through their traumatic lives, suffering is what they expect and feel that they deserve. With these expectations and thoughts of the person, it’s like a catch22, like atracts like, and it’s a perpetual circle.
Pain can feel good if the person Really believes they deserve it. - This goes for the person himself or as we commonly know, hurting another person
Yes - one can potentially like anything. If in doubt consult the internet…
I am assuming that people usually engage in voluntarily behaviour ,that they do not feel in any way coerced into performing, because there is something that they ‘like’ about doing so (whether it be the performance or consequences). =D>
Leaving aside that ‘like’ implies a certain amount of pleasure, and the sometimes thin pleasure/pain borderline, I do think it is possible to like a Certain Amount of pain.
Sometimes this is pathological or detrimental but not always.
Pain and suffering can be very relative… The experience of some physical pain can be reduced my reframing it - and other psychological techniques. The addition of further ‘pain’ may also provide some relief. For some one experiencing a great deal of physical pain - causing pain in a different place may appear to relieve the first pain. This can be as ‘inconsequential’ as hair pulling or pinching. It is not uncommon for people to use inflicting physical pain on themselves as a way of distraction from or ‘releasing’ - even if only temporarily - emotional pain. In less beneficial cases this may equate to self-harm.
However, it is possible to achieve a similar consequence (emotional pain release) in a more advantageous fashion.
Take stretching ones muscles, strenuous physical activity or therapeutic massage as examples. These can potentially be ‘painful’ but someone could ‘like’ it - with out it necessarily being a particularly ‘pleasurable’ experience.
One can like certain kinds of pain. Few people like pain that is indicitive of a problem…IE a sharp stomach pain or cramping pain in the muscles. However, pain that is limited to the skin can be pleasureable…I myself enjoy recieving indian burns, which are painful.
Not necessarily. Sadists can me motivated by the desire to cause harm to others, yes, and might find being asked to be a turn off. However, the less hard core sadists are motivated only by causing pain…not by whether or not the other person will like it.
…but masochists like the pleasure that pain brings - it doesn’t change into pleasure, but makes them feel alive by feeling pain: which then gives them pleasure… I have gathered this from people I meet who are into such things
Pleasure is pleasure and pain is pain. But pain can be comfortable. The term comfortable is not pleasure in this reference. It is referring the emotional state of being in content or at ease. If a person has experienced an enormous amount of pain throughout their lives with very little to no pleasure, pain can become the comfortable state that a person chooses. Pain would have become the familiar and acceptable emotional state of the individual. This could drive the person to seek pain over pleasure. Because pain is the emotion that they are most familiar and comfortable with and know how to handle.
- This goes for the person himself or as we commonly know, hurting another person 
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