Our 14th prompt comes from DeathStroke. They ask:
Do you think there is pain in pleasure & vice versa?
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DeathStroke,
You may have chosen the worst person to ask this question. I am the opposite of a masochist. In fact, I was once prohibited by a certain tattoo artist from entering his shop, because I would go there like twice a year, earnestly thinking of getting a tattoo, find him in the middle of doing one for someone else, see the person grimacing, see some blood, and abandon my intentions. This happened repeatedly, no wonder he was tired of me.
I do not like or enjoy physical pain. I avoid it as much as possible (an accident has to happen for me to feel it, or my body has to be trying to tell me it’s unwell). I also rarely experience any other kind of pain, and find it hard to understand how anyone can enjoy it. However, just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense/happen.
My favourite rubbish definition of pain is that it is “fear leaving the body.” Its actual definition is “physical suffering or discomfort caused by illness of injury.” Let’s think of a work-out. It definitely causes discomfort, but should it get painful, you’ve probably injured yourself somewhere. Pain is usually a warning sign from the body that all is not well, which I don’t think is pleasurable unless one is a masochist.
The definition of pleasure I like the most is one I read in the book Flow. “Pleasure is a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says that expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met.” Therefore, one only need to expect that they will enjoy something, either due to nature or nurture, and then do that thing, to experience pleasure. If one has conditioned oneself to enjoy painful experiences, then when they occur, yes, there will be pleasure in that pain.
I hope that by this point you have realized I have no clue about this topic in general, and I hope never to. However, DeathStroke, if you find pleasure in pain, as long as you are not causing harm to others or yourself, and everyone in the said situation has given (informed) consent to being there, rock on with your bad self.
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This post is part of a daily writing experiment that I’m running for a year. I’d love it if you took part! ?