The Rhytm of the Whip

Why do people willfully expose themselves to physical pain? How does pain become a positive experience? Investigating these questions in the extremely different areas of religion and sexual practice demonstrates commonalities in the application of a general affective mechanism involved in the rendering of pain. Identity, practice, and institution share a frame that is so powerful that we take this contextual interconnection for granted and generally overlook similarities of affective mechanisms in religion and sexuality.