Seeking wholeness through bondage: A heuristic and autoethnographic inquiry into the psychospiritual healing potential of BDSM/SM

摘要

A significant number of adults in North America regularly engage in consensual sexual behaviors involving the infliction of pain or intense sensation, use of restraints, or power exchange. Commonly known by the acronym BDSM/SM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochism), these behaviors extend into nonsexual aspects of relationships and are found across bisexual, lesbian, gay male, transgender, trans-center, and heterosexual people. Using a blending of the heuristic method and autoethnography, this study explored a model for understanding the BDSM/SM experiences of some people as a search for wholeness with potentially healing and/or transcendent attributes. Drawing on the model of psycho-embodied healing through non-ordinary states of consciousness described by Stanislav Grof, the author suggested that the inner healer proposed in Grofian psychology, an unconscious mechanism directing the person toward embodied experiences moving them toward a more whole sense of self, can be understood to guide some people into healing experiences during BDSM, if the experiences are conducted in a safe set and setting, creating the physical and psychological space for conscious attention to experience and integration.