31/ Let's set aside functional value of pain (learning to endure some pain yourself is maybe good; so causing mutual pain for that is too)
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Replying to @vgr
32/ Let's also set aside societal-functional value if any, such as pain caused for deterrence purposes. These don't need pleasure to justify
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33/ So we are talking causing/witnessing pain for pleasure, with moralizing and deterrence theories applied to justify/rationalize it
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34/ So why does this drive exist? There are four broad theories to consider: Disease/pathology, Darwinian, Jungian, and Buddhist.
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35/ Disease/pathology theory would treat desire to cause pain as a potentially fixable condition due to genetics/chemicals/lead for eg
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36/ Darwinian theory would take the other extreme, point to cats torturing mice, and say desire to cause pain is completely normal, adaptive
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37/ In between we have Jung, which would be some obscure thing about sadism being really about torturing your own shadow, a kind of growth
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38/ And finally, the Buddhist version, which is kinda similar to Jung in spirit. You'd say desire is the root of all pain
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39/ My assessment: pathology theory is only true for tiny fraction of spectrum of pleasure-from-pain behaviors
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40/ The Darwinian explanation is null hypothesis that I think explains the majority of cases. This is "normal" adaptive pleasure-from-pain
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41/ The Jungian explanation probably covers most of what we could consider consensual S&M relationships and many martial arts
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Replying to @vgr
42/ And finally, Buddhist explanation I think only explains mutants who *don't* want to cause pain and uncomplicatedly seek to avoid it
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43/ There are subtleties. For eg, the story of Angulimala, a sadist serial-killing thug who converted to Buddhism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angulimala
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