Sadism
Sadism is enjoyment derived from inflicting pain, humiliation, or control on another person. It can occur with or without sexual activity or consent.
Consent: Voluntary agreement to an activity, given by someone able to make that decision. Consent separates negotiated pain from harm imposed against someone’s wishes.
BDSM: A range of consensual practices involving bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, or masochism. BDSM can include negotiated sadistic activity without implying nonconsensual abuse.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: The American Psychiatric Association’s classification manual for mental disorders. Its diagnostic criteria define when sexual sadism qualifies as a disorder.
Sadistic personality: A proposed personality pattern involving pleasure in dominating, humiliating, or harming others. This research construct concerns enduring traits, not every isolated sadistic act.
Pain: An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pain is one possible source of the distress or sensation involved in sadism.
Abuse: A pattern or act that harms, coerces, or exploits another person. Abuse involves harm or coercion; sadistic enjoyment alone does not establish that abuse occurred.
International Classification of Diseases: The World Health Organization’s international system for classifying diseases and health conditions. Its classifications provide another framework for assessing paraphilic disorders.
Everyday language: Informal speech and writing used in ordinary social settings. Everyday usage often applies “sadistic” loosely to cruelty or excessive severity.
Humiliation: The experience or deliberate imposition of degradation, shame, or loss of dignity. Sadistic enjoyment can center on degradation rather than physical pain.
Sexual sadism: Sexual arousal associated with another person’s physical or psychological suffering. This is the sexual form, distinct from nonsexual enjoyment of causing distress.