Pablo_Brown Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Sadism is commonly defined as "the tendency to derive pleasure from the *** or suffering of others." What is the opposite of sadism? Is there a name for a tendancy to derive pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others?
JustASadist82 Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Opposite of sadism is masochism, masochists get pleasure from *** or suffering. IMO, someone who gets pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others is genetically a sub, but masochists aren’t necessarily subs and vice versa
Ve**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 4 minutes ago, JustASadist82 said: Opposite of sadism is masochism, masochists get pleasure from *** or suffering. IMO, someone who gets pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others is genetically a sub, but masochists aren’t necessarily subs and vice versa You are so wrong. Good Doms enjoy pleasuring their subs and seek ways to sexually pleasure them beyond what they’ve experienced before.
VintageVixxsin Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Hedonist is a person who gets off on others enjoyment. Not strictly sexual in my experience I'd also disagree with sadism being about inflicting *** and more about playing with reactions and stuff. *** is probably one of the larger constituent parts but is not the only thing involved
JustASadist82 Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Yes of course they do. But the question was what’s the opposite of sadism
Mi**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 46 minutes ago, JustASadist82 said: Opposite of sadism is masochism, masochists get pleasure from *** or suffering. IMO, someone who gets pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others is genetically a sub, but masochists aren’t necessarily subs and vice versa The way the question is framed is not who drives pleasure from receiving the *** inflicted by a sadist (masochist as you indicated), but rather, what is it called when one derives pleasure from the pleasure of others. I think @VintageVixxsin is closer with Hedonist. In a Dom/sub dynamic, I have seen the descriptor of “Pleasure Dom” used to describe this type of person. There’s not really a good single word for what the OP is describing as far as I’m aware. Maybe an altruist but that’s certainly not a descriptor I’ve come across in the link world. The feeling one gets when driving joy from the joy if others is compersion but I don’t know that there’s a word for the person who feels compersion.
jm**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 1 hour ago, JustASadist82 said: Yes of course they do. But the question was what’s the opposite of sadism The OP question of the opposite of “Sadism”, would be the antonym for “Sadism”, while there is no exact antonym for it, there is a list of similar antonym’s around the bases of what “Sadism” is. When you look into it, the closest you come is not actually “Hedonism”, partly because that deals with “Pleasure or happiness being the highest good” or “devotion to pleasure as a way of life.” While “Altruism” is helping others, this doesn’t get close enough to the essence of what is being asked. The only thing you will find is a word that’s not as well known as it’s relatively recent and is “Compersion - (especially among polyamorous people) a feeling of happiness caused by another person's happiness, especially by seeing one's romantic or sexual partner interacting positively with another one of their partners: Seeing them giggle like ***agers as they came in from a date filled me with compersion.” Thus the condition of would be “Compersionism” which technically isn’t a word per se, but if we look at the OP’s question and boil it down as much as we can, the closest we come to explaining it would be essentially a blend word or something of a portmanteau which is what “sadomasochism” would be, but I digress, I submit to you the word “hedone-compersion-ism.” Breaking this into it’s roots and parts, you get “Hedone” which is pleasure, “Compersion” (defined above), and “-ism” which means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philosophies, theories, religions, social movements, artistic movements and behaviors. All of this being said, I would subscribe to the belief and understanding that “hedocompersionism” is the closest we have at this time of saying or defining a word for the “Pleasure of giving others pleasure or happiness.”
Mi**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 7 minutes ago, jmal7 said: The OP question of the opposite of “Sadism”, would be the antonym for “Sadism”, while there is no exact antonym for it, there is a list of similar antonym’s around the bases of what “Sadism” is. When you look into it, the closest you come is not actually “Hedonism”, partly because that deals with “Pleasure or happiness being the highest good” or “devotion to pleasure as a way of life.” While “Altruism” is helping others, this doesn’t get close enough to the essence of what is being asked. The only thing you will find is a word that’s not as well known as it’s relatively recent and is “Compersion - (especially among polyamorous people) a feeling of happiness caused by another person's happiness, especially by seeing one's romantic or sexual partner interacting positively with another one of their partners: Seeing them giggle like ***agers as they came in from a date filled me with compersion.” Thus the condition of would be “Compersionism” which technically isn’t a word per se, but if we look at the OP’s question and boil it down as much as we can, the closest we come to explaining it would be essentially a blend word or something of a portmanteau which is what “sadomasochism” would be, but I digress, I submit to you the word “hedone-compersion-ism.” Breaking this into it’s roots and parts, you get “Hedone” which is pleasure, “Compersion” (defined above), and “-ism” which means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philosophies, theories, religions, social movements, artistic movements and behaviors. All of this being said, I would subscribe to the belief and understanding that “hedocompersionism” is the closest we have at this time of saying or defining a word for the “Pleasure of giving others pleasure or happiness.” Love this. What would the noun be? That’s what I was struggling with. Compersionist?
jm**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 13 minutes ago, MinnesotaMinx said: Love this. What would the noun be? That’s what I was struggling with. Compersionist? Well based on what I was explaining, hedocompersionist
It**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 39 minutes ago, jmal7 said: Well based on what I was explaining, hedocompersionist That's a perfect analysis, i knew the words, but I would've never thought about joining them. I like the definition you've come up with, and I think I'm gonna use it
Pablo_Brown Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 50 minutes ago, jmal7 said: Well based on what I was explaining, hedocompersionist Do you believe this to be a common place way of thinking? It certainly isn't addressed in any of the "kink" or "fetish" type articles I found. (Hence asking the question here)
jm**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 40 minutes ago, Pablo_Brown said: Do you believe this to be a common place way of thinking? It certainly isn't addressed in any of the "kink" or "fetish" type articles I found. (Hence asking the question here) I believe so yes, although to put it simply, it would be something more like a pleasure dom, ie someone that dominates for their pleasure, and that of the sub.
sardonicus87 Posted January 24 Posted January 24 3 hours ago, VintageVixxsin said: Hedonist is a person who gets off on others enjoyment. Not strictly sexual in my experience I'd also disagree with sadism being about inflicting *** and more about playing with reactions and stuff. *** is probably one of the larger constituent parts but is not the only thing involved Literally the definition of sadism is getting joy from inflicting ***. That's what it is, and every sadist will tell you as much. You can disagree all you want, but that's reality. That's all sadism is about. Yes there can be playing with reactions, but to disagree that sadism is about inflicting ***? Seriously?
jm**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 19 minutes ago, sardonicus87 said: Literally the definition of sadism is getting joy from inflicting ***. That's what it is, and every sadist will tell you as much. You can disagree all you want, but that's reality. That's all sadism is about. Yes there can be playing with reactions, but to disagree that sadism is about inflicting ***? Seriously? The definition is not of “inflicting ***” but rather Sadism - 1) Psychiatry. the condition in which sexual gratification depends on causing *** or *** to others. 2) any enjoyment in being cruel. 3) extreme cruelty. Thus causing *** OR *** to others… Sadism isn’t about ***, and is not ALWAYS about ***. It boils down to “enjoyment from being cruel.” So I respectfully disagree, sadism is not “about inflicting ***” but rather being deriving enjoyment from being cruel.
ey**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 I wouldn't say there's a necessary opposite just that there are a lot of different styles of Topping and those who are Sadists are just one. It's also more spectrum than defined boxes.
jm**** Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Right that’s what we’re saying is the closest to the discussion topic
CopperKnob Posted January 24 Posted January 24 I think, to be able to answer the question, you first need a definition for sadism outside the dictionary definition as clearly those commenting already are expressing that it's more than deriving pleasure from inflicting *** upon others. If its a definition that's so personal to each individual, its impossible to identify a generic opposite. But, it would be interesting to understand the various definitions or meaning of sadism that individuals have.
Undersated Posted January 24 Posted January 24 > What is the opposite of sadism? Is there a name for a tendancy to derive pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others? That's also sadism :-) I define sadism really broadly as: deriving pleasure from taking actions that cause a reaction. If you're experiencing pleasure because I'm making you experience pleasure, I'm still a sadist. There's a lifestyle instructor, Midori, who teaches a version of this in the course, "Kink Outside The Box" - highly recommend the course if you ever have a chance to be a part of it!
Do**** Posted January 25 Posted January 25 In answering the OP's original questions it is first necessary to contextualise the term Sadism. We are all aware of the barbarous atrocities conducted by Sadists throughout history and that this evil still exists today. Such Sadism is non-consensual!! Sadism within the BDSM framework of SSC, PRICK, RACK and CCCC are all inclusive of the element Consent. In this context the opposite would be Massochism. In searching for a word that describes someone who derives pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others. Again context is needed, and I would argue that within the BDSM framework the term Sadist should not be excluded. It is strange to find that as yet no one on the thread has found an existing word that encapsulates this. Caregivers, Sadists, Dom/mes, Masochists as well as many other kinksters and fetishists are involved in BDSM for this very reason.
Pablo_Brown Posted January 25 Author Posted January 25 3 hours ago, DopeyDom said: In answering the OP's original questions it is first necessary to contextualise the term Sadism. We are all aware of the barbarous atrocities conducted by Sadists throughout history and that this evil still exists today. Such Sadism is non-consensual!! Sadism within the BDSM framework of SSC, PRICK, RACK and CCCC are all inclusive of the element Consent. In this context the opposite would be Massochism. In searching for a word that describes someone who derives pleasure from the sexual pleasure of others. Again context is needed, and I would argue that within the BDSM framework the term Sadist should not be excluded. It is strange to find that as yet no one on the thread has found an existing word that encapsulates this. Caregivers, Sadists, Dom/mes, Masochists as well as many other kinksters and fetishists are involved in BDSM for this very reason. Using the broad brush of the word 'sadist', some of the above respondants would seem to agree. What I'm hung up on is that most every place I see it, sadism is linked to causing physical ***. For me, I don't wish to see that. I'm much more interested to see the effects of pleasure. These two things seem at odds with one another. This is why the search for a term to use led me here to post the question. I'm not sure if that provides the required context or not. Let me know. I have found reading these replies interesting.
Do**** Posted January 25 Posted January 25 1 hour ago, Pablo_Brown said: Using the broad brush of the word 'sadist', some of the above respondants would seem to agree. What I'm hung up on is that most every place I see it, sadism is linked to causing physical ***. For me, I don't wish to see that. I'm much more interested to see the effects of pleasure. These two things seem at odds with one another. This is why the search for a term to use led me here to post the question. I'm not sure if that provides the required context or not. Let me know. I have found reading these replies interesting. It may help to consider that in a "scene" a Sadist may deliver *** to the recipient which is desired by the recipient. That *** may be the stimulus to obtain sexual pleasure for both. But in answer to your original post a single word for the question you posed does not seem to exist I agree. However the creative construct in an earlier comment does seem to approximately fit. I have been looking to see if there is a word that fits in other languages but I have not discovered one yet. I even referred to a translation of the Kama Sutra, which although no help in the search, is always worth revisiting.
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