NEUROSCIENCE OF PAIN & PLEASURE: An Exploration into BDSM

DESCRIPTION

BDSM offers a unique lens through which to examine the neuroscience of pain and pleasure. While pain is traditionally seen as a negative stimulus and pleasure as a positive one, BDSM disrupts this binary, showing how pain can be pleasurable and how power dynamics influence neurochemical responses. This class will explore the neurobiological, psychological, and evolutionary underpinnings of BDSM experiences, examining how pain interacts with the brain’s reward, pleasure, and stress systems.

The neuroscientific investigation of pain has undergone substantial revision in recent decades. Newer models emphasize pain not as a direct readout of peripheral nociceptive input, but as an inference constructed by the brain through perceptual awareness of sensory inputs, expectations and contextual information. This constructivist view of pain perception provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how identical nociceptive stimuli can produce radically different subjective experiences depending on the context in which they occur.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. At the end of the session, attendees will be able to explain the neural mechanisms of pain
2. At the end of the session, attendees will be able to list the neurotransmitters governing pleasure: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, Testosterone, Adrenaline, Endocannabinoids, Endo-opioids, Endorphins
3. At the end of the session, attendees will be able to apply current neuroscience research to create safer and more effective BDSM practices.

AVAILABLE ON

ErosCoaching	AASECT CE · Standard Access	Access Now
The Elsewheres	AASECT CE · Collective Access	Access Now
Forbidden Tickets	Community Access	Access Now
Eventbrite	Open Access	Access Now

Learn More about AASECT.

Access Key
Standard Access: Full course access with AASECT Continuing Education credits. Ideal for licensed clinicians and certified professionals fulfilling CE requirements (First-come, first-served).
Collective Access: Full course access with AASECT Continuing Education credits, offered at a lower price point to support decolonial participation across professional communities (First-come, first-served).
Community Access: Full course access without AASECT CE credits, designed for BIPOC, queer, kink+, and sex-positive community members engaging outside of a clinical or certification context.
Open Access: Registration open to all, including international students. No AASECT CE credits

EDUCATOR BIO