Why do sadists enjoy inflicting pain?

Answer 1

Humans are essentially sado-masochists! Before you light the torches people, just let the idea swirl around in the synaptic soup for a while.

What is the very first thing that virtually every person that wants to live thinks about a person who does not? "Other people have lives that are so much worse!" "They should be happy(!) that they are only suffering as much as they are." HAHA What does this type of "rationalization" suggest? You can answer that for yourself if you wish, it isn't hard.

Humans are sadists! Why? Well it stems from the fact that every being is isolated from every other being in a real and significant literal way. No person can ever be or understand another person. It is impossible. We are, for every intent and purpose of this discussion, completely separate universes unto ourselves. What occurs within our minds, only occurs in our minds and never did, or ever will occur in any other beings mind. They are unique and original INTERPRETATIONS of "reality". No two "interpretations" that our electrical/chemical systems produce can ever be the same. Impossible. What does this mean?

Well, since everyone is a unique set of interpretations of their unique universes that exists only in their brains, we are all, in effect, completely and totally separated and alone. However, we (generally) are "social" creatures. This is from the insatiable desire to not be the only thing in the universe (although we will always be alone in the internal universe of our minds, it can be no other way) We KNOW, at least on the subconscious level, that we will always be alone, separate, and unaware of why we even exist in the first place. (We cannot know why we exist, because we would then know what our purpose was, if we knew what our purpose was we would only serve that purpose alone, if we served only one purpose, their would be no reason to be human, if there was no reason to be human, there would be no reason to exist. :D we would be insects or something) Sorry, rambling.

So this turmoil, even if below the level of awareness, leaves us feeling a constant itch that we cannot scratch, a pain that will never be gone, a quest that we can never finish, a longing which can never be fullfilled. (and if you want an excellent explanation of what modern society does to the human psyche read or reread the "Unibomber Manifesto". While the man may have done things which are "bad" or "crazy", I assure you that his assessment of the modern world's impact on the human "soul" is far more correct than much of the garbage written by "scholars" of psychology)

So how do these hurting, isolated humans find a surrogate "belonging"? By seeing others suffer the way that they do! It is the shared suffering of all humans that make humans feel connected to one another. Other's pain is validation of our own existence. It makes it so that there is nothing "wrong" with us, if others are suffering like we are suffering. Their pain, is sadly, "comforting" to us in this twisted, if not so obvious way.

Furthermore, the pain that will never go away is made more palatable, by knowing that others suffer more than we do! "Surely you are crazy! I do not want anyone to suffer!" It is not anything that most people would like to admit to others obviously. It is something that many cannot even admit to themselves. However, the reality is, that life is "bearable" to most ONLY because they suffer less than other people. It is what gives value to an existence that largely only produces pain, challenge, struggle, and isolation for the being. If we were aware that we were the being suffering more than any other, what would life be worth? Would anyone want to be the person who suffers most? So it is, to everyone alive (whether they can admit it or not), an imperative that others suffer. And even more preferable that they suffer MORE than whatever level of suffering that we believe that we do.

This suffering of others is what is used as the baseline for what we call "happiness". "pleasure", or whatever "positive" or "benefit" that is observed in "life". Lotta' quotes, sorry, but I don't think the words are defined correctly. :D The less we suffer in comparison to others is what determines how good we think that our lives are. So life is in reality only as valuable, worthwhile, and bearable when we see that others are in more pain than we are. The more others suffer, the better our life seems to be to us.

This is why all humans are sadists. Note that I am not using the word with negative connotations. It simply is a fact, a necessity even, for the survival of the species for us to find meaning for our existence through the suffering of others. I am not saying people are necessarily mean, evil, or whatever, I am simply referring to the needs of the entity. You must be able to shed the bonds of a specific morality to understand the chemical swirl of atoms that we really are, and why that drink does what it does. Electrons do not have a morality or a conscience or a soul.

If you can understand how all humans are sadists in the context I have been trying to explain, you can truly appreciate the deeper reason as to why "society" in general do not want to allow the suffering to escape. They need the people who suffer most around to give THEIR lives meaning, to make THEIR lives more bearable, to make THEIR lives more "pleasurable" in comparison.

Is it any wonder that "society" frowns upon and discourages letting people go now? It shouldn't be.

Now that we have established the sadism that is innate in all of us, the masochist nature follows naturally. We always will have those that are worse off than we perceive ourselves to be, unless we are very unlucky :D, and this is what makes virtually any level of pain, or "life", bearable or valuable for humans. There can only be one that suffers more than everyone else. :D The masochism comes in where we are all just as obviously aware of many, or at least a few, that suffer much less than we do. And we accept this. We revel in it. We suffer, struggle, and endure continuously and continue to chant to ourselves "this is okay, this is okay, this is great, this is life, I like this, I like this", because we really have no other choice unless we choose to die. So we enjoy the suffering of others, but we also enjoy our own suffering because it is less than the level of someone else's pain. We know that we are suffering because there are those who suffer much less than we do. Take the fist sentence and concatenate it to the second and our innate masochism is evident.

So that is why I say that all humans are sado-masochists. Anyway...

Those who want to live and those who don't are basically divided along where the individuals themselves perceive their level of suffering in comparison to everyone else. Note because we are sado-masochists, the "happiest" people tend to believe that they are somewhere near the middle of the suffering level spectrum. HUH? This needs an aside. :)

Why does the average person always seemed shocked that some rich guy, movie star, or millionaire blows off his face or drugs himself to death? Because they do not realize humans natural masochist trait. They think, "Wow, this person has a great life! Why would they kill themselves?" This is really the average guy's way of saying that almost everyone suffers more than them (the rich, powerful, famous, whatever) why would they not want to live. Because humans are masochists. Those with the "perfect" "great" lives do not have enough people that suffer less than them around. They then take on the burdens of artificial "guilt" or whatever false loss or pain you can throw in. But in reality, they are not suffering enough in the deep recesses of their mind. They lose their place in the spectrum of pain. They have pain, even though they cannot place WHY they have pain. They cannot face what I have explained earlier, and they choose to die. You can only have so many people suffering more than you before your suffering becomes unexplicable. Then your mind is faced with the reality that it is life itself, existence itself, which is painfully unbearable. You lose the ability to think that your suffering is bearable because you suffer less AND your ability to say that your suffering exists because people suffer less than you.

You see, without the belief that you suffer more than someone else, you realize that the unbearable pain is life itself, and not the comparison to others. And then the justification or rationalization for enduring the pain disappears. That is why you see so many people who have "everything" off themselves regularly.

The more apparent, and "understandable", side of the dividing line is much easier for people to comprehend. Those who see themselves as one who suffers more than most obviously believes that their pain is too great, their life too painful, and not worth living. I don't think that this group who perceive their suffering as greater than most others wanting to die needs much explanation.

This site is filled with those who are actually in this group. (Like myself)

The biggest group of humans, as would be obvious and expected from any probability curve, are those who see "enough" people both suffering more than and less than themselves. This group being the largest have the largest influence upon everyone and "society" itself through sheer numbers. They have the power to continue the idiocy of keeping other humans prisoners in this existence. These are those who are somewhat "satisfied", "content", or "accepting" to one extent or another of the perpetual and constant pain that we call "life". Until this group, the statistically superior become enlightened, the continual persistence of our disgusting anomaly of an existence of only pain will continue unabated.

So hopefully in the beginning of this rambling rant, I explained why I believe it is irrational, illogical, against the true interests of society, as well as unjust, to be against or to discourage in any way those that wish to terminate their lives.

In the second half, I tried to explain why even though it is irrational, unjust, and self-destructive for society to discourage suicide or freedom of choice (haha), that "society" will tend to keep these foolish beliefs, tenets, customs in place anyway.

Yes, I am insane, as I easily fit into the mold of one who does not unquestioningly accept and obey the accepted delusions of the masses. I think for myself, so I am broken and faulty. :D

Yes, I am one of those who wants to die, cannot even remember a time when I did not want to die, but one who is trapped here only by the equally sadistic and irrational "survival instinct" which I loathe and know works against what I know I want and need.

I may be crazy, and I may be biased, but I hope that I have given some food for thought to those who are maybe not so sure about the topic at hand.

Tom

Answer 2

This is a person enjoys inflicting physical or mental suffering on another person, who derives pleasure from experiencing pain.

Answer 3

A sadomasochist is someone who enjoys sadomasochism, the practice of inflicting and receiving pain for sexual gratification.