Humiliation and SM by Tanonymous

Humiliation and SM

The degree to which you can be damaged by verbal abuse is generally agreed to depend on your own emotional stability, the degree of intimacy you have with the individual who offers the negative comments and what value you assign hir words internally. The possibility (even probability) exists for verbal abuse and humiliation to cause long term psychological damage if the negative expressions are internalized consistently with an unhealthy self-image. The key here is how the individual who is on the recieving end of this psychological edgeplay percieves and internalizes the situation. These facts are concurred to among professionals in the mental health community. An individual with strong codependent tendencies who is verbally abused, especially by a spouse, close friend, lover or co-worker may internalize and accept the negative expressions as valid judgements of hir self worth. Such an individual should probably not engage in psychological edgeplay such as humiliation or verbal degradation, as sie is not healthy or strong enough to participate without great risk of harm or damage.

An individual who is not codependent and who has a strong and well developed sense of self worth and self esteem is more likely to react to verbal abuse from anyone, regardless of their level of intimacy or believability, with consistent internal rejection - *even if the experience is deliberately sought out and eroticized*. The negative expressions are not internalized and are not consistent with hir self image. The emotionally stable individual is not likely to suffer any significant alteration to hir psyche as a result of such experiences. Such an individual is a good candidate to participate harmlessly in fantasy roleplaying games which may involve elements of humiliation or verbal harshness. Sie understands at a core emotional level that even if sie is called harsh names as part of playing out a fantasy role or to emphasize an eroticized power imbalance, these names do not reflect on hir personal worth in reality as a human being. No harm or damage occurs; the game or role is played out to its conclusion with no long term effects.