Rethinking 'The Body in Pain'

Abstract

This article calls into question two core suppositions of "The Body in Pain": That pain is sheerly aversive; and that those who inflict pain do so unawares. I argue that these pieties avoid disturbing questions regarding the pain-filled body. The controlled experience of pain is central to any number of practices; many of them place the body in extremis. Conversely, there are practices of pain-infliction undertaken with the expectation of gratification or social validation. Pain, in short, is alluring as well as aversive.

Keywords: Bataille, Scarry, Nietzsche, pain, torture, sadomasochism