Yesterday’s post about hypnosis, got me thinking about conditioning and how it can be used in a BDSM scene. I appreciate that it is used every day in a M/s relationship in someway but there are ways and times it has been taken above a punishment for undesirable behaviour or being rewarded if something is done well.
There are things that take time to become permanent or cause bigger changes in the slave It’s those things that i am focusing on here. They are something that I have never experienced but have heard of before. For example I once saw a video where someone was talking about how they had been conditioned into associating hot water with being sexually stimulated. It had got to the stage where even washing their hands would cause them to get aroused and they found it difficult to cum unless hot water was used on them and cum immediately if it were.
I thought i would carry out a bit of research into the theory behind conditioning because although i’ve heard of Pavlov’s dog (more about him later) i wasn’t too sure how it would work or if it could work.
It seems as if there are two different types of conditioning, classical and operant. They could both be used in BDSM for different things.
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning process involves a subject being subjected to a stimulus that in the end produces a conditioned response. The most famous experiment involving classical conditioning is the Pavlov’s Dogs experiment. This is where dogs came to associate the sound of a bell with their food so would begin to drool every time they heard the bell. Every time the person came to feed the dogs a bell would sound and over time the dogs realised this sound meant they would be fed. In the end they would even drool when no food was given to them so long as the bell sounded. This is the type of conditioning that would have been used on the hot water example I gave above. It’s also how dogs associate a clicker with praise.
Operant Conditioning
This is different to classical conditioning in that it focuses on a behaviour and the reward or punishment that carrying out that behaviour brings. For operant conditioning to work, there must be a behaviour which can then be either rewarded or punished. Classical conditioning, on the other hand, involves forming an association with some sort of already naturally occurring event.
An example of Operant conditioning would be an experiment with rats was carried out. The rats pulled a leaver and were given food (reward). They learned that pulling the leaver would reward them so pulled it more often. Another set of rats had a leaver to pull but were given an electric shock (punishment) when they did. They learned that pulling the leaver would hurt them so avoided pulling it. The table below will hopefully explain how this could work
dasReinforcement type |
Description |
An example of how this could be used on me |
| Positive Reinforcement | Something is introduced that provides a reward for behaving in a certain way. | Receiving positive attention after carrying Master’s shopping, I would learn to associate carrying shopping with favourable attention. Could also be combined with a click of a clicker or a gold star so eventually a click or star alone is seen as a positive reward |
| Negative Reinforcement | behaviour is changed to avoid a negative outcome | I am kneeling at the door when Master arrives home so I avoid getting a lecture |
| Positive Punishment | A punishment is given when the subject behaves in a certain way | An electric shock each time i cum or orgasm would prevent me wanting to cum as i would associate pain with cumming. it would add some fear and worry in being made to cum so it was no longer pleasant. |
| Negative Reinforcement | Removing something desirable to prevent a particular behaviour. | Not being allowed to eat if i touch my cock/balls/chastity cage |
How could this all be used
Here are just a few examples of how all of this could be used in the M/s world. Of course these can be adapted and there are many other possibilities.
- Orgasm/Arousal control – You may want the slave to see it’s own orgasms as bad things but other peoples as good things. You might want it find certain things arousing.
- Toilet training – You may want to train the slave to use the toilet in a certain way, place or time or not use a toilet at all or need to pee when a certain condition is met
- Household duties – You might want them completed in a certain way or order
- Sexual service – Rewards and punishments could be used to improve how a slave pleases you sexually or a trigger could make it instantly want to serve you sexually in some way (e.g. a bell make it want to suck your cock and a finger click present its hole)
- Clothing – If given the choice of clothing you might want the slave to always pick a certain type (eg fetish wear) no matter the occasion or place it is going to as it gets a reward if it does
- Restricting movement to a certain area – You might not want the slave to leave a certain area or distance from you. This could work similarly to a dog with a shock collar or through phone tracking.
- Overcoming limits – For example in overcoming a needle phobia