Look up algolagnia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Algolagnia (from the Greek "άλγος" algos meaning pain and "λαγνεία" lagnia meaning lust) is the paraphilia of deriving sexual pleasure from physical pain. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary is a Wikimedia Foundation project intended to be a free wiki dictionary (hence: Wiktionary) (including thesaurus and lexicon) in every language. ... In psychology and sexology, paraphilia (in Greek para παρά = besides and -philia φιλία = love) is a term that describes sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity. ... Sexual arousal is the process and state of an animal being ready for sexual intercourse. ... Look up Pain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

It may have a simply biological basis, as it is proven that pain, just like sensorial pleasures such as sexual contact and sweet foods, causes the release of endorphins, the chemicals that induce pleasure.

If a person's pain threshold is sufficiently high, this may outweigh the normal discomfort, even to the point of addiction.

Note that algolagnia is not the same thing as physical masochism, since there are fewer psychological connotations to algolagnia, which may be a simple liking for pain, without any need for domination, submission or humiliation. It may therefore rather take the form of self-infliction of pain. Flogging demonstration at Folsom Street Fair 2004. ... Psychology (Gk: psyche, soul or mind + logos, speech) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the mind, brain, and behavior, both human and nonhuman. ...

See also

• Sadism and masochism
• BDSM
• Mortification of the flesh
• Self-harm
• Scarification

Flogging demonstration at Folsom Street Fair 2004. ... A collar is a common symbol in BDSM. BDSM is a term which describes a number of related patterns of human sexual behavior. ... Flagellants mortifying the flesh, at the time of the Black Death Mortification of the flesh literally means putting the flesh to death. The term is primarily used in religious contexts, and is practised in a variety of ways. ... Self-harm (SH) is deliberate injury to ones own body. ... Scarification is a permanent body modification that uses scar tissue produced by the body to form designs, pictures, or words in the skin. ...

External links

• The Psychology of Sex