Flogging (or spanking, whipping, as you like) has been proposed as a cure for
many diseases along human history. It was supposed to work by “stirring up the
body's stagnating juices, dissolving the precipitating salts, purifying the
coagulating humors of the body, clearing the brain, purging the belly,
circulating the blood and bracing the nerves”. Nothing less.
It has been used as a treatment for insanity, laziness, depression and almost
any known disease. It was used for curing sexual impotency, proving we “pervs”
are not the only ones who can be aroused by a good flogging (or that our
reactions are more common than usually accepted). During the Black Death plague
of the mid-14th century flogging was recommended both for preventing and curing
it. In the records of many cities can be found entries like
“Pd. Thomas Hawkins for whipping two people yt had smallpox, 8d” or “Paid in charges for taking up a distracted woman, watching her and whipping her next day 8/6d”.
But it is not just in the past. We could find two cases in which flogging is
still proposed nowadays for its curative value.
Aversion therapies try to change or suppress a behavior identified as harmful or
undesired by relating it to an unpleasant result. That unpleasant result can be
achieved by many means, one of which is, of course, a spanking. In this case it
is also called “spanking therapy”.
For this treatment, the therapist (that could be an actual therapist, a
professional spanker - there are some - or even a friend or relative) and the
patient agree in which are the undesired behaviors, and the retribution for
each. From there on they agree on an appointment schedule, usually one session a
week, on which they will discuss the behavior and deliver the punishments, if
deserved. If the patient failed, s/he should accept the punishment without
questioning. The punishments are graduated in severity according to the
seriousness of the fault and its repetition.
Something like this was proposed in 1936 by Dorothy Spencer in her “Spanking
Plan”, in “Spankings for Single Women” or in our own
weight loss program. This
behavior modification technique, in a less consensual way, was used for most of
history by parents and teachers, as many of you know firsthand (or firstbelt?)
This therapy is frowned upon by the mainstream medical community, not for being
based in wrong arguments or for being ineffective, but because it can easily lead
to abuse. (I, for one, could enjoy a lot being a therapist, paid to flog
women patients, but I doubt it could be seen as ethical).
A group of Russian scientists of the Novosibirsk Institute of Hygiene in Siberia
propose caning as a cure for addiction to alcohol and narcotics, as well as
depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic diseases. The main proponents of
the cure are the biologist Dr. Sergei Speransky (known by other non-orthodox
studies), the psychologist Dr. Guerman Pilipenko and psychiatrist Dr. Marina
Chujrova.
By the way, Novosibirsk, the capital city of Siberia, is well-known for its
first level universities and research centers, so these are no rogue scientists
from the end of the world but reputed professionals from the Russian scientific
establishment.
In the paper “Methods of painful impact to treat addictive behavior and
other manifestations of non-vitalistic activity” (unfortunately, we couldn't
find it), they propose those diseases are caused because the patient lost his
interest in life. This is correlated with a decreased production of endorphins
by the body.
Endorphins lead to feelings of euphoria, a decrease of appetite, the release of
sex hormones and an enhancement of the immune response. They are released by our
bodies mainly for relieving pain and they are the reason for the similar opiates
-as morphine - working, as they connect to the same brain receptors.
Dr. Chujrova says the alcohol and drug addicts “have a damaged sensibility to
pain, distorted by the body, and we must make them feel pain for activating the
endorphins synthesis” (a modern way of saying “stirring up the body's stagnating
juices”?). She says that at the beginning the patients don't like the sessions,
but as they begin feeling the benefits “they keep coming for more”.
Dr. Pilipenko explains the session, supported by individual psychotherapy before
and after the flogging, begins with a preparation on which the body is tapped
all over with thin canes, after which he delivers the actual caning on the
buttocks with a thicker rod.
He says that, besides the endorphins release, the cure has been reached in a 50%
if the patient cries. “The sobbing is not caused by the pain”, he explains, “but
for the surfacing of the deeply embedded traumas that caused the addiction”.
The recommended treatment consists in 60 sessions of 30 cuts each, delivered by
an average build person (and they are now charging about a hundred dollars each
session).
Dr. Speransky, who allegedly cured his own depression by repeated sessions of
self-flagellation, told the Izvestia newspaper: “The whipping therapy becomes
much more efficient when a patient receives the punishment from a person of the
opposite sex. The effect is astounding: the patient starts seeing only bright
colors in the surrounding world, the heartache disappears, although it will take
a certain time for the buttocks to heal, of course”. “The treatment works” he
says, “I'm not sadistic, at least not in the classical sense” (for the patients
sake, we hope this is true) “but I do recommend caning.”
Some doctors say there are less aggressive ways of activating the synthesis of
endorphins, such as eating chocolate, exercising and having sex, to which Dr.
Speransky answers “then, eat chocolate, exercise and get a caning, for
increased benefits”.
On aversion therapies, many parents and doms have experienced the benefits of a
good flogging on the children's or sub's behavior. Punishments, corporal or
otherwise, were used for behavior modification for all history and are in use
today, so the aversion therapies have a long time tradition and most people
think they work.
And we can relate to the comments of the Novosibirsk researchers. Many subs ask
for spankings for relieving their anxiety, so we don't need Russian doctors
telling us how good a flogging is, how alive you feel during and after a
spanking, how you “start seeing only bright colors in the surrounding world”.
And sure a good sobbing releases many deep repressed feelings.
And for all of us a spanking feels better if delivered by a person of the sex
preferred for your sexual relations, which is usually, but not always, the opposite (you at
Novosibirsk, please note the difference).
So, according to our own experience on spankings, this Russian treatment could
also work. If what these doctors say is true and for the treatment being
effective, many people should react to spankings as we do. If it is a natural
way of reacting, we are not weird. We just discovered by chance what these
doctors propose and we use it in our lives. By the way, if it is true, spankees
should have less addictions and depression problems than the rest of the
population. Research is needed.
Finally, Dr. Patrick Magee, a sexual-behavior expert based at the Bolton
Institute in the UK says: "There is even some evidence the role-playing and
dramaturgic elements of spanking can have calming, therapeutic effects upon the
people who engage in it". What else is news?
Published: 10/25/06
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