Punishment and Discipline In The Master/Slave Relationship

I have been asked to write a blog on my philosophies of punishment and discipline within the Master/slave relationship.  I have intentionally avoided these subjects to date, because they are subjects that are very wide ranging and individualistic in nature. They are also difficult to describe because they tend to vary for the same situation but change due to circumstance and conditions. I will however make a generalized stab at this for those that requested it.

For the sake of definition purposes, I believe that Punishment and Discipline are very different from each other, and neither should be used for generalized play at any time. In my opinion the both are meant to have a corrective purpose and should not be used for any other reason. In my opinion, there are many ways and reasons to play and using punishment or discipline as a vehicle for play tends to make them lose their effectiveness as correctional instruments. I also believe that there are two types of both punishment and discipline, and they are mental and physical and each has its place in the relationship.

In regards to punishment, I tend to use punishment only for severe infractions that I believe are serious enough to physically or emotionally endanger, each other, the house or the relationship. The punishment chosen is of my choice only and applied towards the corrective actions.  It could range from removal of privileges to significant physical punishment, but is always something that the slave does/would not like in any form. If, for example, my slave is a masochist that may have emotional masochistic tendencies I am of the opinion that physical punishment is less effective for her than mental punishment.  If my slave possesses a great desire to please and if it’s made clear that she has not pleased me in some way, it would impose a significant punishment for her, much more so than a physical flogging or whipping for example which she might actually enjoy.

In regards to discipline, I view discipline as a tool for the correction of less severe infractions, or intentionally poor performance of tasks. Discipline in these cases is consistently and evenly applied and supplemented with proper motivation and instruction. In my opinion, it does no good to provide discipline without also providing the motivation and instruction to correct the problem at hand. The idea behind this of course is behavior modification for the longer haul not just immediate correction.  I also use discipline as a learning tool. By performing repetitive actions during training over time, it serves to instill proper behavior in the slave for the longer term goals which is what I strive to accomplish.

In all, I always have and always will try to teach and train without punishment and use discipline as sparingly as possible. There are, of course, times when either or both are called for at some level or another, but I like to believe that proper motivation, training and education is a much better way to good behavior than discipline or punishment  would ever be.