The term “sadism” is derived from the Marquis de Sade, the notorious French aristocrat who enjoyed inflicting pain on others, and enjoyed even more fantasizing about inflicting pain on others. A prolific writer, Sade produced a litany of overtly violent, oftentimes pornographic fiction that would require a person to be a masochist (that is, a person who enjoys receiving and experiencing pain) to read it all. Sadism today is most often linked with sexual perversion, and is typically classified as an example of such, but by its original definition the pleasure derived from hurting others need not be sexual in nature, nor must necessarily be the nature of the injuries inflicted sexual.
There is physical sadism, psychological sadism, sexual sadism, and numerous other varieties. Might you be a sadist and be unaware of it? Probably not, although it is possible you possess some sadistic tendencies. Experts have crafted a nine-question survey intended to reveal a person’s sadistic inclinations or lack thereof, whittled down from an earlier version of the test containing twenty questions. I confess that I only “tested positive” on one of the questions, or possibly two if I count people I argue with on the Internet, so I’m probably not a sadist. How about you? Be honest now. Did you answer any of these questions in the affirmative?
