Domination & submission _ the BDSM relationship handbook ( PDFDrive )

Types of Dominants
There are many different kinds of Dominants that you’ll encounter in the D/s
lifestyle and, as you may well imagine, it’s rare that anyone will match an
archetypal profile exactly. As is the case with any stereotype, the more you
know about an individual, the less they will seem to match any generalization.
As I mentioned earlier, I also think it’s important to determine, to the best of
your ability, the degree to which being a Dominant is hardwired into the
person’s brain, as opposed to being the product of role play behavior. This is
one area where assumptions can lead to some reeeeeally bad decisions.
What follows, in no particular order, is a list of what I consider to be the eight
general types of Dominants and a ninth category of non-Dominant.
The Sadistic Dom
A Sadistic Dominant is one who enjoys or becomes sexually aroused from
inflicting physical or emotional pain or discomfort upon his partners. Whether
or not his partner is a masochist (someone who enjoys pain) is usually irrelevant
to the pleasure that a Sadistic Dominant gets from inflicting it. Within this
category of Dominant, there is a wide spectrum of sadism that can range from
the minimally sadistic yet skilled pain-inflictor on one end, to the abusive or
pathologically dangerous extreme sadist at the other end of the scale. For a
pathological sexual sadist, the mere thought of causing someone permanent or
crippling bodily harm or even death may actually be a turn-on. One should
therefore always take great caution, especially when meeting or playing with a
sadistic Dominant for the first time, to attempt to learn what’s on his mind, and
to protect yourself in the event that things start down a path that you did not
anticipate. How badly can things go, if and when they do take a turn for the
worse? For the answer to that question, consider the fact that some of the worst
serial killers in our nation’s history have been sadistic Dominants. Fortunately,
there are quite a few simple steps that you can take to help ensure that your very
first encounter with a sadistic Dominant (or for that matter, anyone that you may
be meeting for the first time) is safe, sane, and consensual. Those steps are
discussed at great length in Chapter 8: Meeting for the First Time.
Clinically speaking, the general consensus of the medical professionals who
happen to be in the business of psychoanalyzing and categorizing sexual
deviancy is that there are four general classes of sexual sadists. They are: