Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose

Part memoir, part scientific study, this book by journalist Cowart explores the relationship between pain and pleasure, or masochism. "A crucial tenet of masochism is that it must always be consensual. If it's not, it's not masochism. Period," prefaces Cowart, before launching into a description of their own experiences. As someone who themself identifies as a masochist, Cowart has written a very personal study that's also deeply researched and full of interviews with neuroscientists and other experts. Cowart addresses, from a global perspective, the thorny issue of the boundary between pain as a hobby (e.g., acupuncture, ballet, polar plunges, ultramarathons) and pain as a dangerous pathology. The book also explores BDSM literature, from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 Venus in Furs through E. L. James's 2011 Fifty Shades of Grey, plus the scientific research of Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Alfred Kinsey.