Punitive pain can be actively embraced and re-signified by its recipients

Evidence

Pain inflicted as punishment can be eagerly embraced by those on whom it is inflicted and transformed into something other than what was intended. Sadomasochism (which I discuss in the next chapter) is one example, although I shall argue that it should not be identified as merely a secular version of a phenomenon familiar to us from the domain of religion—and therefore as the pathology underlying particular religious practices. The presence of the word “pain” should not be taken as evidence that it refers to a single concept. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 416

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing how the ‘secular version of religion’ framing recurs across Asad’s chapters as a pattern some readers import wholesale.