The Shaping of Human Tools: Part 5: The Importance of Consistency

Welcome to part 5 of this series. If you are looking for a way back to the beginning you can go to the Introduction which has a table of contents or just to the the previous section.

The value of consistency in punishment is one that comes up fairly often in its own right. So I think it deserves a small section all its own.

Generally speaking consistency in the application of punishment is crucial in the creation or maintenance of a conditioned response. By its nature conditioning is based on consistent application of reward or punishment. Once the response is conditioned it is possible to become more inconsistent without significantly degrading the response.

For disciplinary situations complete consistency may be less crucial. In circumstances where a pattern of behavior is being changed though disciplinary methods sometimes it is useful to forego punishment or reprimand. This is often considered mercy or leniency and is in itself a powerful form of manipulation.

In all cases it is important that the submissive realize that a failure to apply punishment was a decision on the part of the dominant, not that the dominant either didn’t notice or didn’t care about the infraction.

An experiment

An example of a command is “drop’. When the command to “drop” is heard the submissive should instantly assume a kneeling position. This is not something they should think about or question, it is intended as an instant and unconditional response. Feel free to try this one on your own, but be cautious.

You could try to instill this response into your submissive with a reward system. Giving them praise or a kiss when she drops at your command. Remember though, it must be an instant reaction to count. Once you think they have it, begin adding distractions to the situation. Slip the command into a conversation or while you are giving other commands. Try it while she is holding a cup of water.

In the vast majority of cases you will notice that the response time becomes much longer as distractions are added. For responses of this level of complexity it seems that the reward is not sufficiently connected to the action to form a strong bond; unlike the above example of an orgasm which is a simple instantaneous act.

Now try it with punishment. Take some time to issue the command to “drop” when you are close to your submissive. When you issue the command if there is any hesitation at all then apply the punishment. I find that a riding crop is a fine tool for this purpose.

In a short time you will probably see that the negative reinforcement has had a much stronger associative effect than the reward did. It is not always true but my experience has shown it often is.

Conclusion

My goal with this article is to provide some information and a potentially useful framework to those within the community who feel that training, conditioning and punishment may be useful in their relationship. Hopefully I have done that.

These methods have been used in one form or another for as long as humans have had social interactions and they clearly have a powerful potential to shape the actions of the submissive that is being trained.

I feel also that they have an important role in combating some of the current trends in BDSM. I am speaking specifically about the trend to demand less and less of those who chose to serve. Generally the justification for the lowering of those standards and demands is that it is not possible to act to a high standard all the time, that it is too difficult or something that is possible only in fictional novels.

I will submit for your consideration that high standards of behavior are extremely difficult when training and discipline are removed. That it is the removal of conditioning and training in an attempt to civilize BDSM that is resulting in the conclusion that they are unattainable.

For my house I know that it would simply not be possible to display what I consider correct responses if one had only their conscious mind to rely on. There are details of body positioning, tone of voice and a thousand other details that need to be constantly adhered to; they would take up so much time consciously obeying that there would be no capacity left to do anything useful!

As training and discipline make more and more of those responses and patterns automatic, the amount of conscious effort needed to comply drops until eventually what was a seemingly impossible set of standards becomes second nature.