Some have claimed that severe spanking causes pain intensity comparable to that of a scald, or maybe even a cigarette burn in the case of something like caning. Pain is hard to quantify, but would you all say these comparisons are exaggerated? What might be the best objective measure of spanking's painfulness?

No, it is not an exaggeration.Indeed, a series of simultaneous cigarette burns probably describes very accurately in comparative terms the unbelievably intense pain you experience a few seconds after a stroke of the cane on the bottom.

Dear JANE,The pain of the caning also depends on a few factors.Mainly is the length & the width of the cane used,& the number of layers of clothing worn.!I was caned by my headmistress using a cane measured 90 cm by 9 mm thick,given 6 strokes & wearing skirt with 3 underwear,the results.?Pain a little for just 15 mins.!

Pain is a very subjective thing and it is very difficult to compare events experienced at different times and under different circumstances. It is even more difficult to compare the pain experienced by different people.

Those who manage pain in hospitals sometimes ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10. If I understand correctly, 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst possible pain. I would suggest that in earlier more disciplined times quite a few naughty boys would have had to recalibrate after a visit to the headmaster's office. The first real cane stroke I experienced was a 12, i.e. more painful than I thought was possible.

I agree with you Kevin.It was a shock to my whole system. How I survived three strokes I just do not know.I am certain people who have never been caned have no idea of the pain.

Thanks for the frank replies. I never understood the double standard whereby some methods of causing pain are considered torture while inflicting the same degree of pain another way could be so approved of.

People's reaction to pain does vary. At my school, we accepted the slipper as a routine hazard which we could expect to encounter at least once a week but one boy felt it so badly that he had to be held down for two or three modest taps.

The pain of a well-aimed cane stroke through thin clothing is intense - comparable to burning yourself on a hot object and the pain can last almost as long as that of a burn.

Tim

Tim, I suspect that the lad you mentioned who had to be held down for the slipper was not reacting to the degree of pain or discomfort as such, but to the denigration and deeply humbling effect of the punishment. Having to bend over and present your bottom as a target is extremely demeaning, and he clearly wasn't going to give a teacher the satisfaction without a fight. The subsequent pain of a slippering is nowhere near the same as a caning, although I recall that the expectation of how much the slipper would hurt me always exceeded the actual degree to which it did.

I believe the following has been mentioned before on this forum, but it may also be relevant to this topic.

If the body is bent at an acute angle, as in touching toes (known here as ‘the Fran position’) the pain is greater than that experienced in the over the knee position.

I think most still remember the 1st time the cane was applied and probably more so when it really hurt like hell.I remember being caned touching toes with only a pair of shiny black satin footbal shorts on.The pain was like nothing i had encountered and probably still is.

State of mind has a very big effect on the perception of pain. Punishment that is perceived as fair and reasonable hurts less (or at least, causes less suffering) than punishment that is resented. Ditto, punishment taking "hot" - many found it better to take "it" immediately from an angry master than to have the punishment deferred and administered cold bloodedly later. Cathartic punishment - that which removes feelings of guilt and which placates those who have been angered, also causes less suffering. Acute pain is usually better than chronic.

To say the amount of pain a boy feels depends on if he thinks the caning was jutified or not and the wait rather over simplifies the issue. Many other issues come into play. A boy who is being caned for the first time may fear it more than one that has been caned at school before. The fear increases the sense of pain. Boys who are whacked at home are less likely to be so scared, and are more use to the sting than boys that are rarely or never hit at home.Therefore the boys not hit at home expect it to hurt more and this is reflected in what they feel.
A boy bending over will think, and so it does hurt more, that on the bare bottom it will be more painful than on trousers. in actual fact the amount of pain may be less, due to a less severe application of the cane. however, as its on his bare flesh he will think it hurts more.
Another factor is peer pressure. if a boy sees others being caned while waiting his turn it effects how he thinks it hurts. if boys take it with little emotion he will think it does not hurt that much and will give him confidence to bend over and take it. If the other boys cry and make a fuss the boy waiting will think it hurts more than what may be the case and may even "feel" the pain before the cane has hit him.
The worse thing for making a punishment seem more painful for a boy is if he sees another taking it on the bare bottom. He can see the marks the cane leaves and of course this scares him. Fear plays a great part in how much the actual caning hurts. Needless to say all canings are painful.

George

The only objective measure of pain I have ever encountered was by a 'dolorimeter' (from the latin dolorous for sorrow). The dilation of the pupil of the eye was measured - the wider the pupil then the greater the pain. This reflected sympathetic nervous activity, particularly adrenaline and noradrenaline. Examples are: toothache 2, sinusitis 4, trigeminal neuralgia 8. The highest recording was childbirth - sorry girls - curiously at 11.5. Caning was not measured so perhaps an experiment could be set up?