Would you punish yourself?

[vulcanlogician]

I agree with CL. Gandhi was doing a hunger protest. There is a difference.

[Edwardo Piet]

The other thing about punishing yourself is.... it doesn't work.

[paulpablo]

Using the word punishment loosely. There are plenty of times when I feel like I'm punishing myself in the short term at the gym. And it can be based on lots of different types of interaction and feelings. It's also mixed with depriving myself of food I like the taste of that's going to make me fatter.

If I'm angry that can give me adrenaline as energy. The same if I'm scared. If I'm horny I can be motivated to use energy and try and look good.

I'd never just deprive myself of food or cut myself or anything like that though. I'd at least want the potential of the short term punishment being useful to me in the long term.

[polymath257]

A lot depends on what you mean by 'punishing yourself'.

Ghandi starved himself to draw attention to a cause. He had a particular political goal in mind and starving himself was a stunt to get people to notice. Some people are willing to die for a cause, and that is not unreasonable, if the actions truly do advance the cause.

Self-deprivation as a means of training to become better at some skill is also quite reasonable as long, again, as it actually does help in the training.

On the other hand, whipping yourself in privacy as punishment for some imagined sin is just insanity. It has no redeeming effect that offsets the badness involved.