Mindful Brainwashing

with Aidan Sunassee

a live and recorded online class from Wicked Grounds

5/16 11am Pacific

If you have engaged in brainwashing or conditioning in kink, you have probably spent time wrestling with the implications of your practice. To what extent is it acceptable to deliberately shape someone's mind, their responses, their sense of self? Dynamics built around long-term conditioning carry their own particular stigma, even within kink communities, and that stigma makes it harder to think clearly about what's happening.

Some people find their way into sustainable, deeply satisfying dynamics that focus on shaping one partner to the other's liking, and then have to reckon with the discomfort that comes with it. How do you talk honestly with someone who is actively being shaped to think in particular ways, even when they asked for that very change? Some also run into rougher territory, such as identity confusion or dynamics that started with good intentions and lost the plot somewhere along the way.

While brainwashing is a word often heard in the kink community, research into influence, behavior shaping, and identity is only now beginning to catch up with what communities have been doing for decades. The goal is also to sit with the word brainwashing itself and learn about what it means to each of us, the history it may carry, and what about it might be worth reclaiming.

PRESENTER:

Aidan Sunassee (he/him) is a certified sexologist, educator, researcher, and active member of the kink community. His facilitation style is trauma-aware, grounded in inclusive practices, and informed by both personal experience and academic research. He is dedicated to bridging the gap between academic knowledge and lived experience, creating spaces where community voices are centered, respected, and empowered. Aidan is affiliated with the APA Division 44 Taskforce on Kink and BDSM, serves on the board and research team of TASHRA, and teaches with the Center for Positive Sexuality. His independent research explores how pleasure and power exchange intersect with healing in kink spaces and dynamics. Beyond his research, he has developed and led community education programs on kink, consent, trauma awareness, and ethical non-monogamy.

At the core of his approach is a belief that academic knowledge and lived truth must meet and challenge each other.

ACCESS:

This will be a live, online class offered through Zoom. To participate, you may need to download the free, basic version of the Zoom app before the class! This class will be recorded and is available for later viewing within seven days of the class.

Zoom now provides closed captioning which will be available for this event.