Put it down and walk away.

This book is not comforting; it does not reassure. It does not teach anything a decent person needs to know. It is a book about BDSM, but it will teach you nothing about tying knots, swinging floggers or spanking. It does not comfort, it does not attempt to reach the vanilla public.
This book addresses control, it addresses change. The recreational uses of humiliation, conditioning, psychological torture, hypnotism and interrogation techniques are explored and laid bare, broken into usable steps and understandable, applicable concepts. It is a workshop of ruin, the tools necessary to cement lasting alteration and unforgettable experiences for those few who truly crave them.
“This is not a 101 or “BDSM for everyone”. Actually, this is not really for anyone.
Most of the things that are in this book I cannot sanction anyone doing to anyone else. Except, of course, that we do, and we will, and we want to. So here are tools to do them well, to do them ethically, and to enact your own, terrible sacraments. We seek to ascend, so we descend.
I called this book a mixed message, a perverse architecture, and so it is. The keystone of this edifice is inscribed with the heart of all these chapters, these words cut at cross-purpose:
“Here is something you should never do to anyone.
And here is exactly how to do it to someone you care about.”
– From The Forked Tongue, A handbook for treating people badly