I see where you are coming from with that, but I personally wouldn't classify "breaking" in an interrogation session the same way. In an interrogation scene, giving up information is more like using a safe word. There is usually little emotion in it.

There are 2 nationally known and world-travelled dommes who have at times posted at max and who use the phrase breaking a sub in similar ways, though their meaning is maybe not identical.

For both of them it seems that breaking a sub includes but is not limited to the prisoner interrogation scene. It seems to include when the guy starts crying, begging or changing his limits, but obviously, no two dommes are identical!

For them, a guy giving up a secret word or idea is one form of breaking, even if it is not emotionally traumatic. At least, one of the mistresses has used the words break or breaking to describe a prisoner interrogation scene!

I think the prevailing idea, when it comes to sessioning, is a short-term conscious dropping of all resistance, brought on by pain. Like “Yes, yes, please, I give up, I’ll do anything!” Which seems to me sorta tongue-in-cheek, like “Oh no, please don’t make me do what I want you to make me do! Okay, fine, I’ll do it!” Having not experienced that type of session, I’ll guess it’s a tricky thing to negotiate, maintaining safety yet realism.

In my relatively recent review of Mistress Tissa, I mentioned falling into a completely unexpected state of trance. That was a form of “broken” that I’d never even contemplated. It was amazing because it was spontaneous, yet the effect and experience was very safe. Ironically, I didn’t *fully* appreciate it until well after I “came to”. I guess when you’re truly in a state of altered reality, you don’t know it at the time. Kinda like a cult member or a drunk person who doesn’t realize they’re drunk.

Speaking of cults and brainwashing, I could also imagine an unscrupulous domme slowly progressing a sub into a long-term submissive relationship, that has him doing things, financial and otherwise, that he never intended. Narcissists, IRL, are known for taking people down a rabbit hole. That’s, of course, a whole different type of “breaking”, that I don’t think most people intend when they use the word.

Come to think of it, I was arguably “broken” from pain one time. I was sessioning with a wrestling/martial arts domme, and she poured it on so hard that I panicked and forgot my safeword. It all happened so fast. At one point, while I was stammering “wait, no”, trying to remember, she hit me so hard that I snapped out of subspace, and thought “HOLY FUCK. WHAT AM I DOING!? This maniac is gonna KILL ME. And I’m gonna die because I was horny and stupid!” and I started laughing hysterically. When she saw me laughing, she actually paused, cocked her head, commented “oh, you’re really fucked-up”. I remember, between gasping and laughing, thinking whether I could make it past her to the door (in my underwear!!??) but then she took the decision out of my hands by dropping me with a punch to the solar plexus. Then she beat me until I stopped yelping and then stopped moving. I was abjectly terrified of that woman. I’d call that broken.

I am just curious if that wrestler/ martial artist was Arekah Lox. I saw her a few times. She was great. And just brutal. Beat the piss out of me for an hour. I was like a rag doll.