Tops Disease is the corruption of power.

Corruption is to degrade with unsound principles, to alter from the original or correct form or version, to become vicious, tainted, rotten. This often occurs with a parallel degradation of moral values, the impairment of personal integrity, the loss of virtue and moral principles.

When a Dominant becomes corrupt their judgment is impaired. They tend to believe they are elevated in status and worth by virtue of being dominant over one or more individuals. In addition they may elect to view a submissive or slave as a being of little value or worth, of diminished importance or in truth from an objectified perspective. Such a devaluation is extremely dangerous for and submissive or slave dealing with a Dominant in this condition. By seeing another human being as 'discardable' the Dominant no longer has a focused concern on the safety, mental and physical health and welfare of that submissive or slave. This reduction in 'safety' can spell disaster, damage and even death should a submissive or slave continue to be with such a Dominant.

Corruption is often a slow process. An insidious eating away at the moral fiber or character of the individual. A Dominant can become intoxicated by the supplication of submissives toward them. For many Dominants, this type of 'worship' is new, quite powerful and wildly arousing. Learning to manage this in a healthy way is not easy or simple.

Many new or emergent Dominants are told that certain attitudes of disrespect are expected of them by the submissives wishing to serve them. Believing in this counsel and adopting these attitudes can set the Dominant up for Tops Disease.

Detachment of emotional empathy or contact with submissives or slaves is often the beginning of corruption. Viewing a submissive or slave with disrespect and disdain, verbally objectifying them or otherwise learning to disparage them as individuals can lead to a skewed and flawed viewpoint. Many Dominants talk themselves into problems by adopting attitudes or postures which they believe are necessary or required of them for them to present a strong Dominant presence.

If a Dominant is not empathetically connected to a submissive or slave, or is not able to feel or sense where that submissive/slave is mentally, they will begin to make mistakes or errors in judgment which can propel them over the threshold of consent. Tops Disease can and does lead to verbal, mental, emotional and eventually physical abuse against submissive/slaves. It 'turns' or 'corrupts' a Dominant from being or expressing their Dominance in a reasoned loving and healthy way into victimizing those they are with to the point of becoming an abuser.

A Dominant with Tops Disease will often be oblivious to the extent of this degradation unless they can be directed by someone they know, respect and trust into viewing their actions, choices and mental viewpoint from an external perspective.

Some Dominants address Tops Disease, when they see the warning signs within themselves, by voluntarily withdrawing from the role of Dominant for a period of time. This may be into vanilla space for a few weeks or it may be into the role of submissive for a period of time to 'clean out' or 'scrub away' the attitudes and mental pathways which have become corrupt.

Long term uncontrolled Tops Disease creates an individual who is dangerous, who cares only for their own needs and has total disregard for the needs, rights or feelings of others. The individual becomes mentally unbalanced.