strong vasomotor excitation as serious as such conditions could be. Next
to anxiety neurosis, an occasional consequence of abstinence seems to me
to be the occurrence of a sort of persecution mania which is rather
difficult to determine whether it belongs to the compulsive neuroses or
is actually a part of the picture of paranoia. Such persons imagine
everybody suspects their homosexuality; they look at their hands and
laugh sheepishly because they wear no engagement or marriage ring; at
restaurants persons sitting at neighboring tables whisper and knowingly
nod among themselves as they talk about the ‘_eingefleischten
Junggesellen_’; porters and waiters at hotels ‘catch on’ to ‘what is up’
and treat them either more or less attentively than other customers;
passers-by on the street comment on their tripping gait; in short, they
feel that they are watched everywhere and are uncomfortably
self-conscious; some blush continually, others become morbidly
suspicious and timid, others again—and that is the worst—take to drink.
Convinced of the truthfulness of their notions and refractory in their
attitude towards the physician, patients of this type make up their
minds late and only after considerable struggle, to consult a physician
and even then they often do it under an assumed name. If the ideas of
persecution have already persisted for a long time, the condition is
hardly one that can be influenced by treatment,—in any case it requires
the greatest skill and patience on the part of the physician as well as
his whole therapeutic armamentarium, of which psychotherapy and
hydrotherapy are most important means, while drugs, rather excessively
favored nowadays, should be used but sparingly.” (_Hirschfeld, loc.
cit._, p. 455.)
This observation of _Hirschfeld’s_ discloses the homosexual’s deep
feeling of self-reproach which must be ascribed to hidden criminality
rather than to the homosexuality. Perhaps that fusion of homosexuality
with criminality, of pathologic self-love and repressed hatred, that
incapacity for true love, is the reason why men struggle against
monosexuality and why innumerable victims fall in that struggle, their
refined souls crushed by the conflict. Just as we no longer have the
gods of antiquity—men with female bosoms and women with a tremendous
_phallus_—just as we have accepted the division of God into three
components (man, woman, and child) which unitedly represent but one
force, so we must choose, in our day, our ideal. _That is the monotheism
of sexuality,—more unyielding and strict than religious monotheism. “To
love means to find one’s God,” I stated. But there must be no other gods
besides that one. This struggle for the single god of love sums up the
erotic tragedies of our cultural development: the struggle for the true
ideal and for monogamy which for the present appears the utmost sexual
ideal of our current cultural level. Between the primitive man’s
pansexualism and the monosexuality of modern man may be found all the
developmental phases and inhibitions which manifest themselves as
neuroses, paraphilias, drunkenness, psychoses, etc._
The analysis of jealousy has shown us clearly that with the outbreak of
the repressed homosexuality criminality, too, comes to the surface. The
patients whose histories we have recorded, fight, carry revolvers and
threaten murder. Many a jealousy murder is due to the instinctive
asocial cravings. We must bear in mind that the repression keeps down
the homosexuality as well as the other paraphiliac instincts, including
the criminal tendencies. When the repressed homosexuality breaks through
the protecting covers and out of the unconscious, it carries along and
brings to surface all the repressed antagonistic cravings. This mental
mechanism explains the gruesome crimes which the paranoiacs commit who
believe themselves pursued or threatened. They project to their
surroundings not only the pursuit with homosexual intent but their
subjective criminal tendencies as well. Someone is after them to kill
them ... it really means: “_I want to kill and therefore I assume, that
others want to kill me._”
Looking upon homosexuality as an archaic symptom, a regressive
manifestation, we may understand also that the incest, in all its forms,
must play a greater rôle among homosexuals than among the normals. The
_urning_, in point of psychic progression, is nearer the ancient
_Œdipus_ and the _urlind_ is nearer ancient _Elektra_ than the normal
man. Their will to power also manifests itself through stronger
tendencies. The very repression of his heterosexual component shows that
the homosexual tries to achieve mastery over self, and is a proof of the
one-sided emphasis of his stubborn will to self-control. The will to
power breaks out in violent, affectively stressed jealousy deeds, which
shows the intimate inner relations between homosexuality and sadism,—a
subject to which we shall give more careful consideration in our next
chapter.
V
HOMOSEXUALITY AND SADISM—THE ANALYSIS OF A HOMOSEXUAL—EARLIEST
MEMORIES—FIRST ACCOUNT OF HIS ATTITUDE—FEAR OF TUBERCULOSIS—HIS
ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS PARENTS—FIRST DREAM—DREAMS OF URINALS—ANAL
EROTICISM—COPROPHAGIA—THE MOTHER AS A TYRANT—TRANSVESTITISM—AN
IMPORTANT DREAM—VOYEUR AND EXHIBITIONIST—OTHER DREAMS—POEMS TO THE
MOTHER—MATERNAL BODY DREAMS—SADISTIC PHANTASIES—A SPERMATOZOAN
DREAM—THE DREAM ABOUT WILD BEARS—SUMMARIZATION OF THE ANALYTIC
DATA IN THE CASE—THE FORMULA OF HOMOSEXUALITY.
_Man missversteht das Raubtier und den Raubmenschen (z. b. Cesare
Borgia) gründlich, man missversteht die “Natur,” so lange man noch nach
einer “Krankhaftigkeit” in Grunde dieser gesundesten aller tropischen
Untiere und Gewächse sucht, oder gar nach einer ihnen eingeborenen
“Hölle” wie es bis her fast alle Moralisten gethan haben._
—_Nietzsche._
V
_The nature of the wild beast and of predatory man,—Cesare Borgia, for
instance,—is misunderstood, “Nature” herself is misunderstood, so long
as we look for “morbidity” back of these healthiest of all monstrosities
and excrescences, or for some “inner depravity” peculiar to them,—as
most moralists have done thus far._
—_Nietzsche._
Our investigation of the problem of jealousy has led us repeatedly to
the relationship between homosexuality and sadism, a subject we have
already considered briefly in connection with the repression-symptoms of
the homosexuals. We have succeeded in proving the sadistic trend of
homosexuals in most of the cases which we have examined. This
relationship is so typical that I am surprised previous investigators
have not been impressed by the regularity of its occurrence. The
frequency of abnormal sexual cravings among homosexuals has been pointed
out by many physicians and has been interpreted by them as indicative of
a degenerative trend. But since the physicians were satisfied with their
patients’ account and they were unfamiliar with the technique of
psychoanalysis, this constant relationship escaped their observation.
The next chapter will be devoted to a complete history of such cases and
in that connection we shall see more clearly how unsatisfactory the
patients’ first account of their own trouble must be. I have already
mentioned that many investigators suspect that the homosexuals decidedly
lack veracity. Moreover all neurotics drive their sadistic tendencies
back into the unconscious. Their repressed tendencies are among the
persistently overlooked features,—the unconsidered inventory,—of the
homosexual’s psyche.
The sadistic tendency breaks to the foreground of consciousness only
occasionally and then it lends its characteristic coloring to the
paraphilic disorder. In such cases the sadistic trend is not directed
only against the opposite sex. Sexual lust and cruelty are inextricably
interwoven; the antisocial cravings cannot be sublimated;[23] the ailing
individual becomes a danger to the community, he gets into conflict with
the law, and lands in jail or in the asylum. For such cases show us a
morbidly enlarged and distorted picture of the average homosexual.
The following observation by _Fleischmann_[24] may serve as an
illustration of this fact:
82. “Physically the patient shows the early signs of _Basedow’s_
disease. His temperament is very uneven, he shifts from one extreme to
another. He is suspicious, very mendacious and very irritable—for
instance, he struck his father in his rage. He is not particularly
religious. His whole conduct shows a very weak will and lack of energy.
Since his 17th year the patient has been addicted to excessive drink.
His sexual history reveals the following facts: As a boy, 10 years of
age, he came across a book containing an illustration of a scene of
violence (beating) which gave him great pleasure. Ever since he thinks
of that picture placing himself in the position of the one being beaten.
The mere word ‘_Peitschen_,’ cuffing, has something appealing, something
exciting about it to his mind. From the very beginning the patient
thought this was an unhealthy trait and was uncomfortably self-conscious
over it. At that time he took a journey into the country with his
mother. They passed over a river and he saw standing on the shore a
naked man who was bathing. That scene stuck in his mind for months. At
11 years of age the patient asked his father to punish him because he
had an impure conscience, but did not attain his aim. His fancies were
growing. He liked to put himself in Captain Dreyfus’ place, wanted to
experience the latter’s degradation and suffering. So constantly was his
mind preoccupied with his fancies that the boy neglected his school
studies; he became distraught, and suffered headaches. At 15 years of
age the boy began to enact his phantasies; he undressed in a room, tied
his hands with a rope and suspended himself. He also tied weights to his
lower limbs. This produced orgasm and ejaculation. An illustration of
tortures which he found in an illustrated work on world history
suggested to him new methods. He was specially fond of staging scenes of
crucifixion. In all these scenes the boy fancied that he was the victim
of all the imaginary tortures. He never connected these fancies of
torture with one sex or the other. He had sexual gratification without
reflecting particularly about sex. The gratifications led to orgasm and
ejaculation. Then the craving for self-torture quieted down somewhat,
his imagination cooled off and the patient began to seek sexual
gratification through masturbation. He drew his penis downwards and
backwards between his limbs and rocked his pelvis sideways. During these
acts there arose the first homosexual fancies. While masturbating, which
he did at first regularly once every four weeks, later daily and
afterwards, five to ten times in succession,[25] he pictured to himself
the hips of a young boy. At first that fancy, without any further
details, was enough. Later he fancied carrying out _coitus intra
femora_. His contrary sexual feelings showed themselves also in other
ways. For instance, he took such a strong fancy to a younger comrade
that he resolved to stay voluntarily back one year so as to sit in the
same classroom with that boy. On account of his lack of veracity his
father put him in a training institution; there his comrades initiated
him into sex matters and he learned mutual masturbation. He was not
aware of being untruthful because he had lost the faculty of discerning
between phantasy and fact. At 17 years of age the patient picked up a
peasant girl and induced her to sleep with him; but she did not allow
coitus; the patient thinks that at that time he would have found coitus
pleasurable.[26] During that period he was in the habit of abusing daily
one of his best friends,—in his phantasy. He had the latter stand naked
before his eyes and played with his private parts. In his phantasy he
felt all over the fellow’s body, finally advancing to a complete
homosexual act, always fancying a one-sided active _immissio penis in
anum_; at the same time he masturbated in the manner described above.
After one year he was no longer able to control himself. He prevailed on
his friend to undress before him and lie, face down, on the sofa. Then
the patient crawled on top and attempted _immissio_; he did not succeed
on account of a sudden feeling of nausea. He desisted, but ejaculated
_ante portas_; afterwards he was ashamed of it. The patient parted from
this friend later as the result of a quarrel. Then the sadistic
tendencies again came to surface. He imagined all sorts of tortures,
reserving to himself merely the rôle of devising the punishment to be
applied. The actual carrying out of the deeds he left to other imaginary
persons conjured up for the purpose. He chose his victims preferably
from among his younger comrades. Patient had devised 36 different kinds
of torture assigning to each a written symbol. He selected by lot
(drawing numbers) the intended victim, as well as the torture to be
applied and the instruments therefor. The patient played this game for
hours.
“He kept this up a couple of years. Suddenly the whole thing lost its
charm for him. His phantasy cooled down. Finally he gave up the game
altogether. At 18, the patient attempted for the second time normal
coitus. He had an erection but premature ejaculation _ante portas_. A
third attempt failed on account of drunkenness. Again he reverted to his
masturbation habit, his thoughts during the act once more centered on
the hips of a young boy; this was a fetich to him. Masochistic fancies
he entertained no longer; but he dwelt profusely on homosexual
phantasies. Later the patient thought of _coitus inter femora_ with
boys. He became very friendly with a 14-year-old boy, kissed him, and
allowed the boy to touch his own genitals. But when he found that the
boy had hairy hips his passion for the boy cooled off at once. During
that time the patient (20 years old) entertained thoughts of suicide
because he felt that his life was a failure. An attempt at analysis only
excited him worse instead of quieting him. Again the patient linked
himself in intimate friendship with a 14-year-old boy; as that boy
resented any physical display of affection, his attachment remained
purely platonic. Every now and then patient masturbated fancying he was
carrying out _coitus inter femora_ with his friend. His sadistic fancies
again broke to the surface. He became more and more restless, enticed a
boy (under a slight pretext) to visit him and devised most refined ways
of abusing him; for instance, hanging over the boy’s back with the hands
clasped around his neck, or beating him over hips and buttocks with a
reed cane; for every stroke the boy was to receive a sum of money. As a
consequence of this action the patient was brought to the clinic.”[27]
_Fleischmann_, in his psychologic examination of this case, lays
stress particularly on the significance of trauma and ascribes to the
masturbation a predominant rôle in the psychogenesis of the
paraphilia: “This case proves clearly that the various sexual
anomalies differ only in their sexual objective and aim,—their
developmental interrelationship—but that the mechanism of their
development must be looked upon as identical.”
But of particular significance in this case is the constant association
of sadism and masochism, a condition with which but few sexologists thus
far have been impressed as a bipolar expression of the same underlying
tendency; next, the tremendous sense of guilt which no masochist lacks;
further, the defense reaction against the homosexual tendencies: disgust
of the _immissio penis in anum_, and the unpleasant feelings roused by
the sight of the boy’s hairy thighs.
This patient also illustrates the overwhelming rôle of the father in the
psychogenesis of homosexuality and the recurrence of the “specific
scene.” At 11 years of age he requested his father to beat him because
he felt guilty. At 25 years he carried out that very act on a boy under
a very refined form. One must be a victim of psychic blindness not to
see that he there played the rôle of the father who punishes the child.
The development of this attitude may be surmised to have taken place
approximately as follows: His primary phantasy was undoubtedly generated
by the wish that his father be tender with him. He wanted to replace the
mother in his father’s affection (_coitus inter femora_). Probably
jealousy thoughts against the mother, revenge fancies against the father
on account of unrequited love; these mental sins gave rise to his
feeling of guilt, as displayed in his masochism. For as I shall prove in
another work[28] in this Series, sadism is always the primary attitude
and is transposed into masochism in consequence of the feeling of guilt,
or else the two appear side by side.
I must comment on _Fleischmann’s_ remark that psychoanalysis only
disturbed the patient and did not cure him. It is not proper to ascribe
all failures of psychoanalysis to the method. Psychoanalysis is a
difficult art and will always be conducted expertly only by a relatively
small number of specialists. Not everything that goes under the name of
psychoanalysis is genuine. Often the patient submits for a few days to
psychoanalysis then drops it (when a successful psychoanalysis may
require several months) and claims it did him no good.[29] A thorough
psychoanalysis of the above case would have certainly led to a deeper
understanding of the mental mechanism involved and would have revealed
much new light.
Undoubtedly various sexual repressed tendencies may become manifest
during psychoanalytic treatment. That is even necessary,—they must be
met and overcome with the consultant’s aid. The next case below is an
illustration that latent homosexuality may become manifest after a few
seances in the course of psychoanalysis.
83. Mr. Delta, medical student, 24 years of age, hereditary history
negative, physically healthy in every respect, suffers of depressions
and inability to concentrate on his work. The most important facts
bearing on his anamnesis and his later history he relates in the
following letter:
“From my earliest childhood I have been extraordinarily sensuous. It was
the custom (an evil one) in our family for the children to crawl into
the parents’ bed in the morning. I naturally always went to mother’s
bed, while my sisters preferred to go to father’s bed. We children also
went to one another’s bed and on such occasions I was in the habit of
trying to crawl with my head under the covers with the intention,
frankly, of carrying out _cunnilingus_ especially on my sister N., who
was already married. Why I preferred N., at the time I do not understand
clearly, possibly because she was receptive towards me and such
practices are possible only if the female partner is at least
unconsciously agreeable to it. I was 5 years of age at the time. I have
also carried on _cunnilingus_ on my sister B., at 15 years of age, while
she was asleep. These fancies later played a tremendous rôle in my
mental life, causing also a profuse sweating of the palms of my hands
which disappeared in part when I became consciously aware of them. The
killing of the chickens by our cook produced an extraordinarily exciting
effect upon me. When the cook gripped the chicken between her limbs near
her genital region to kill it she excited me to the point of a true
orgasm. I tried to imitate her by catching flies and squeezing them to
death between my limbs, near my genitals, or by drowning them in urine.
My attitude towards friends, colleagues, etc., was also extremely
peculiar. I cultivated preferably the friendship of children of the
proletarian class, while children of my own set never attracted me in
particular, although I was friendly with them. Children of that class
also submitted more willingly to various homosexual acts, something
which I did not quite dare carry on with children of my own set. I
remember one boy in particular, with whom I attempted _coitus in os_. I
recall also a dream of my childhood years: An awful butchery is going on
in our court yard and my sister W., and a certain man are in it. I am
pursued by both, they throw me on the ground, and I am killed with a
single blow on the forehead. I may add that killing invoked in my mind
the picture of the aggressor sitting astride over the victim’s face and
mouth, rider-fashion. That at any rate was the manner in which we boys
killed one another. Girls of my age were a torture to me but to older
girls and adult women I extended my greatest admiration,—a sentiment
which was purely platonic with me at the time. At the public school I
fell in love with every strict teacher, once I was in love with two of
them at the same time. I wanted the two to punish me and that, in a very
strange way. I wanted to be taken to bed and to be squeezed to death by
them,[30]—naturally between their genitalia. The _immictio in os_ by a
woman was also a favorite form of torture in my day dreaming.
“Now comes puberty. I consider the starting point of my later neurosis
the fact that I cared for contact only with persons who could offer me
some sexual satisfaction and that even as a child. During puberty this
peculiarity showed even more markedly. For a time I preserved my
platonic admiration of women older than myself. Young girls were still
repulsive to me until I fell passionately in love with one. I followed
that little one for years like a shadow, but in spite of the
encouragement she gave me I could not bring myself to speak to her. When
I finally did so, I saw in a flash the reason for my remarkable
hesitation, I did not say what I started to say, the whole charm was
gone in an instant,—she seemed to me common and inferior,—although my
objective judgment at other times told me precisely the reverse. In
short, my affection reawakened in its earlier intensity only some time
after I recovered from the shock of my personal acquaintance with her.
At that time I became very friendly with a certain colleague, Joseph Z.
The tie that linked us was that very bewitching dark girl. He also was
in love with her (one would have thought that this would have broken our
friendship). We never tired admiring her charms between us and our
friendship came to an end only when I discovered that he was not true to
our idol. At the same time nothing disgusted me during that period so
much as the sight of a pair of lovers. _I had the feeling that a man
loses something of his manliness and dignity through intimacy with a
woman._
“My next friend was Herbert. I had few sexual points of contact with
him, except that we visited together the red light resorts for the first
time and jointly made love to the various inmates. Herbert was so witty
a fellow that I almost loved him, especially as he was slavishly devoted
to me. But my neurosis made tremendous leaps for the worse even at that
time and I became more and more timid and awkward in my ways and when
finally he turned on me with his wit our friendship came to an end.
“Next came Friedrich. He clung to me with fanatic love, this went on for
about three years, until he married, and then I felt lonely in the
world. My beloved mother to whom I was extremely devoted as a child
could only try to console me, but I was hopelessly disconsolate. As a
child I had been inseparable from her for years; _Mendelssohn’s_
well-known Spring song brought tears to my eyes because the thought of a
mother losing her child seemed atrocious to me. Although I felt a great
measure of that affection for mother which is common in every one’s
childhood experience, a certain craving remained ungratified. I became
acquainted with psychoanalysis and it brought to my mind the youthful
perversities of my youth. I decided to give expression to my conscious
instincts and I have come to the following conclusion: