[61] Various mammals, carried away by the reckless fury of the sexual
impulse, are apt to ill-treat their females (R. Müller, _Sexualbiologie_,
p. 123). This treatment is, however, usually only an incident of
courtship, the result of excess of ardor. "The chaffinches and
saffron-finches (_Fringella_ and _Sycalis_) are very rough wooers," says
A.G. Butler (_Zoölogist_, 1902, p. 241); "they sing vociferously, and
chase their hens violently, knocking them over in their flight, pursuing
and savagely pecking them even on the ground; but when once the hens
become submissive, the males change their tactics, and become for the time
model husbands, feeding their wives from their crop, and assisting in
rearing the young."
[62] Cf. A.C. Haddon, _Head Hunters_, p. 107.
[63] Marro considers that there may be transference of emotion,--the
impulse of violence generated in the male by his rivals being turned
against his partner,--according to a tendency noted by Sully and
illustrated by Ribot in his _Psychology of the Emotions_, part i, chapter
xii.
[64] Several writers have found in the facts of primitive animal courtship
the explanation of the connection between love and pain. Thus,
Krafft-Ebing (_Psychopathia Sexualis_, English translation of tenth German
edition, p. 80) briefly notes that outbreaks of sadism are possibly
atavistic. Marro (_La Pubertà_, 1898, p. 219 et seq.) has some suggestive
pages on this subject. It would appear that this explanation was vaguely
outlined by Jäger. Laserre, in a Bordeaux thesis mentioned by Féré, has
argued in the same sense. Féré (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 134), on grounds
that are scarcely sufficient, regards this explanation as merely a
superficial analogy. But it is certainly not a complete explanation.
[65] Schäfer (_Jahrbücher für Psychologie_, Bd. ii, p. 128, and quoted by
Krafft-Ebing in _Psychopathia Sexualis_), in connection with a case in
which sexual excitement was produced by the sight of battles or of
paintings of them, remarks: "The pleasure of battle and murder is so
predominantly an attribute of the male sex throughout the animal kingdom
that there can be no question about the close connection between this side
of the masculine character and male sexuality. I believe that I can show
by observation that in men who are absolutely normal, mentally and
physically, the first indefinite and incomprehensible precursors of sexual
excitement may be induced by reading exciting scenes of chase and war.
These give rise to unconscious longings for a kind of satisfaction in
warlike games (wrestling, etc.) which express the fundamental sexual
impulse to close and complete contact with a companion, with a secondary
more or less clearly defined thought of conquest." Groos (_Spiele der
Menschen_, 1899, p. 232) also thinks there is more or less truth in this
suggestion of a subconscious sexual element in the playful wrestling
combats of boys. Freud considers (_Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_,
p. 49) that the tendency to sexual excitement through muscular activity in
wrestling, etc., is one of the roots of sadism. I have been told of normal
men who feel a conscious pleasure of this kind when lifted in games, as
may happen, for instance, in football. It may be added that in some parts
of the world the suitor has to throw the girl in a wrestling-bout in order
to secure her hand.
[66] A minor manifestation of this tendency, appearing even in quite
normal and well-conditioned individuals, is the impulse among boys at and
after puberty to take pleasure in persecuting and hurting lower animals or
their own young companions. Some youths display a diabolical enjoyment and
ingenuity in torturing sensitive juniors, and even a boy who is otherwise
kindly and considerate may find enjoyment in deliberately mutilating a
frog. In some cases, in boys and youths who have no true sadistic impulse
and are not usually cruel, this infliction of torture on a lower animal
produces an erection, though not necessarily any pleasant sexual
sensations.
[67] Marro, _La Pubertà_, 1898, p. 223; Garnier, "La Criminalité
Juvenile," _Comptes-rendus Congrès Internationale d'Anthropologie
Criminelle_, Amsterdam, 1901, p. 296; _Archivio di Psichiatria_, 1899,
fasc. v-vi, p. 572.
[68] Bk. ii, ch. ii.
[69] Herbert Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, 1876, vol. i, p. 651.
[70] Westermarck, _Human Marriage_, p. 388. Grosse is of the same opinion;
he considers also that the mock-capture is often an imitation, due to
admiration, of real capture; he does not believe that the latter has ever
been a form of marriage recognized by custom and law, but only "an
occasional and punishable act of violence." (_Die Formen der Familie_, pp.
105-7.) This position is too extreme.
[71] Ernest Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, 1902, p. 350 et seq. Van Gennep
rightly remarks that we cannot correctly say that the woman is abducted
from "her sex," but only from her "sexual society."
[72] A. Van Gennep (_Rites de Passage_, 1909, pp. 175-186) has put forward
a third theory, though also of a psychological character, according to
which the "capture" is a rite indicating the separation of the young girl
from the special societies of her childhood. Gennep regards this rite as
one of a vast group of "rites of passage," which come into action whenever
a person changes his social or natural environment.
[73] Féré (_L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 133) appears to regard the
satisfaction, based on the sentiment of personal power, which may be
experienced in the suffering and subjection of a victim as an adequate
explanation of the association of pain with love. This I can scarcely
admit. It is a factor in the emotional attitude, but when it only exists
in the sexual sphere it is reasonable to base this attitude largely on the
still more fundamental biological attitude of the male toward the female
in the process of courtship. Féré regards this biological element as
merely a superficial analogy, on the ground that an act of cruelty may
become an equivalent of coitus. But a sexual perversion is quite commonly
constituted by the selection and magnification of a single moment in the
normal sexual process.
[74] The process may, however, be quite conscious. Thus, a correspondent
tells me that he not only finds sexual pleasure in cruelty toward the
woman he loves, but that he regards this as an essential element. He is
convinced that it gives the woman pleasure, and that it is possible to
distinguish by gesture, inflection of voice, etc., an hysterical, assumed,
or imagined feeling of pain from real pain. He would not wish to give real
pain, and would regard that as sadism.
[75] De Sade had already made the same remark, while Duchenne, of
Boulogne, pointed out that the facial expressions of sexual passion and of
cruelty are similar.
[76] Kryptadia, vol. vi, p. 208.
[77] Daumas, _Chevaux de Sahara_, p. 49.
[78] See in vol. iv of these _Studies_ ("Sexual Selection in Man"),
Appendix A, on "The Origins of the Kiss."
[79] De Stendhal (_De l'Amour_) mentions that when in London he was on
terms of friendship with an English actress who was the mistress of a
wealthy colonel, but privately had another lover. One day the colonel
arrived when the other man was present. "This gentleman has called about
the pony I want to sell," said the actress. "I have come for a very
different purpose," said the little man, and thus aroused a love which was
beginning to languish.
[80] See Havelock Ellis, _Man and Woman_, chapter vi, "The Senses."
[81] This liability is emphasized by Adler, _Die Mangelhafte
Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes_, p. 125.
[82] _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, Bd. viii, 1876, pp. 22-28.