would hardly be suspected as a motive power. I refer to the Don Juan
type of personality. The Messalina type I shall describe in connection
with my study of sexual anesthesia in woman. But the Don Juan character
deserves special attention in this connection.
One would think that a man who devotes his whole life to women, who
dreams day and night only of new conquests, who considers every woman
worth while when opportunity favors him, a man for whom no woman is
too old, or too ugly, if he desires her,—that such a man would be far
removed from any homosexual trend. Yet the contrary is the fact and
the greater my opportunity to study the ‘woman chaser’ the stronger my
conviction becomes that, back of the ceaseless hunt, stands the longing
after the male. Though many explanations have been offered for the Don
Juan type,—that prototype of Faust’s—none has solved satisfactorily
the riddle of his psyche. Only the recognition of latent homosexuality
promises to clear for us the meaning of this character.
What are the typical character traits attributed to the Don Juan
type? His easily stirred passion; secondly, his indiscriminate taste;
thirdly, his sudden cooling off. Of course, there are any number of
transitional forms and mixed stages.
I choose for examination the fundamental type, as he is known to me
through a number of concrete examples. This triad: “quickly roused,
not particular as to choice, just as quickly cooled,” admits of
numerous variations. Particularly the choice of the sexual object is
something that in many woman chasers becomes determined on the basis
of particular fetichistic preferences, such as red hair, virginity, a
particular figure, a special occupation, etc. The Don Juan collectors
of women are differentiated into various distinct classes. I knew one
who for his record of adventures specialized in widows. The shorter the
period of widowhood the greater was his ambition to make the conquest.
Only women in mourning attracted him. But beyond this point he was not
particular. It made no difference to him whether the woman was young or
old, beautiful or homely, so long as she was a widow in mourning. His
greatest pride he took in his conquest of widows on the burial day.
_Oskar A. H. Smitz_, (in his _Cassanova und Andere erotische
Charaktere_, Stuttgart, 1906, quoted after _Bloch_), has attempted
to trace a fine distinction between the Don Juan and the Cassanova
type: “Don Juan is a deceiving, cunning seducer to whom the sense
of possessing the woman, the feeling of danger, and the pleasure of
overcoming resistance and of exercising his manly strength are the
chief things, but he is not erotic, whereas Cassanova is the erotic
type par excellence; he, too, is tricky and remorseless, but he craves
the satisfaction of his sensuous needs rather than of his sense of
power. Don Juan sees only women, for Cassanova every woman is “the
woman.” Don Juan is demonic, devilish, he deliberately plans the
destruction of the women who yield to him and drives them to perdition,
while Cassanova is humane, he is always interested in the happiness of
his sweethearts and preserves of them tender memories. Don Juan hates
woman, he is a typical misogynist, the satanic type of woman hater,
whereas Cassanova is a typical feminist, he has a deep and sympathetic
understanding of woman’s soul, he is not deceived by his love affairs
but needs continual intercourse with women as the condition of his
happiness. Don Juan seduces through his demonic character, with the
brutal, and wild, attraction exercised by his uncanny power, Cassanova
achieves his conquests through the more refined gentle atmosphere
generated by his charming presence.”
_Bloch_ introduces a third type, the pseudo-Don Juan, or more
correctly, the pseudo-Cassanova,—the adventurer perennially
disappointed in his conquests, of whom Retif de la Bretonne is the
nearest widely known type. He is continually looking for the true
love and never finds it. While I admit that the seducer as a type
belongs to one of these categories, I must designate all three classes
mentioned above, that is, the Don Juan, the Cassanova, and the
would-be type of either, as bearers, alike, of a latent homosexuality.
None of them finds his ideal. Retif de la Bretonne is the perennially
disappointed type, and true love is something he can never find; in
his love he displays considerable dependence on woman. He portrays
the hopeless flight to woman and away from man. Cassanova feels all
the time impelled to prove to himself how seductive a fellow and man
he is and every new conquest gives him a new opportunity to do so.
Woman is to him but a means to enhance his sense of virility. He must
not depreciate his conquest for the glory of his achievement would be
lessened in his own eyes if he were to do so.
The Don Juan type is close to the level which leads directly to the
well known Marquis de Sade type of character. He scorns woman because
she is incapable of yielding to him all the gratification for which he
yearns. He is perennially searching for release and in that respect
bears some resemblance to the Flying Dutchman who is similarly in quest
of love and whom the quest leads eventually to death. But I cannot
concur with the idea that these types are so sharply differentiated
as _Schmitz_ and _Bloch_ are inclined to maintain. We meet the finest
gradations and the most varied combinations. Moreover individuals
change, their character shifting from one type to another by
imperceptible degrees in the course of time.
I propose to consider Don Juan as the representative of the type
of seducer, irrespective of further variations. In fact it is
characteristic of all the types mentioned above that they are alike
unable to remain loyal in their love. And, in my view, this is the most
important characteristic.
Ready excitability, scorn of womankind, latent cruelty, and perennial
readiness for love adventures are traits which show that, in the last
analysis, Don Juan represents a type of unsatisfied libido. For him the
most important moment is the conquest of the woman. In the joy of this
conquest there is betrayed something of the scorn of woman which plays
such an important role in the lives of all homosexuals—whether latent
or manifest. For the genuine Don Juan the conquest of a woman is a task
which appeals to his play lust. Will he succeed with this one, and with
that one, and with the third woman? Each new conquest reassures him
that he is irresistible, magical in his charm, so that he can say to
himself: _thou art a real man_! He must reassure himself over and over
that he is fully a man because he fears his femininity too strongly;
with the aid of his feminine trait he is the better able to achieve his
conquests among women because that trait enables him the better to feel
and know what every woman wants. He is really but a woman in man’s
clothes. His narcissistic character (the morbid self-love) requires
continually new proofs of his irresistible powers. This type of man,
one who practices all sorts of perversions on women and in this very
changing of the manner of his loving betrays his insatiable quest for
new and untried gratifications, never permits himself any homosexual
act, although he is far from particular otherwise and has run the gamut
of tasting all ugly and forbidden fruit. Homosexuality strikes this
type of man as disgusting and unbearable, he must spit out when meeting
a fellow of that kind, he would have all men and women of that kind
in jail, he would have them rooted out as one would a plague. Towards
homosexuality his attitude is emotionally overstressed, showing that
this negative form of disgust and neurotic repulsion really covers
the positive trend of longing. But at the same time he looks for
women who are mannish in appearance and who lack the secondary sexual
characteristics, thin, ephebic women, matrons and girls who are so
young as to look like children and thus represent really intermediary
stages towards manhood.
Certain aversions, which _Hirschfeld_ has described as antifetichistic,
sometimes disclose the homosexual character of their libido and the
protective means adopted against the recognition of homosexuality.
One man dislikes woman with large feet, another is repelled by women
with hair on their bodies. Such a woman causes him to have distinct
nausea. A third one is repelled by the presence of hair upon the
woman’s upper lip, or by a deep voice. There are, besides, all sorts of
transitional types. One seeks only the completely developed and typical
female figure, another is attracted particularly by the type of woman
resembling the male figure but without disdaining the former type.
His search is endless because he is truly, though secretly, attracted
by the male. His sexual goal is man. Through each new woman he expects
to experience, at last, the completely satisfactory gratification which
he craves. But he turns away from each one equally disappointed because
his libido cannot be fully gratified by any of them. In the manner of
his conquering and abandoning each woman he shows his scorn of the
sex. The true woman lover is really no Don Juan because he distributes
his sexual libido among a few women at the most and the emotional
overvaluation of these women furnishes the key to his attitude towards
the whole sex. Don Juan makes love in a manner apparently as if he
respected womankind. But the cold manner in which he dismisses his
victims betrays his complete contempt for the sex. He admires only the
women who withstand him and whom he cannot subdue. Such resistance
may lead eventually to the marriage of a Don Juan, a marriage which
necessarily proves unhappy and he continues his former life. For the
step has not furnished him what he is really seeking, man has eluded
him again.
Closer examination reveals the characteristic fact that frequently the
choice of lovers is determined by homosexual traits of one kind or
another. The Don Juan who runs after married women may be goaded on
by the fact that he likes the physical appearance of their husbands.
Naturally the thought heightens his feeling of self-esteem because it
must be a harder task to induce the wife of a handsome man to deceive
her husband than it would be to bring to one’s feet the wife of an ugly
man. A Don Juan told me once: “I have possessed all sorts of women, but
never cared for the wife of a simpleton. I have always considered it
beneath me and not worth while to deceive a fool.” Here we have a type
of man desirous to measure his wit against that of a sharp rival. (If
you are so very sharp, why don’t you look out better for your wife!)
The emphasis here is really upon the fact that he likes the husband,
admires him, and considers him a bright man. Before he makes up his
mind to get a woman he must like her husband, and he can be attracted
only by intelligent men. That condition is imperative before he engages
in any love adventure. _Maupassant_ describes this type of man in one
of his stories. The hero is interested only in married women whose
husbands attract him and are among his friends. I give the history of
an extreme case of this type in my chapter on jealousy in the present
work.
* * * * *
H. O., 49 years of age, is undergoing a severe mental crisis. He
relates that he was happily married, until an actress crossed his
path. He fell so deeply in love he could not leave her, he neglected
his home, was unable to follow his calling and was on the point of
committing suicide. It was not his custom to cling for long to any one
woman. Usually he changed sweethearts every few weeks.
“Did you say that your married life was happy?”
“Yes; that has never troubled me. I cannot be true to any woman. I must
change all the time. I am a polygamous being. This woman is the first
to whom I feel loyal and true right along, I did not feel so towards
my wife and only a few weeks after marriage I preferred the embrace
of other women, but this sweetheart of mine,—she has taken me off my
balance entirely, to her I am loyal. Think of it! I stand for her going
with other men, who support her. Who could have told me that I would
come to this! Every little while I decide to break with her and never
see her again. I have sworn it to my wife, who is heartbroken over
the affair. But I am too weak.... Save me! Free me from this terrible
plight! Restore me to my family.”
... This man’s life history is typical of the neurotic. He understood
sexual matters and masturbated at a very early age. He began to
masturbate as early as the sixth year at school and thinks that he
can even trace the beginning of the habit to an earlier date. He had
many play mates with whom he carried on the “usual childish games.”
These “usual childish games” turned out to be fellatio, pederasty,
manual onanism, and zoophily. The children pressed into service a
dog who by licking the parts produced the highest orgasm in them.
The last homosexual love he carried on at 14 years of age. He and a
colleague performed mutual masturbation. Once the two were warned
against the dangers of masturbation and they went together to a house
of prostitution. This they kept up for a long time because it increased
their satisfaction. Often they exchanged their sexual partners. (This
is not an uncommon practice through which latent homosexuals achieve
a heightening of their orgasm and cryptically reach after their male
companion. In houses of prostitution this practice is common among
friends.)
In a short time he developed into a genuine Don Juan. At 16 years of
age he had already become a full-fledged woman hunter and succeeded
in attracting his high school professor’s wife as his sweetheart. He
went after every woman, young or old, pretty or plain. He claims that
old women have yielded the highest pleasures and shows me a letter in
which _Franklin_ advises young men to cling to old women. But this
pronounced gerontophiliac tendency does not prevent him from having
relations with girls below age, almost children. His whole thought,
night and day, was concentrated upon women. His first thought upon
rising in the morning usually was: “What adventures await me today?”
If he finds himself in a room with a woman alone invariably he thinks:
“How can I get her?” Every woman he gets hold of he looks upon merely
as a means for gratification and soon tires of her. With the exception
of one elderly woman whom he occasionally visits he has not kept
up with any woman longer than a few weeks. Often after the first
intercourse he feels disgust for his new sexual partner and thinks to
himself: “You are not any different than the others!” Since his 16th
year he has had intercourse almost daily and often several times a day.
He was 32 years of age when he first met his present wife. Her father
was his superior at the office, a man for whom he had the very highest
respect. (“There are not many such men as he.”) He married the man’s
daughter, whom he held high in esteem high above all others of her sex,
and it was a very happy marriage. His only fear was that his wife would
find out about his amorous escapades. For no woman was safe near him
and even during the early part of their married life he kept up sexual
relations with their cook. Finally he managed to control himself at
least to the extent of avoiding any escapades under his own roof so
as to be more sure of keeping his wife in ignorance of his amorous
proclivities. But he always kept on the string a lot of women and girls
who were at his disposal whenever he wanted any of them.
He became acquainted with a young man whom he liked a great deal.
But there was one thing about that young man which repelled him:
he was homosexual and proud of it. This was something he could not
understand and he endeavored very zealously to rouse in his friend a
love for women. He failed completely; on the other hand his new friend
introduced him to the local homosexual circle, in which he became
interested merely as a “cultural problem.” He frequented a café where
homosexuals were in the habit of congregating and noticed that many
among them were of pronounced intellectual caliber. He was particularly
impressed by the fact that their common peculiarity levelled so
completely persons of different social standing. A Count met a waiter
or post office clerk as cordially as he would a most intimate friend. A
few weeks later he met the sister of his new friend and fell deeply in
love with her at first sight. That was his tremendous attachment.
It was plain that contact with the homosexuals had released some of
the inhibitions which had kept back his own latent homosexuality
and the latter trait now threatened to overpower him. There was but
one safeguard against that, namely: flight into love. The attachment
to his friend became now a passionate love for his friend’s sister,
who resembled her brother very closely. During coitus with his new
sweetheart it occurred to him early to give up succubus, and to try the
anal form of gratification, and this produced in him tremendous orgasm
such as he had never before experienced.
His wife was informed through anonymous letters of the state of
affairs. Moreover he had become very weak in his sexual relations with
her and was able to carry on his marital duties only with greatest
difficulty.
Psychoanalysis brought wonderful results in this case. He learned
quickly to recognise his emotional fixations and only wondered that he
was too blind not to have seen for himself that he really loved the
brother through that woman. He broke with the actress in a dignified
manner. He proposed that if she should give up her intimate relations
with all other men he would keep his word and marry her. He still loved
her but he was no longer in the dark. She laughed in his face. Did he
really think that he could meet the cost of her wardrobe and other
needs? That put an end to the attachment. He was ashamed afterwards
to think that he should have preferred such a woman to his wife. The
analysis of a remarkable dream brought about the complete severing of
his infantile fixations.
The dream: _I am with Otto_—that was his friend’s name—_in a room. He
walks up to me and says: “Don’t you see that I love you and want you!”
I try to avoid his love pats and draw a revolver out of my pocket. I
hold it high and am ready to shoot my friend. But instead of my friend
I see standing before me my son, and my boy’s sincere blue eyes look up
at me imploringly: ‘Protect me!’ I throw down the revolver and run out
of the room._
His young friend resembled somewhat his boy to whom he was specially
devoted just before the unfortunate love affair....
This case shows that sometimes a great and passionate love arises to
save the lover from himself. There are times when it becomes necessary
to love and then the object of one’s love, though falling short of
the actual yearnings of one’s soul, becomes emotionally overvalued so
that the intoxication of love leads to forgetfulness (like every other
intoxication). Any love affair which breaks out during later life
rouses the suspicion that it is an attempt to save one’s self with all
one’s might from homosexuality. The characteristic signs of such a
love are its exaggerated and compulsory character. The lovesick man is
unable to keep away from his sweetheart; he wants to have her by his
side all the time; she must accompany him everywhere; even in sleep
he puts his hand out to his sweetheart as if to protect him from every
temptation. And I have seen cases in which the curious infatuation
was able to withstand all opposition when it must be looked upon as a
successful healing process.
In the course of analysis it not infrequently happens that those who
call for advice transfer their attachment to their consultant, feel
tremendously attached to him and in this state of emotional readiness
the first woman who happens along becomes the object of their most
intense love emotion as the shortest way out of a sexual danger. The
sexual danger in question is homosexuality.
Don Juan, Cassanova, Retif de la Bretonne,—all flee from man and seek
salvation in woman. Retif is a foot fetichist. The choice of this
fetich, typically bisexual, already indicates latent homosexuality.
Insatiable woman hunters often end their flight away from homosexuality
by falling into the deepest neuroses.
The next case history illustrated this fact:
G. K., a prominent inventor, 32 years of age, consults me for a number
of _remarkable_ compulsory acts which he must always carry out before
retiring for the night. He must prove about twenty times to make
sure that the doors are all locked. Then he goes through the house
and submits every foot of the place to the most painfully detailed
and careful search to make sure that no burglar is hidden anywhere.
He looks not only under the beds but into every box and drawer and
closet, opening and closing each one in turn, and very carefully. One
can never tell where a burglar may hide himself! By the time he has
concluded this search it is nearly midnight. The terribly arduous
procedure fatigues him for he has to look everywhere, emptying even
the book cases in the course of his search for fear that the burglar
may be hidden back of the books, and it is midnight when he crawls
into bed, although he begins his preparations around ten o’clock. Then
he is usually tormented with doubt whether he has done everything. It
occurs to him that he did not go into the nursery at all, where his
three children are asleep. The boy’s room, too, has not been searched.
Jumping out of bed he lights a candle and in his night toilette makes
his way to the children’s rooms, unable to rest any longer. The girls
are already accustomed to seeing him that way, nevertheless they jump
out of their sleep scared. In his white nightgown, like a shadow, he
moves from place to place with lighted candle in hand, looks under the
children’s bed, under the servant girl’s bed and incidentally makes
sure that no man lies by her side in bed. During these rounds every
door and every window is tried whether it is safely locked. It is now
long past midnight. Exhausted he returns to his bed. Again various
doubts begin to torture him: did or did he not try this, or that, or
the other particular door, is the gasometer safely turned off, and
again in his thoughts he rehearses every detail. His logical faculty
tells him: you have done everything, you need not have any further
concern, it is high time you went to sleep! But logic is powerless when
his doubts overpower him. Again he rises and takes a few additional
precautions which I need not detail here. Thus it may be three or four
o’clock in the morning and even later before he is finally through.
Then he lies down in his wife’s bed and wakes her up. Only after
coitus, which he carries out regularly every night, he falls asleep.
But by that time the night is over and the dawn is just breaking. He
remains in bed exhausted, often sleeping till past the noon hour, much
to his wife’s disgust. The whole house is in uproar. The children wake
up but are taken to another wing of the house because “papa is asleep
and must not be waked up!” As he is very wealthy, he has his way.
The servants are paid extra well so that they are willing to put up
with “that queer household.” Afternoons he is at work in his chemical
laboratory. His researches have made him famous. He is a very capable
chemist, possessing wonderful ideas and his patents have brought him a
great fortune.
In addition to all that he is obsessed by another compulsory thought,
which seems very extraordinary. Continually he wants to know how
everybody likes his wife and whether she is still considered a
pretty woman. Regard for her appearance is his greatest concern.
Many afternoons he spends with her in the fitting rooms of modistes
and tailors. He reproaches her for not knowing how to dress tastily,
and scolds her because she does not take proper care of herself. On
the other hand he is entirely indifferent regarding the manner of
her appearance in the house. He is greatly concerned only with the
impression his wife makes upon other men. It also disturbs him if other
women do not find his wife beautiful but he worries more if men fail to
notice her. As he dreads evenings he spends the time in the company of
friends. (Thus the ceremonial on retiring is delayed and he sleeps to a
late hour into the day.)