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NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH SERIES NO. 7
THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF SEX
_SECOND EDITION_
_SECOND REPRINTING_
BY
PROF. SIGMUND FREUD, LL.D.
VIENNA
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY
A.A. BRILL, PH.B., M.D.
CLINICAL ASSISTANT, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGY, COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY; ASSISTANT IN MENTAL DISEASES, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL; ASSISTANT
VISITING PHYSICIAN, HOSPITAL FOR NERVOUS DISEASES
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
JAMES J. PUTNAM, M.D.
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1920
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION v
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION x
I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS 1
II. THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY 36
III. THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBERTY 68
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION
The somewhat famous "Three Essays," which Dr. Brill is here bringing to
the attention of an English-reading public, occupy--brief as they
are--an important position among the achievements of their author, a
great investigator and pioneer in an important line. It is not claimed
that the facts here gathered are altogether new. The subject of the
sexual instinct and its aberrations has long been before the scientific
world and the names of many effective toilers in this vast field are
known to every student. When one passes beyond the strict domains of
science and considers what is reported of the sexual life in folkways
and art-lore and the history of primitive culture and in romance, the
sources of information are immense. Freud has made considerable
additions to this stock of knowledge, but he has done also something of
far greater consequence than this. He has worked out, with incredible
penetration, the part which this instinct plays in every phase of human
life and in the development of human character, and has been able to
establish on a firm footing the remarkable thesis that psychoneurotic
illnesses never occur with a perfectly normal sexual life. Other sorts
of emotions contribute to the result, but some aberration of the sexual
life is always present, as the cause of especially insistent emotions
and repressions.
The instincts with which every child is born furnish desires or cravings
which must be dealt with in some fashion. They may be refined
("sublimated"), so far as is necessary and desirable, into energies of
other sorts--as happens readily with the play-instinct--or they may
remain as the source of perversions and inversions, and of cravings of
new sorts substituted for those of the more primitive kinds under the
pressure of a conventional civilization. The symptoms of the functional
psychoneuroses represent, after a fashion, some of these distorted
attempts to find a substitute for the imperative cravings born of the
sexual instincts, and their form often depends, in part at least, on the
peculiarities of the sexual life in infancy and early childhood. It is
Freud's service to have investigated this inadequately chronicled period
of existence with extraordinary acumen. In so doing he made it plain
that the "perversions" and "inversions," which reappear later under such
striking shapes, belong to the normal sexual life of the young child and
are seen, in veiled forms, in almost every case of nervous illness.
It cannot too often be repeated that these discoveries represent no
fanciful deductions, but are the outcome of rigidly careful observations
which any one who will sufficiently prepare himself can verify. Critics
fret over the amount of "sexuality" that Freud finds evidence of in the
histories of his patients, and assume that he puts it there. But such
criticisms are evidences of misunderstandings and proofs of ignorance.
Freud had learned that the amnesias of hypnosis and of hysteria were not
absolute but relative and that in covering the lost memories, much more,
of unexpected sort, was often found. Others, too, had gone as far as
this, and stopped. But this investigator determined that nothing but the
absolute impossibility of going further should make him cease from
urging his patients into an inexorable scrutiny of the unconscious
regions of their memories and thoughts, such as never had been made
before. Every species of forgetfulness, even the forgetfulness of
childhood's years, was made to yield its hidden stores of knowledge;
dreams, even though apparently absurd, were found to be interpreters of
a varied class of thoughts, active, although repressed as out of harmony
with the selected life of consciousness; layer after layer, new sets of
motives underlying motives were laid bare, and each patient's interest
was strongly enlisted in the task of learning to know himself in order
more truly and wisely to "sublimate" himself. Gradually other workers
joined patiently in this laborious undertaking, which now stands, for
those who have taken pains to comprehend it, as by far the most
important movement in psychopathology.
It must, however, be recognized that these essays, of which Dr. Brill
has given a translation that cannot but be timely, concern a subject
which is not only important but unpopular. Few physicians read the works
of v. Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Moll, and others of like sort.
The remarkable volumes of Havelock Ellis were refused publication in his
native England. The sentiments which inspired this hostile attitude
towards the study of the sexual life are still active, though growing
steadily less common. One may easily believe that if the facts which
Freud's truth-seeking researches forced him to recognize and to publish
had not been of an unpopular sort, his rich and abundant contributions
to observational psychology, to the significance of dreams, to the
etiology and therapeutics of the psychoneuroses, to the interpretation
of mythology, would have won for him, by universal acclaim, the same
recognition among all physicians that he has received from a rapidly
increasing band of followers and colleagues.
May Dr. Brill's translation help toward this end.
There are two further points on which some comments should be made. The
first is this, that those who conscientiously desire to learn all that
they can from Freud's remarkable contributions should not be content to
read any one of them alone. His various publications, such as "The
Selected Papers on Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses,"[1] "The
Interpretation of Dreams,"[2] "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life,"[3]
"Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious,"[4] the analysis of the case
of the little boy called Hans, the study of Leonardo da Vinci,[4a] and
the various short essays in the four Sammlungen kleiner Schriften, not
only all hang together, but supplement each other to a remarkable
extent. Unless a course of study such as this is undertaken many critics
may think various statements and inferences in this volume to be far
fetched or find them too obscure for comprehension.
The other point is the following: One frequently hears the
psychoanalytic method referred to as if it was customary for those
practicing it to exploit the sexual experiences of their patients and
nothing more, and the insistence on the details of the sexual life,
presented in this book, is likely to emphasize that notion. But the fact
is, as every thoughtful inquirer is aware, that the whole progress of
civilization, whether in the individual or the race, consists largely in
a "sublimation" of infantile instincts, and especially certain portions
of the sexual instinct, to other ends than those which they seemed
designed to serve. Art and poetry are fed on this fuel and the evolution
of character and mental force is largely of the same origin. All the
forms which this sublimation, or the abortive attempts at sublimation,
may take in any given case, should come out in the course of a thorough
psychoanalysis. It is not the sexual life alone, but every interest and
every motive, that must be inquired into by the physician who is seeking
to obtain all the data about the patient, necessary for his reeducation
and his cure. But all the thoughts and emotions and desires and motives
which appear in the man or woman of adult years were once crudely
represented in the obscure instincts of the infant, and among these
instincts those which were concerned directly or indirectly with the
sexual emotions, in a wide sense, are certain to be found in every case
to have been the most important for the end-result.
JAMES J. PUTNAM.
BOSTON, August 23, 1910.
[1] Translated by A.A. Brill, NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH
SERIES, NO. 4.
[2] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York, and Allen &
Unwin, London.
[3] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York.
[4] Translated by A.A. Brill, Moffatt, Yard & Co., New York.
[4a] Translated by A.A. Brill, Moffatt, Yard & Co., New York.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
Although the author is fully aware of the gaps and obscurities contained
in this small volume, he has, nevertheless, resisted a temptation to add
to it the results obtained from the investigations of the last five
years, fearing that thus its unified and documentary character would be
destroyed. He accordingly reproduces the original text with but slight
modifications, contenting himself with the addition of a few footnotes.
For the rest, it is his ardent wish that this book may speedily become
antiquated--to the end that the new material brought forward in it may
be universally accepted, while the shortcomings it displays may give
place to juster views.
VIENNA, December, 1909.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
After watching for ten years the reception accorded to this book and the
effect it has produced, I wish to provide the third edition of it with
some prefatory remarks dealing with the misunderstandings of the book
and the demands, insusceptible of fulfillment, made against it. Let me
emphasize in the first place that whatever is here presented is derived
entirely from every-day medical experience which is to be made more
profound and scientifically important through the results of
psychoanalytic investigation. The "Three Contributions to the Theory of
Sex" can contain nothing except what psychoanalysis obliges them to
accept or what it succeeds in corroborating. It is therefore excluded
that they should ever be developed into a "theory of sex," and it is
also quite intelligible that they will assume no attitude at all towards
some important problems of the sexual life. This should not however give
the impression that these omitted chapters of the great theme were
unfamiliar to the author, or that they were neglected by him as
something of secondary importance.
The dependence of this work on the psychoanalytic experiences which have
determined the writing of it, shows itself not only in the selection but
also in the arrangement of the material. A certain succession of stages
was observed, the occasional factors are rendered prominent, the
constitutional ones are left in the background, and the ontogenetic
development receives greater consideration than the phylogenetic. For
the occasional factors play the principal rôle in analysis, and are
almost completely worked up in it, while the constitutional factors only
become evident from behind as elements which have been made functional
through experience, and a discussion of these would lead far beyond the
working sphere of psychoanalysis.
A similar connection determines the relation between ontogenesis and
phylogenesis. Ontogenesis may be considered as a repetition of
phylogenesis insofar as the latter has not been varied by a more recent
experience. The phylogenetic disposition makes itself visible behind the
ontogenetic process. But fundamentally the constitution is really the
precipitate of a former experience of the species to which the newer
experience of the individual being is added as the sum of the occasional
factors.
Beside its thoroughgoing dependence on psychoanalytic investigation I
must emphasize as a character of this work of mine its intentional
independence of biological investigation. I have carefully avoided the
inclusion of the results of scientific investigation in general sex
biology or of particular species of animals in this study of human
sexual functions which is made possible by the technique of
psychoanalysis. My aim was indeed to find out how much of the biology of
the sexual life of man can be discovered by means of psychological
investigation; I was able to point to additions and agreements which
resulted from this examination, but I did not have to become confused if
the psychoanalytic methods led in some points to views and results which
deviated considerably from those merely based on biology.
I have added many passages in this edition, but I have abstained from
calling attention to them, as in former editions, by special marks. The
scientific work in our sphere has at present been retarded in its
progress, nevertheless some supplements to this work were indispensable
if it was to remain in touch with our newer psychoanalytic literature.
VIENNA, October, 1914.
I
THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS[1]
The fact of sexual need in man and animal is expressed in biology by the
assumption of a "sexual impulse." This impulse is made analogous to the
impulse of taking nourishment, and to hunger. The sexual expression
corresponding to hunger not being found colloquilly, science uses the
expression "libido."[2]
Popular conception makes definite assumptions concerning the nature and
qualities of this sexual impulse. It is supposed to be absent during
childhood and to commence about the time of and in connection with the
maturing process of puberty; it is supposed that it manifests itself in
irresistible attractions exerted by one sex upon the other, and that its
aim is sexual union or at least such actions as would lead to union.
But we have every reason to see in these assumptions a very
untrustworthy picture of reality. On closer examination they are found
to abound in errors, inaccuracies and hasty conclusions.
If we introduce two terms and call the person from whom the sexual
attraction emanates the _sexual object_, and the action towards which
the impulse strives the _sexual aim_, then the scientifically examined
experience shows us many deviations in reference to both sexual object
and sexual aim, the relations of which to the accepted standard require
thorough investigation.
1. DEVIATION IN REFERENCE TO THE SEXUAL OBJECT
The popular theory of the sexual impulse corresponds closely to the
poetic fable of dividing the person into two halves--man and woman--who
strive to become reunited through love. It is therefore very surprising
to hear that there are men for whom the sexual object is not woman but
man, and that there are women for whom it is not man but woman. Such
_persons_ are called contrary sexuals, or better, inverts; the
_condition_, that of inversion. The number of such individuals is
considerable though difficult of accurate determination.[3]
A. _Inversion_
*The Behavior of Inverts.*--The above-mentioned persons behave in many
ways quite differently.
(_a_) They are absolutely inverted; _i.e._, their sexual object must be
always of the same sex, while the opposite sex can never be to them an
object of sexual longing, but leaves them indifferent or may even evoke
sexual repugnance. As men they are unable, on account of this
repugnance, to perform the normal sexual act or miss all pleasure in its
performance.
(_b_) They are amphigenously inverted (psychosexually hermaphroditic);
_i.e._, their sexual object may belong indifferently to either the same
or to the other sex. The inversion lacks the character of exclusiveness.
(_c_) They are occasionally inverted; _i.e._, under certain external
conditions, chief among which are the inaccessibility of the normal
sexual object and initiation, they are able to take as the sexual
object a person of the same sex and thus find sexual gratification.
The inverted also manifest a manifold behavior in their judgment about
the peculiarities of their sexual impulse. Some take the inversion as a
matter of course, just as the normal person does regarding his libido,
firmly demanding the same rights as the normal. Others, however, strive
against the fact of their inversion and perceive in it a morbid
compulsion.[4]
Other variations concern the relations of time. The characteristics of
the inversion in any individual may date back as far as his memory goes,
or they may become manifest to him at a definite period before or after
puberty.[5] The character is either retained throughout life, or it
occasionally recedes or represents an episode on the road to normal
development. A periodical fluctuation between the normal and the
inverted sexual object has also been observed. Of special interest are
those cases in which the libido changes, taking on the character of
inversion after a painful experience with the normal sexual object.
These different categories of variation generally exist independently of
one another. In the most extreme cases it can regularly be assumed that
the inversion has existed at all times and that the person feels
contented with his peculiar state.
Many authors will hesitate to gather into a unit all the cases
enumerated here and will prefer to emphasize the differences rather than
the common characters of these groups, a view which corresponds with
their preferred judgment of inversions. But no matter what divisions may
be set up, it cannot be overlooked that all transitions are abundantly
met with, so that the formation of a series would seem to impose itself.
*Conception of Inversion.*--The first attention bestowed upon inversion
gave rise to the conception that it was a congenital sign of nervous
degeneration. This harmonized with the fact that doctors first met it
among the nervous, or among persons giving such an impression. There are
two elements which should be considered independently in this
conception: the congenitality, and the degeneration.
*Degeneration.*--This term _degeneration_ is open to the objections
which may be urged against the promiscuous use of this word in general.
It has in fact become customary to designate all morbid manifestations
not of traumatic or infectious origin as degenerative. Indeed, Magnan's
classification of degenerates makes it possible that the highest general
configuration of nervous accomplishment need not exclude the application
of the concept of degeneration. Under the circumstances, it is a
question what use and what new content the judgment of "degeneration"
still possesses. It would seem more appropriate not to speak of
degeneration: (1) Where there are not many marked deviations from the
normal; (2) where the capacity for working and living do not in general
appear markedly impaired.[6]
That the inverted are not degenerates in this qualified sense can be
seen from the following facts:
1. The inversion is found among persons who otherwise show no marked
deviation from the normal.
2. It is found also among persons whose capabilities are not disturbed,
who on the contrary are distinguished by especially high intellectual
development and ethical culture.[7]
3. If one disregards the patients of one's own practice and strives to
comprehend a wider field of experience, he will in two directions
encounter facts which will prevent him from assuming inversions as a
degenerative sign.
(_a_) It must be considered that inversion was a frequent manifestation
among the ancient nations at the height of their culture. It was an
institution endowed with important functions. (_b_) It is found to be
unusually prevalent among savages and primitive races, whereas the term
degeneration is generally limited to higher civilization (I. Bloch).
Even among the most civilized nations of Europe, climate and race have a
most powerful influence on the distribution of, and attitude toward,
inversion.[8]
*Innateness.*--Only for the first and most extreme class of inverts, as
can be imagined, has innateness been claimed, and this from their own
assurance that at no time in their life has their sexual impulse
followed a different course. The fact of the existence of two other
classes, especially of the third, is difficult to reconcile with the
assumption of its being congenital. Hence, the propensity of those
holding this view to separate the group of absolute inverts from the
others results in the abandonment of the general conception of
inversion. Accordingly in a number of cases the inversion would be of a
congenital character, while in others it might originate from other
causes.
In contradistinction to this conception is that which assumes inversion
to be an _acquired_ character of the sexual impulse. It is based on the
following facts. (1) In many inverts (even absolute ones) an early
affective sexual impression can be demonstrated, as a result of which
the homosexual inclination developed. (2) In many others outer
influences of a promoting and inhibiting nature can be demonstrated,
which in earlier or later life led to a fixation of the inversion--among
which are exclusive relations with the same sex, companionship in war,
detention in prison, dangers of hetero-sexual intercourse, celibacy,
sexual weakness, etc. (3) Hypnotic suggestion may remove the inversion,
which would be surprising in that of a congenital character.
In view of all this, the existence of congenital inversion can certainly
be questioned. The objection may be made to it that a more accurate
examination of those claimed to be congenitally inverted will probably
show that the direction of the libido was determined by a definite
experience of early childhood, which has not been retained in the
conscious memory of the person, but which can be brought back to memory
by proper influences (Havelock Ellis). According to that author
inversion can be designated only as a frequent variation of the sexual
impulse which may be determined by a number of external circumstances of
life.
The apparent certainty thus reached is, however, overthrown by the
retort that manifestly there are many persons who have experienced even
in their early youth those very sexual influences, such as seduction,
mutual onanism, without becoming inverts, or without constantly
remaining so. Hence, one is forced to assume that the alternatives
congenital and acquired are either incomplete or do not cover the
circumstances present in inversions.
*Explanation of Inversion.*--The nature of inversion is explained
neither by the assumption that it is congenital nor that it is acquired.
In the first case, we need to be told what there is in it of the
congenital, unless we are satisfied with the roughest explanation,
namely, that a person brings along a congenital sexual impulse connected
with a definite sexual object. In the second case it is a question
whether the manifold accidental influences suffice to explain the
acquisition unless there is something in the individual to meet them
half way. The negation of this last factor is inadmissible according to
our former conclusions.
*The Relation of Bisexuality.*--Since the time of Frank Lydston,
Kiernan, and Chevalier, a new series of ideas has been introduced for
the explanation of the possibility of sexual inversion. This contains a
new contradiction to the popular belief which assumes that a human being
is either a man or a woman. Science shows cases in which the sexual
characteristics appear blurred and thus the sexual distinction is made
difficult, especially on an anatomical basis. The genitals of such
persons unite the male and female characteristics (hermaphroditism). In
rare cases both parts of the sexual apparatus are well developed (true
hermaphroditism), but usually both are stunted.[9]
The importance of these abnormalities lies in the fact that they
unexpectedly facilitate the understanding of the normal formation. A
certain degree of anatomical hermaphroditism really belongs to the
normal. In no normally formed male or female are traces of the apparatus
of the other sex lacking; these either continue functionless as
rudimentary organs, or they are transformed for the purpose of assuming
other functions.
The conception which we gather from this long known anatomical fact is
the original predisposition to bisexuality, which in the course of
development has changed to monosexuality, leaving slight remnants of the
stunted sex.
It was natural to transfer this conception to the psychic sphere and to
conceive the inversion in its aberrations as an expression of psychic
hermaphroditism. In order to bring the question to a decision, it was
only necessary to have one other circumstance, viz., a regular
concurrence of the inversion with the psychic and somatic signs of
hermaphroditism.
But this second expectation was not realized. The relations between the
assumed psychical and the demonstrable anatomical androgyny should never
be conceived as being so close. There is frequently found in the
inverted a diminution of the sexual impulse (H. Ellis) and a slight
anatomical stunting of the organs. This, however, is found frequently
but by no means regularly or preponderately. Thus we must recognize that
inversion and somatic hermaphroditism are totally independent of each
other.
Great importance has also been attached to the so-called secondary and
tertiary sex characters and their aggregate occurrence in the inverted
has been emphasized (H. Ellis). There is much truth in this but it
should not be forgotten that the secondary and tertiary sex
characteristics very frequently manifest themselves in the other sex,
thus indicating androgyny without, however, involving changes in the
sexual object in the sense of an inversion.
Psychic hermaphroditism would gain in substantiality if parallel with
the inversion of the sexual object there should be at least a change in
the other psychic qualities, such as in the impulses and distinguishing
traits characteristic of the other sex. But such inversion of character
can be expected with some regularity only in inverted women; in men the
most perfect psychic manliness may be united with the inversion. If one
firmly adheres to the hypothesis of a psychic hermaphroditism, one must
add that in certain spheres its manifestations allow the recognition of
only a very slight contrary determination. The same also holds true in
the somatic androgyny. According to Halban, the appearance of individual
stunted organs and secondary sex characters are quite independent of
each other.[10]
A spokesman of the masculine inverts stated the bisexual theory in its
crudest form in the following words: "It is a female brain in a male
body." But we do not know the characteristics of a "female brain." The
substitution of the anatomical for the psychological is as frivolous as
it is unjustified. The tentative explanation by v. Krafft-Ebing seems to
be more precisely formulated than that of Ulrich but does not
essentially differ from it. v. Krafft-Ebing thinks that the bisexual
predisposition gives to the individual male and female brain centers as
well as somatic sexual organs. These centers develop first towards
puberty mostly under the influence of the independent sex glands. We
can, however, say the same of the male and female "centers" as of the
male and female brains; and, moreover, we do not even know whether we
can assume for the sexual functions separate brain locations ("centers")
such as we may assume for language.
After this discussion, two notions, at all events, persist; first, that
a bisexual predisposition is to be presumed for the inversion also, only
we do not know of what it consists beyond the anatomical formations;
and, second, that we are dealing with disturbances which are experienced
by the sexual impulse during its development.[11]
*The Sexual Object of Inverts.*--The theory of psychic hermaphroditism
presupposed that the sexual object of the inverted is the reverse of the
normal. The inverted man, like the woman, succumbs to the charms
emanating from manly qualities of body and mind; he feels himself like a
woman and seeks a man.
But however true this may be for a great number of inverts, it by no
means indicates the general character of inversion. There is no doubt
that a great part of the male inverted have retained the psychic
character of virility, that proportionately they show but little of the
secondary characters of the other sex, and that they really look for
real feminine psychic features in their sexual object. If that were not
so it would be incomprehensible why masculine prostitution, in offering
itself to inverts, copies in all its exterior, to-day as in antiquity,
the dress and attitudes of woman. This imitation would otherwise be an
insult to the ideal of the inverts. Among the Greeks, where the most
manly men were found among inverts, it is quite obvious that it was not
the masculine character of the boy which kindled the love of man, but it
was his physical resemblance to woman as well as his feminine psychic
qualities, such as shyness, demureness, and the need of instruction and
help. As soon as the boy himself became a man he ceased to be a sexual
object for men and in turn became a lover of boys. The sexual object in
this case as in many others is therefore not of the like sex, but it
unites both sex characters, a compromise between the impulses striving
for the man and for the woman, but firmly conditioned by the masculinity
of body (the genitals).[12]
The conditions in the woman are more definite; here the active inverts,
with special frequency, show the somatic and psychic characters of man
and desire femininity in their sexual object; though even here greater
variation will be found on more intimate investigation.
*The Sexual Aim of Inverts.*--The important fact to bear in mind is that
no uniformity of the sexual aim can be attributed to inversion.
Intercourse per anum in men by no means goes with inversion;
masturbation is just as frequently the exclusive aim; and the limitation
of the sexual aim to mere effusion of feelings is here even more
frequent than in hetero-sexual love. In women, too, the sexual aims of
the inverted are manifold, among which contact with the mucous membrane
of the mouth seems to be preferred.
*Conclusion.*--Though from the material on hand we are by no means in a
position satisfactorily to explain the origin of inversion, we can say
that through this investigation we have obtained an insight which can
become of greater significance to us than the solution of the above
problem. Our attention is called to the fact that we have assumed a too
close connection between the sexual impulse and the sexual object. The
experience gained from the so called abnormal cases teaches us that a
connection exists between the sexual impulse and the sexual object which
we are in danger of overlooking in the uniformity of normal states where
the impulse seems to bring with it the object. We are thus instructed to
separate this connection between the impulse and the object. The sexual
impulse is probably entirely independent of its object and is not
originated by the stimuli proceeding from the object.
B. _The Sexually Immature and Animals as Sexual Objects_
Whereas those sexual inverts whose sexual object does not belong to the
normally adapted sex, appear to the observer as a collective number of
perhaps otherwise normal individuals, the persons who choose for their
sexual object the sexually immature (children) are apparently from the
first sporadic aberrations. Only exceptionally are children the
exclusive sexual objects. They are mostly drawn into this rôle by a
faint-hearted and impotent individual who makes use of such substitutes,
or when an impulsive urgent desire cannot at the time secure the proper
object. Still it throws some light on the nature of the sexual impulse,
that it should suffer such great variation and depreciation of its
object, a thing which hunger, adhering more energetically to its object,
would allow only in the most extreme cases. The same may be said of
sexual relations with animals--a thing not at all rare among
farmers--where the sexual attraction goes beyond the limits of the
species.
For esthetic reasons one would fain attribute this and other excessive
aberrations of the sexual impulse to the insane, but this cannot be
done. Experience teaches that among the latter no disturbances of the
sexual impulse can be found other than those observed among the sane, or
among whole races and classes. Thus we find with gruesome frequency
sexual abuse of children by teachers and servants merely because they
have the best opportunities for it. The insane present the aforesaid
aberration only in a somewhat intensified form; or what is of special
significance is the fact that the aberration becomes exclusive and takes
the place of the normal sexual gratification.
This very remarkable relation of sexual variations ranging from the
normal to the insane gives material for reflection. It seems to me that
the fact to be explained would show that the impulses of the sexual life
belong to those which even normally are most poorly controlled by the
higher psychic activities. He who is in any way psychically abnormal, be
it in social or ethical conditions, is, according to my experience,
regularly so in his sexual life. But many are abnormal in their sexual
life who in every other respect correspond to the average; they have
followed the human cultural development, but sexuality remained as their
weak point.
As a general result of these discussions we come to see that, under
numerous conditions and among a surprising number of individuals, the
nature and value of the sexual object steps into the background. There
is something else in the sexual impulse which is the essential and
constant.[13]
2. DEVIATION IN REFERENCE TO THE SEXUAL AIM
The union of the genitals in the characteristic act of copulation is
taken as the normal sexual aim. It serves to loosen the sexual tension
and temporarily to quench the sexual desire (gratification analogous to
satisfaction of hunger). Yet even in the most normal sexual process
those additions are distinguishable, the development of which leads to
the aberrations described as _perversions_. Thus certain intermediary
relations to the sexual object connected with copulation, such as
touching and looking, are recognized as preliminary to the sexual aim.
These activities are on the one hand themselves connected with pleasure
and on the other hand they enhance the excitement which persists until
the definite sexual aim is reached. One definite kind of contiguity,
consisting of mutual approximation of the mucous membranes of the lips
in the form of a kiss, has received among the most civilized nations a
sexual value, though the parts of the body concerned do not belong to
the sexual apparatus but form the entrance to the digestive tract. This
therefore supplies the factors which allow us to bring the perversions
into relation with the normal sexual life, and which are available also
for their classification. The perversions are either (_a_) anatomical
_transgressions_ of the bodily regions destined for sexual union, or (_b_)
a _lingering_ at the intermediary relations to the sexual object which
should normally be rapidly passed on the way to the definite sexual aim.
(_a_) _Anatomical Transgression_
*Overestimation of the Sexual Object.*--The psychic estimation in which
the sexual object as a goal of the sexual impulse shares is only in the
rarest cases limited to the genitals; generally it embraces the whole
body and tends to include all sensations emanating from the sexual
object. The same overestimation spreads over the psychic sphere and
manifests itself as a logical blinding (diminished judgment) in the face
of the psychic attainments and perfections of the sexual object, as well
as a blind obedience to the judgments issuing from the latter. The full
faith of love thus becomes an important, if not the primordial source of
authority.[14]
It is this sexual overvaluation, which so ill agrees with the
restriction of the sexual aim to the union of the genitals only, that
assists other parts of the body to participate as sexual aims.[15] In
the development of this most manifold anatomical overestimation there is
an unmistakable desire towards variation, a thing denominated by Hoche
as "excitement-hunger" (Reiz-hunger).[16]
*Sexual Utilization of the Mucous Membrane of the Lips and Mouth.*--The
significance of the factor of sexual overestimation can be best studied
in the man, in whom alone the sexual life is accessible to
investigation, whereas in the woman it is veiled in impenetrable
darkness, partly in consequence of cultural stunting and partly on
account of the conventional reticence and dishonesty of women.
The employment of the mouth as a sexual organ is considered as a
perversion if the lips (tongue) of the one are brought into contact with
the genitals of the other, but not when the mucous membrane of the lips
of both touch each other. In the latter exception we find the connection
with the normal. He who abhors the former as perversions, though these
since antiquity have been common practices among mankind, yields to a
distinct _feeling of loathing_ which protects him from adopting such
sexual aims. The limit of such loathing is frequently purely
conventional; he who kisses fervently the lips of a pretty girl will
perhaps be able to use her tooth brush only with a sense of loathing,
though there is no reason to assume that his own oral cavity for which
he entertains no loathing is cleaner than that of the girl. Our
attention is here called to the factor of loathing which stands in the
way of the libidinous overestimation of the sexual aim, but which may
in turn be vanquished by the libido. In the loathing we may observe one
of the forces which have brought about the restrictions of the sexual
aim. As a rule these forces halt at the genitals; there is, however, no
doubt that even the genitals of the other sex themselves may be an
object of loathing. Such behavior is characteristic of all hysterics,
especially women. The force of the sexual impulse prefers to occupy
itself with the overcoming of this loathing (see below).
*Sexual Utilization of the Anal Opening.*--It is even more obvious than
in the former case that it is the loathing which stamps as a perversion
the use of the anus as a sexual aim. But it should not be interpreted as
espousing a cause when I observe that the basis of this
loathing--namely, that this part of the body serves for the excretion
and comes in contact with the loathsome excrement--is not more plausible
than the basis which hysterical girls have for the disgust which they
entertain for the male genital because it serves for urination.
The sexual rôle of the mucous membrane of the anus is by no means
limited to intercourse between men; its preference has nothing
characteristic of the inverted feeling. On the contrary, it seems that
the _pedicatio_ of the man owes its rôle to the analogy with the act in
the woman, whereas among inverts it is mutual masturbation which is the
most common sexual aim.
*The Significance of Other Parts of the Body.*--Sexual infringement on
the other parts of the body, in all its variations, offers nothing new;
it adds nothing to our knowledge of the sexual impulse which herein only
announces its intention to dominate the sexual object in every way.
Besides the sexual overvaluation, a second and generally unknown factor
may be mentioned among the anatomical transgressions. Certain parts of
the body, like the mucous membrane of the mouth and anus, which
repeatedly appear in such practices, lay claim as it were to be
considered and treated as genitals. We shall hear how this claim is
justified by the development of the sexual impulse, and how it is
fulfilled in the symptomatology of certain morbid conditions.
*Unfit Substitutes for the Sexual Object. Fetichism.*--We are especially
impressed by those cases in which for the normal sexual object another
is substituted which is related to it but which is totally unfit for the
normal sexual aim. According to the scheme of the introduction we should
have done better to mention this most interesting group of aberrations
of the sexual impulse among the deviations in reference to the sexual
object, but we have deferred mention of these until we became acquainted
with the factor of sexual overestimation, upon which these
manifestations, connected with the relinquishing of the sexual aim,
depend.
The substitute for the sexual object is generally a part of the body but
little adapted for sexual purposes, such as the foot, or hair, or an
inanimate object which is in demonstrable relation with the sexual
person, and preferably with the sexuality of the same (fragments of
clothing, white underwear). This substitution is not unjustly compared
with the fetich in which the savage sees the embodiment of his god.
The transition to the cases of fetichism, with a renunciation of a
normal or of a perverted sexual aim, is formed by cases in which a
fetichistic determination is demanded in the sexual object if the sexual
aim is to be attained (definite color of hair, clothing, even physical
blemishes). No other variation of the sexual impulse verging on the
pathological claims our interest as much as this one, owing to the
peculiarity occasioned by its manifestations. A certain diminution in
the striving for the normal sexual aim may be presupposed in all these
cases (executive weakness of the sexual apparatus).[17] The connection
with the normal is occasioned by the psychologically necessary
overestimation of the sexual object, which inevitably encroaches upon
everything associatively related to it (sexual object). A certain degree
of such fetichism therefore regularly belong to the normal, especially
during those stages of wooing when the normal sexual aim seems
inaccessible or its realization deferred.
"Get me a handkerchief from her bosom--a garter of my love."
--FAUST.
The case becomes pathological only when the striving for the fetich
fixes itself beyond such determinations and takes the place of the
normal sexual aim; or again, when the fetich disengages itself from the
person concerned and itself becomes a sexual object. These are the
general determinations for the transition of mere variations of the
sexual impulse into pathological aberrations.
The persistent influence of a sexual impress mostly received in early
childhood often shows itself in the selection of a fetich, as Binet
first asserted, and as was later proven by many illustrations,--a thing
which may be placed parallel to the proverbial attachment to a first
love in the normal ("On revient toujours à ses premiers amours"). Such a
connection is especially seen in cases with only fetichistic
determinations of the sexual object. The significance of early sexual
impressions will be met again in other places.
In other cases it was mostly a symbolic thought association, unconscious
to the person concerned, which led to the replacing of the object by
means of a fetich. The paths of these connections can not always be
definitely demonstrated. The foot is a very primitive sexual symbol
already found in myths.[18] Fur is used as a fetich probably on account
of its association with the hairiness of the mons veneris. Such
symbolism seems often to depend on sexual experiences in childhood.[19]
(_b_) _Fixation of Precursory Sexual Aims_
*The Appearance of New Intentions.*--All the outer and inner
determinations which impede or hold at a distance the attainment of the
normal sexual aim, such as impotence, costliness of the sexual object,
and dangers of the sexual act, will conceivably strengthen the
inclination to linger at the preparatory acts and to form them into new
sexual aims which may take the place of the normal. On closer
investigation it is always seen that the ostensibly most peculiar of
these new intentions have already been indicated in the normal sexual
act.
*Touching and Looking.*--At least a certain amount of touching is
indispensable for a person in order to attain the normal sexual aim. It
is also generally known that the touching of the skin of the sexual
object causes much pleasure and produces a supply of new excitement.
Hence, the lingering at the touching can hardly be considered a
perversion if the sexual act is proceeded with.