algolagnia -- Its rôle in the civilized life of mankind -- Connexion
between pain and voluptuousness -- Pain in the _vita sexualis_ --
Sadism and masochism -- Physiological algonagnistic phenomena -- The
sexual enjoyment of spiritual pain -- Philosophical views on this
subject -- Weltschmerz and pessimism as sources of pleasure -- The joy
of grief -- Cruelty as intermediator in the production of algolagnia
-- Theories of cruelty -- The enjoyment of power -- Nietzsche’s
justification of cruelty as a factor in civilization -- Sadistic and
masochistic phenomena of civilization -- Examples from the present day
-- Increase of sexual desire by means of emotional concussion --
Evolutionary theory of algolagnia -- Cruelty of woman -- Debauchees
and prostitutes -- “Tropical frenzy” as an especial form of sadism --
Various explanations of tropical frenzy -- Influence of sexual
differences between man and woman -- Genesis of the “hen-pecked” state
and of “mistress-rule” -- Coquetry and flirtation -- Frequent
association with sadism and masochism -- Flagellation as the principal
form of algolagnia -- Imitation of physiological algolagnia --
Exciting influence of massage and friction -- Various factors of the
sexual influence of passive flagellation -- Active flagellation --
Chance occurrences leading to the development of flagellomania --
Sexual influence of whipping upon children -- Examples --
“Schoolmaster’s flagellantism” (Dippoldism) -- Examples --
Flagellation and prostitution -- Flagellation brothels -- Inclination
of woman to flagellation -- A Parisian “school” -- “Corset discipline”
-- Sadistic bodily injuries and lust-murder -- Characteristics of
lust-murder -- “Girl stabbers” -- Other forms of sadistic bodily
injury -- Sexual vampirism -- Offences against property committed from
sadistic motives -- Vitriol throwing -- Sadistic arson -- Sexual
kleptomania -- Symbolic forms of sadism -- Verbal sadism -- Erotic
dictionaries -- Verbal exhibitionism -- Example -- Other varieties of
symbolical algolagnia -- Satanism -- Wide diffusion of passive
algolagnia, of masochism -- Passive algolagnia -- Examples --
Masochistic instrumentarium -- A masochistic “torture-chamber” --
Masochistic prostitution -- Letter of a masochist -- A “slave” --
Characterization of male masochists -- A very typical case of
masochism -- Masochism in women -- Letter of a female masochist.
_Appendix_: A contribution to the psychology of the Russian revolution
(History of the development of an algolagnistic revolutionist).
CHAPTER XXI
The homosexual and pseudo-homosexual phenomena described in the
preceding chapters constitute a far from universal variety of sexual
impulse, but “=algolagnia=” is much commoner. This name was introduced
by Schrenck-Notzing as a general term for the phenomena of =sadism= and
=masochism=, since these two sexual aberrations are closely related one
to the other.
Algolagnia, or painful lasciviousness, if we exclude from consideration
its most extreme manifestations, such as lust-murder and suicide from
lust, belongs unquestionably to the most widely diffused of sexual
aberrations; indeed, in its slighter forms it is almost universal. An
experienced woman told Havelock Ellis[588] that she had known only one
single man who was entirely free from sadistic lust; and, on the other
hand, there are few women in whose sexuality no algolagnistic phenomena
are demonstrable. This is natural, for algolagnia, differing in this
respect from other sexual aberrations, has the =deepest biological
roots=. Its nucleus, =pleasure in the pain of others or in one’s own
pain= (the term “pain” being here used in the very widest significance,
both physical and mental), is an elementary phenomenon of amatory
activity. “Love is in its very nature pain,” we read in the “Divan” of
the Persian poet Rûmi. It is certain that we have here to do with an
anthropological phenomenon, one that is normal within wide limits.
Algolagnia plays the greatest rôle in the individual life of single
human beings and in the civilized life of humanity at large. It enables
us to get a view into the hidden depths of the human spirit, and
displays to us the remarkable phenomenon of the association of primeval
animal instincts with the highest spirituality. It at the same time
debases love, and renders it more profound, and it touches the most
secret aspects of our nature.
“Der Schmerz beseelt
Und er entfesselt nied’re Triebe,
Die sonst dem Menschenherz gefehlt....
Der Schmerz betäubt--er kann beglücken,
Im Schmerz liegt ein geheimes Fleh’n;
Er lässt mit feurigem Berücken
Ein frevelhaftes Bild ersteh’n,”
[“Pain animates
And unchains lower impulses,
Which had otherwise been absent from the human heart....
Pain benumbs--but may also give happiness,
For in pain is hidden a secret prayer;
With an ardent charm
It gives rise to a wanton idea”]
sings Joseph Lauff in his “Geisslerin” (Cologne, 1901). Is there any
pleasure without pain? is there any love without sorrow? He who is
familiar with the history of civilization will answer these questions in
the negative. Pain is a civilizing factor of the first rank; it is the
necessary pre-condition and the inevitable accompaniment of pleasure and
the affirmation of life. This is the central idea of the philosophy of
Nietzsche. The pain of love is only a special case of the great
immeasurable _Weltschmerz_ and _Weltlust_ (world-pain and world-joy),
which move us so deeply in the powerful descriptions of Schopenhauer,
and have always been the most lofty objects of contemplation to
philosophers and to students of civilization.[589]
That love-pleasure and love-pain, the forces of creation and
destruction--yes, indeed, that love and death (which Leopardi in a
wonderful poem celebrated as twin brothers)--are separated only by a
“thin veil” (Havelock Ellis), was an idea first expressed in the
celebrated work of the formidable Marquis de Sade,[590] whose books,
taken as a whole, are merely a paraphrase of the idea of the connexion
between pain and voluptuousness; and, moreover, de Sade does not
recognize this connexion only in active algolagnia--that is, in the
=infliction of pain=, the voluptuousness of cruelty, the so-called
“sadism”--but he recognizes it equally in passive algolagnia, in the
=suffering of pain=, the voluptuousness of being tortured, in the state
named after the author Sacher-Masoch, “masochism.” De Sade, who was the
first consistent advocate of the anthropologico-ethnological theory of
psychopathia sexualis, himself collected almost all the facts regarding
the biological roots of painful lasciviousness, and regarding
algolagnistic phenomena in ethnology and in the history of civilization.
The foundation for the understanding of active and passive algolagnia is
constituted by the fact that we have here, in the first place, to do
with a =purely biological= phenomenon, which makes its appearance in
every normal love. The sexual act exhibits to us pain and pleasure in an
indissoluble association. Love’s embrace is a “sweet pain,” a painful
pleasure.[591]
The nature of the sense of voluptuousness is still rather obscure, but
it is certain that painful sensations make their appearance as its
accompaniment, probably indeed as an actual part of voluptuousness. I
may remind the reader of the interesting remarks of Edmund Forster,
mentioned on p. 44, regarding the conception of sexual tension as a
stimulation of the pain-perceiving nerves of the genital organs. Still
more clearly is pain reflected (pain both active and passive) in the
love-embrace itself, in the phenomena[592] which we previously (pp.
50-51) described, such as fierce embraces, convulsive seizures, grinding
of the teeth, screaming and biting, both on the part of the man and on
the part of the woman. Lucretius (“De Rerum Natura,” iv., verses
1054-1061) gave a vivid description of the normal sadistic and
masochistic accompaniments of coitus. In this association sadism
certainly predominates on the part of the man, though not exclusively;
and, contrariwise, masochism predominates, though not exclusively, on
the part of the woman. The sadistic “love-bites,” for example, are more
frequently given by the woman, especially among savage races,[593] but
among the Slavonic peoples it is the man rather who practises the
“biting-kiss” during the sexual act.[594]
“Es brausen mir wie Wirbelwind
Im Busen namenlose Triebe:
Ich möchte dich beissen, einzig Kind,
Du süsse Frucht, vor Lust and Liebe,”
[“Nameless impulses are raging
Like a whirlwind in my breast:
I should like to bite you, little one,
Sweet little fruit, to bite you from desire and love”]
writes Karl Beck in his “Stille Lieder.”
How closely these phenomena are connected with the ideas of =blood= and
=cruelty=, and how this connexion is favoured by the redness and the
flow of blood during sexual excitement, are matters previously discussed
(p. 51); and in my “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia
Sexualis” (vol. ii., pp. 39-41) I have considered the question at
greater length. In the same category must also be placed the sexually
stimulating influence of red colours.
In association with these algolagnistic manifestations, so long as they
remain within physiological bounds, we do not so much see =actual=
physical pain, the actual infliction of suffering or cruelty, as the
=idea= thereof, as mental pain; indeed, actual pain is often not
lustful, as such, but only in idea. Eulenburg,[595] especially, has
rightly drawn attention to this mental intensification of algolagnia.
Mental pain and tears give a wonderful depth to love, increase passion,
as Goethe describes in his “Stella.” Love needs pain, in order to be
perceived as love. Why? Because pain is something new, a contrast to
pleasure, whose eternity would be unbearable. This is described very
clearly in the “Letters of Ninon de L’Enclos,” which, though apocryphal,
are not less psychologically interesting (German edition, pp. 220, 221;
Berlin, 1906).
“Change in the spiritual state is important to the happiness of both
the lovers. And what could better provide this advantage than a
separation? Have you never experienced the sweetness of a tender
separation? The disquiet, the commiseration, the tears which accompany
the departing lover, are they not something most valuable to a
delicate, sensitive soul? Commonly, lovers regard separation for a few
days as an evil. But if they examined the nature of their reputed pain
a little more closely, they would soon perceive that this pain does
not make a purely disagreeable impression on the soul; on the
contrary, an entrancing joy lies hidden therein. The pain enfolds a
delightful charm; and we learn that the heart, however much it may be
moved with sympathy, always finds itself in an agreeable mood as soon
as it is able to exercise its sensibility.”
Similarly, G. H. Schneider remarks (_op. cit._, pp. 126, 127), that in
all love relationships there arises a need for becoming aware of
“the contrast between the pain and the ecstasy of love, by
misunderstandings, by transient mental torment, by momentary jealousy
on the part of the woman, or by sportive or earnest threats; and this
need is gratified instinctively by man, because he feels instinctively
that love without it disappears or will disappear.”
He explains this necessity for pain and sorrow in love as dependent upon
a degree of exhaustion, a fatigue of the nerve-centres concerned, which
demand a period of repose. In the ancestors of the human race, and in
the lower animals, this repose was obtained by the =alternation= of
quite opposite feelings, such as love and hate; thus the occasional
stimulation of those centres also by which pain is perceived is a
physiological necessity for the nervous system.
Nothing, in fact, is harder to bear than a succession of beautiful days;
this is true even of love. Why is it that the very best, unalterably
tender wives or husbands are so frequently deceived? Certainly it is
because they often forget that with the sweetness of love it is
necessary to intermingle a little bitterness, and so to allow their
partner now and again to experience the “joy of grief.”
“Frau Venus, meine schöne Frau,
Von sussem Wein und Küssen
Ist meine Seele worden krank,
Ich schmachte nach Bitternissen.”
HEINRICH HEINE.
[“Madame Venus, beautiful lady,
Of sweet wine and kisses
I am sick unto death--
I yearn for a taste of bitterness.”]
Mental pain as a general sociological, literary, and philosophical
phenomenon, manifests itself as =Weltschmerz= and =pessimism=. Both
modes of perception conceal intense feelings of pleasure. Schopenhauer,
who was well aware of this fact, remarks (“Works,” ed. Grisebach, i.,
508) that the recognition of the sorrows of existence, of the misery
which extends itself over the whole of life, is accompanied by a =secret
joy=, which by the “most melancholy” of all nations was termed the “joy
of grief.” Admirably also has Kuno Fischer, in his account of
Schopenhauer’s philosophy, described the pleasure to be found in the
pessimistic mode of perception; and O. Zimmermann has written an
interesting psychological work upon the “Joy of Grief” (second edition;
Leipzig, 1885).
The pleasure anyone experiences in his own pain, or in that of another,
constitutes the =nucleus= of all algolagnistic phenomena, and to
=cruelty= as an intermediator in this painful lasciviousness there
belongs only a secondary rôle. The deeply-rooted instinct of cruelty,
which first manifests itself in early childhood, is biologically
associated with the perception of pain. Various theories of cruelty have
been propounded. Thus, according to Schopenhauer, cruelty gives rise to
pain in another, in order to diminish its own pain; and, according to
this view, it is only a means of treatment for the relief of one’s own
pain. More illuminating is the explanation of the English psychologist
Bain, who derives cruelty from the consciousness of power and the
enjoyment of power, from the delight felt in dominating the tortured
individual. Nietzsche is the most celebrated apostle of this diffusion
of power, this enjoyment of power in the “superman,” and by means of the
“masterful morality.” He formally does homage to cruelty as a means of
advancing towards higher civilization.
“Almost everything,” he says, “which we call higher civilization
depends upon the spiritualization and deepening of =cruelty=.... That
which constitutes the painful pleasure of comedy is cruelty; that
which is agreeable to our senses in the so-called tragic
sympathy--fundamentally, indeed, whatever is pleasurable to us up to
the most intense and delicate metaphysical horror--obtains its
sweetness only from the intermingled ingredient of cruelty. That which
the Romans enjoyed in the arena, that which Christ enjoyed in the
Passion of the Cross, the Spaniards regarding an _auto-da-fe_ or a
bull-fight, the Japanese of to-day, with his love for the tragic, the
Parisian workman who has a passion for sanguinary revolutions, the
Wagnerian rejoicing in the spectacle of Tristan and Isolde--all alike
enjoy, all alike are suffused with secret ardour as they drain the
Circe’s cup of ‘cruelty.’
“We must therefore,” he continues with justice, “for ever deny the
absurd psychology which attempted to teach regarding cruelty that it
arose only from the view of =another’s= pain! There exists an
abundant--over-abundant--joy also in one’s own pain, in making one’s
own self suffer; and whenever man persuades himself--it may be only to
self-denial in the religious sense, or to self-mutilation like the
Phœnicians and the ascetics, to self-torment in religion, to the
puritanic convulsive penitence, to the vivisection of conscience, and
to Pascal’s sacrifice of the intellect--in all these alike he is lured
onwards and impelled forwards by his cruelty alone, by that dangerous
emotion of cruelty =directed against himself=.”
With a few brilliant words Nietzsche thus describes the principal
phenomena of algolagnia. Ethnology and the history of the world offer us
in equal measure numerous interesting proofs of the primitive tendency
of human nature to sadistic and masochistic manifestations. We must
learn to recognize the diffusion throughout the entire world of active
and passive algolagnia, making its appearance in the most diverse forms,
in order to understand many occurrences of the present day. In my
“Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis” (vol. ii., pp.
43-75, 95, 96, 109-113, 120-157, 228-240) I have collected these
anthropological and ethnological data, regarding the universal diffusion
of algolagnia in all epochs and in all countries; and I have referred
to the occurrence of sadism and masochism as affecting mankind =in the
mass=, a fact of particular importance in this connexion. To give some
examples: Campaigns, gladiatorial combats, man-hunts, beast-baiting,
bull-fights,[596] sensational dramas, public executions, inquisition and
witch trials, lynch-law as practised to-day in North America,[597] in
the behaviour of the crowd of onlookers at the former punishment of the
pillory, especially also in revolutions, of which to-day once more we
have the most horrible examples in Russia (_cf._ also the appendix to
this chapter), in the primeval custom of marriage by capture, in
cannibalism, the belief in witches and werwolves, in slavery,
flagellantism, and the scourgers of the middle ages, the horrible
“satanism” of the same period, gynecocracy or the dominion of woman, the
service of women of the Minne epoch, the Italian _cicisbeato_, and the
Slavonic sexual slavery of men, asceticism and martyrdom, the
ethnological diffusion of skatological, koprological, and urolagnistic
practices, etc. These facts suffice to prove that in all times, and
among all nations, sadism and masochism, in all the forms we still
observe to-day, were most widely diffused; and to show that they arise
from certain instincts deeply rooted in the soul of the people, whose
existence =even to-day= manifests itself everywhere. Take, for example,
the following extract from the _Vossische Zeitung_, No. 475, October 10,
1906:
“A great automobile race which took place in Long Island at the
beginning of the month presented certain features reminding us of the
old gladiatorial games. Three men were killed during the race, a woman
and a boy were so seriously injured that at the time of writing they
are at the point of death, and from twenty to thirty persons suffered
fractures and other grave injuries. From all parts of the United
States as many as half a million persons had assembled to see the
races. At the very outset the huge crowd was in a state of hysterical
excitement. The Automobile Club had taken the utmost care in its
preparations for the safety of the course, and had shut it off on both
sides by a net 8 feet in height. This protecting wall was, however,
torn down by the crowd, which pressed in everywhere, especially at
those places which the cars were to pass at their highest speed.
Notwithstanding all the warnings of the police, those in search of
sensation only tried to get out of the way when the cars were close
upon them. At a turning in the course there were assembled 1,000
persons belonging to the best circles of New York society. Every time
when, at this dangerous point, one of the cars had an accident, these
people rushed forwards, in order to see as closely as possible what
was going on; the women screamed and fainted from excitement, while
the police bludgeoned the people blindly, in order to make room for
the following cars, and in order to prevent worse evils. =The
spectators were as if mad with the desire to see blood.= A lady who
was pressing forward with the crowd, when one of the cars had upset,
expressed her disappointment plainly, ‘=Oh dear, there is no one
killed!=’”
In an essay entitled “Russia as It Now Is,” regarding the Russian
punitive expeditions against the revolutionaries, the St. Petersburg
correspondent of a German paper reports:
“These expeditions have long forgotten the political purpose of their
‘mission’; they murder simply =out of congenital lust to murder=,
=from racial love of blood=, =from plainly perceptible morbid
perversity=. The shooting of boys, the flogging of women, without
mentioning the still worse ‘punishments’ =which we cannot even
venture= to =describe=, which take place in the presence of, or with
the actual assistance of, the greater and lesser provincial satraps,
and regarding which I have collected extensive material--all produced
in me, who have been a student of criminal psychology, very remarkable
reflections.”
In these cases, no doubt, the principal cause of the actions in which
cruelty becomes pleasurable is the =powerful emotional disturbance=, the
violent excitement, which, again, increases sexual desire. De Sade
himself was familiar with the fact that excitement produced by strong
emotions had a powerful influence upon sexual processes; that it
increased them, changed them, and led to abnormal manifestations. “All
sensations increase one another mutually.” Anger, fear, rage, hatred,
cruelty, increase sexual tension, and therewith also increase the
pleasure of the discharge of that tension. Bouillier[598] drew attention
to the fact that frequently in men, who otherwise have exhibited in
their life very genial and sympathetic natures, it is not the desire of
blood and suffering in itself which evokes sexual cruelty, but it is the
desire for this associated increase in emotions. Similarly, Horwicz[599]
explains the joy of martyrdom also as dependent upon the powerful sexual
stimulation which it produces.
A peculiar form of sexual excitement associated with emotional
disturbance has been described by Charles Féré, under the name of
=ergophilia= (“Note sur une Anomalie de l’Instinct Sexuel: Ergophilie,”
published in _Belgique Médicale_, 1905). The case was that of a woman,
twenty-six years of age, who when a child of four had first experienced
sexual excitement at a fair while watching a little girl juggler of her
own age playing with three balls. Subsequently every time when this
scene occurred to her memory she had a sexual orgasm; also when once at
a circus she was watching some gymnasts whose performance was
characterized by elegance and ease, she had the same experience. The
same also occurred when she saw a man use a scythe. In a frigid marriage
she always returned to these imaginations, as the only means of
obtaining sexual gratification. Féré is right in distinguishing from
sadism this form of sexual excitement induced by the view of elegant
bodily exercises. The =generally= exciting view of movement had in this
case a =special= exciting influence upon the genital organs of an
obviously hysterical person. Perhaps also the case reported by Amrain
(_Anthropophyteia_, vol. iv., p. 242) is similar to this--a case in
which a man fifty-three years of age was sexually excited by the
spinning round of prostitutes on rapidly rotating stools.
Helvetius, Bain, Lully, James, Herbert Spencer, Steinmetz, and many
other psychologists and anthropologists, have endeavoured to explain on
=evolutionary= grounds this intimate association between the emotions,
and to establish an association between cruelty and sexuality. They
suggest that the gratification of sexual needs is for the individual a
love-battle, involving the sacrifice of numerous opponents in order to
gain the favour of the beloved being. =In this way there arose an
association between the shedding of blood and sexual enjoyment=; and the
rage of battle, as Marro very rightly insists, may sometimes be suddenly
transferred from the rival to the female herself, and thus assume a
sadistic character. Definite traces of this connexion may still be
observed among the popular customs of many nations, as, for example, in
New Caledonia, where the girls are pursued by their lovers into the
bush, and, after they have been overpowered, and after sexual
intercourse has taken place, “they are brought back, bitten, bruised,
scratched, covered with bites on the shoulders and the back of the
neck.”
I regard the emotional theory of cruelty as the best, because it
provides the easiest explanation of all the facts; and above all,
because it also explains the frequently observed cruelty of =woman=,
who, as the =more easily excited= creature, displays a higher, more
artificial kind of cruelty than man, whose balance is not so easily
disturbed by his emotions. Montaigne[600] makes the acute observation
that cruelty is usually accompanied by a feminine softness. Havelock
Ellis[601] also remarks that the most extreme, most elaborate degree of
sadism is commonly associated with a somewhat feminine organization.
We might explain the cruelty of women, and that of enervated, effeminate
voluptuaries from fear and cowardice, from the debasing consciousness of
the weakness of their own personality, which by means of cruelty takes
=revenge= on the strength of another, and transiently luxuriates in the
associated intoxication of power, in the mere =idea= of superiority. It
is certainly in this way that we must explain the horrible cruelty of
worn-out debauchees, such as is described by de Sade in his romances.
Such types also were Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Heliogabalus,
and Cæsar Borgia; among women, Catherine de Medici and those “delicate
Creole women who, after enjoying voluptuous pleasure in intercourse with
a negro slave, proceed to enjoy the further pleasure of seeing the man
unmercifully flogged.”[602]
In addition, =the blunting of the senses= which results from
long-continued sexual excesses demands the stronger stimulus of cruelty.
Just as in the debauchee, so also in the prostitute, this blunting of
the senses induces a predisposition to sadism. Many prostitutes and
masseuses become sadists quite as much from inclination as from custom
(the latter from intercourse with masochistic clients); and they find
sexual pleasure in tormenting men, regarding themselves as incorporate
ideals of “mistresses.”
Among Europeans, =residence in hot climates= gives rise to a peculiar
form of tropical cruelty, the so-called “=tropical frenzy=.” The
psychology of this condition is complex. Various predisposing causes
must concur in order to produce tropical frenzy. In the first place, it
occurs almost exclusively in Europeans who fill official positions
giving them =very extensive powers=, such as they did not enjoy before
leaving home. Those who become affected live usually in regions in which
all the limitations of conventional morality and of social relationships
with their fellow-countrymen are laid aside, so that the civilized man
is in a position which enables him to follow without restraint his own
inward impulses; also he finds himself in contact with an “inferior”
race, which he regards and treats as half or completely animal.[603] The
influence of climate is also of great importance, as Hans von Becker
assumes. Owing, it may be, to the intense heat, disturbances of
metabolism ensue, and by the formation of toxins, the central nervous
system and the psyche are injured, and thus there is induced a “tropical
moral insanity,” a morbid impulsiveness, associated with complete loss
of understanding of ordinary ethical and moral principles. Or, again, it
is possible that, as Plehn believes, the abnormally high temperature
gives rise to acute outbreaks only in chronic alcoholists, taking the
form of tropical frenzy. In any case, this disorder is with especial
frequency characterized by marked sadistic practices, as is proved by
the colonial scandals of every country. In connexion with this, we do
not need any further demonstration of the manner in which the
institutions of =slavery= and =serfdom= have always induced and
furthered sadistic instincts, and, speaking generally, the same is true
of all relationships by which isolated individuals are given
uncontrolled powers over the bodies and lives of their fellow-men.
A chief cause of algolagnia, of active algolagnia, but more especially
of the passive form, is to be found in the =diverse sexual demeanour of
man and woman= respectively, and this, again, depends upon the
difference between the masculine and feminine natures. Opposed to the
stormy, eager activity of the man, we have the quiet passivity of the
woman. The latter has aptly been compared to a magnet which,
notwithstanding its own apparent immobility, still irresistibly attracts
and holds fast the iron (the man), making the latter in a sense her
slave; upon this passivity depends the unmistakable superiority of woman
in =purely sensual= love. Physical nature alone gives her an advantage
over man, just precisely in the point to which she outwardly appears
subordinated to him. Thus, among the Indians of Central Brazil man is
officially lord and master of woman--and does what she wills.[604] Thus
it has always been in the highest grades of civilization also, wherever
sensual relationships have been solely effective in determining the
relative positions of men and women. The true “=henpecked husband=” (I
say “true,” because there also exist such in appearance only) of our
European civilization is the man who, from the beginning, has been
subjected to the domination of his wife in consequence of his own
immoderate sexual needs; by these needs he has been permanently placed
under her control, and this control has secondarily been extended to
other relationships. This is the psychological secret of the henpecked
state, just as it is also of the “=mistress rule=,” which, beginning as
a purely sexual relationship between king or prince on the one hand and
his mistress on the other, later extends also to the domain of political
activity. The greater the sexual passivity and coldness of the woman,
the more readily does she gain dominion over the man. A favourite means
for this purpose is the practice of “=coquetry=” (a matter previously
discussed), which can also be defined as the activity of women in
fettering men to themselves and in bringing them under feminine
dominion. The Anglo-Saxon “=flirt=” is only a lighter shade of
“coquette,” representing rather spiritual-æsthetic coquetry, whilst the
true coquette makes use of purely =sensual= means, and speculates upon
sex only, without reference to the intellectual qualities. “A truly
coquettish woman listens with pleasure to the rankest flattery of the
most insignificant individual; she takes the trouble to stimulate the
desires of the most contemptible being, although she is daily surrounded
by longing admirers.”[605] Joseph Peladan relates in one of his romances
how a distinguished lady, while getting into her carriage, intentionally
displayed her leg to a poor man standing by, although at the very same
moment she was coquetting audaciously with a gentleman of her own rank.
Woman instinctively aims at the subjection of man, and voluptuous
stimulation serves her as the best-tried means of doing this. In so far
as man becomes the “slave” and victim of his sensuality, does he exhibit
a masochistic disposition; but, in so far as by his force and his
intelligence he overcomes this sexual dependency, and by means of his
natural activity and energy displayed also in sexual relationships,
behaves heedlessly and brutally to the woman, who has now become
completely passive, does the sadistic element preponderate in him. From
this we are able to understand how it is that sadism and masochism may
often appear in the same person; they are only the active and the
passive form respectively of the algolagnia which lies at the basis of
both of them, and in which the true essence of both these phenomena
subsists.
When in the following paragraphs we briefly describe the individual
phenomena and types of sadism and masochism, we do this always with the
tacit implication that the majority of types are not pure forms either
of sadism or masochism, but represent a mixture of both. This is
especially true of the most widely diffused of all algolagnistic
perversions, the so-called =flagellomania= (=sexual desire for
flagellation or flagellantism=)--that is to say, =flogging and
whipping, or being flogged and whipped in order to induce sexual
excitement=. An elaborately critical account of sexual flagellantism in
its physiological, psychological, literary, and historical relationships
is to be found in the second volume of my work on “The Sexual Life in
England,” pp. 336-481 (Berlin, 1903). In this passage there is a fairly
complete collection, alike of the older and of the newer literary
material devoted to this topic.[606]
Flagellation is, therefore, the principal means by which sadistic
tendencies become active, because in this manner all the physiological
sadistic accompaniments of sexual intercourse unite, and make their
appearance with a stronger potentiality. It is an imitation and a
conscious synthesis of these sadistic accompaniments, which in their
most primitive form are to be seen in the lower animals. Especially in
the case of tritons and salamanders we can observe a typical
flagellation, effected by means of the tail, prior to coitus. The
voluptuous gratification during flagellation varies in character
according as the flagellation is active or passive. The nature of the
latter is as follows: by vigorous friction and blows, especially in the
region of the genital organs, and more particularly on the buttocks, a
peculiarly increased voluptuous stimulus is induced by the painful
sensations. Simple =massage= and =friction= of the skin suffices to
produce such an effect, especially after warm baths, as has long been
known in the East, and is employed in the so-called “Turkish baths.”
More especially, the rubbing of the buttocks evokes a =purely physical
reflex stimulation= of the spinal and sympathetic =ejaculatory centre=;
still more rapidly is this produced by flogging and whipping of these
parts (the so-called “lower discipline”). The painful sensations are
said ultimately to undergo complete transformation into voluptuous
sensations; unquestionably the =imagination= must here render much
assistance, and the masochistic element is especially marked in those
who undergo passive flagellation. The increased flow of blood to the
genital organs, to which the flagellation necessarily gives rise, must
also obviously play a part in evoking and strengthening the voluptuous
sensation. Simultaneously also this congestion gives rise to erection of
the penis; hence the very ancient employment of flagellation to relieve
impotence, alluded to by Petronius in a celebrated passage of his
“Satyricon.”
In the case of active flagellation, the voluptuous stimulation is mainly
of a sadistic nature; the view of the parts quivering under the lash,
becoming red or even bleeding, the cries of the person who is being
whipped, the erotic influence of the kallipygian charms, here play the
principal rôle.
The inclination to flagellation, both passive and active, is generally
aroused =by some chance occurrence=, such as looking at a flogging, when
the spectator finds himself to be in a state of sexual excitement and
recognizes its cause--as, for example, in consequence of the official
and ritual practice of flogging in schools, prisons,[607] barracks,
monasteries, etc., also by whipping and giving blows in social games.
Especially dangerous is the whipping of =children=, whose sexual impulse
is only too often aroused by blows upon the buttocks, and then,
unconsciously, this excitement is in their minds permanently endowed
with a causal connexion with whipping, from which ultimately a
perversion (flagellomania) is induced. Well known is Rousseau’s
description of this connexion in his “Confessions.” I append the
following description by a patient of this tendency to flagellation:
“In a similar way to that which you describe, flagellantism was
unfortunately awakened in me in early youth. This was first developed
in me by the fact that my parents allowed the maidservants to exercise
a far-reaching right of chastisement. When I was fourteen years old, I
still received whippings from the servants, with my father’s knowledge
and consent; and these whippings, since my father had forbidden any
other kind of chastisement as harmful to health, took place on the
buttocks, and were always effected after this region of the body had
been bared. I still remember most vividly that when I was at the age
mentioned a maidservant who was hardly two years older than myself
switched me in this region with especial zeal. I remember also that
when I was in my ninth year, owing to the free use which the
maidservants commonly made of their privilege, I had entirely ceased
to dread this chastisement; indeed from that time I often
intentionally incurred a whipping by the maids, which was not
difficult; and from the age of fourteen years I personally gave the
maidservants my permission to chastise me in the above manner without
the knowledge of my parents, and was always thrown by it into a state
of sexual excitement. Such excitement was also produced in me by
merely witnessing the chastisement of my two sisters, who were
somewhat younger than myself, both of whom were still beaten with a
switch when they were fifteen years of age. As regards my two sisters,
this did not lead to desire on their part that this procedure, which
was always disagreeable to them, should be frequently repeated, but
they were always glad to see me whipped; and, as a matter of fact, my
own sensation of pleasure was greatly increased by their being
present, and moreover, especially in later years, I always enjoyed it
more if the maidservant whipped me in the presence of her friends or
if one of them let me hold her hand during the process. I especially
preferred being struck with the bare hands, although occasionally I
endured severe whippings with the stick or with the dog-whip at my own
special request.”
In a second case which came under my own observation, the person
affected being a lawyer, then twenty-eight years of age, the cause of
the development of his flagellomania was different and more indirect.
At the age of eleven or twelve years he was lying on the top of a
dog-kennel and masturbating, and he had tied his feet to the top of
the kennel, lest, when in a state of sexual excitement, he might fall
off. Since then he had always felt an impulse to have himself tied,
which he sought to satisfy in boyish games (robbers, police, etc.);
this always induced in him agreeable sexual feelings, which were
further increased by onanistic friction. At the age of fifteen there
became associated with this desire to be tied a further need to be
whipped while he was tied up. This patient has a disinclination to
normal coitus and to the female genital organs, but he desires to
receive flagellation only from women. Two successive attempts at
normal sexual intercourse were unsuccessful. The patient induced in a
maidservant the inclination to passive and active flagellation, and
this woman, although she resisted at first, was subsequently, six
months later, a passionate flagellant. In other respects the patient
is thoroughly healthy, and has been through his one-year term of
military service in the cavalry.
With regard to the origin of “=schoolmaster’s sadism=,” which is,
unfortunately, very widely diffused, the well-known case of the
schoolmaster Dippold recently gave a horrible example.[608]
The teacher or schoolmaster may, at the commencement of his activity, be
entirely free from any flagellantic tendency. This tendency makes its
appearance in the course of the customary exercise of his duties of
physical chastisement. This gradually induces in him a sense of sexual
pleasure. As long as these chastisements are kept within normal bounds,
and only occasionally undertaken, we have to do merely with a tendency,
with an aberration of sexual gratification, such as occurs in numerous
healthy individuals, even when they are not teachers or schoolmasters,
persons who seek and find an opportunity for the exercise of these
tendencies in the brothel or with “masseuses.” When, however, a
systematic flagellomania develops, and the person affected no longer
merely chastises, but maltreats and tortures, and does this habitually
and with bestial cruelty, as in Dippold’s case, we certainly have always
to do with sadism developed in the soil of a morbid predisposition. The
following cases appear to be of this nature:
1. A case which reminds us of that of Dippold recently appeared before
the Second Criminal Chamber in Hamburg. The accused was a man
belonging to the cultured classes, who had had a University education,
had become a reserve officer, and had filled many other positions,
finally that of the editor of a journal published by an advertising
firm. The accused lived in Berlin in the years 1900 to 1903. There he
formed an intimacy with a woman, whom he induced to entrust him with
her son, for the continuance of his education. Going himself to live
in Hamburg in July, 1903, the boy was sent to him in that town in
January, 1904, and was placed in a boarding school. “In order not to
be disturbed in his teaching,” the man also rented a room in the
neighbourhood of the school. When engaging this room he asked the
landlady if there were curtains to cover the windows. On the first day
on which she visited the room the landlady noticed that the accused
flogged the boy, and as she did not wish to allow this in her
dwelling, she reported the matter to the police. After some time the
woman learned by questioning the boy certain remarkable facts,
especially with regard to the “educational methods” which the accused
had carried out in Berlin, and in her report to the police she added
certain details, which led to the arrest of the accused. The accused
admitted that he had caned the boy severely, and he declared that he
had done this only for educational reasons, as the boy was of a bad
character. In this respect the statement of the accused was confuted
by the evidence of the boy’s teacher in Berlin, that of his teacher in
Hamburg, and that of the inmates of the pension in which he lived; all
of these gave him a very good character. With respect to the mode of
chastisement, the details of which were heard _in camera_, the court
held that there was no doubt that the accused had chastised the boy,
not for educational reasons, but on account of perverse tendencies of
his own, and condemned him to imprisonment for one year and loss of
civil rights for two years. It is a noteworthy fact that the accused,
during the latter part of this period of association with the boy, had
lived in a happy marriage with a young woman.
2. A disciple of Dippold. The following remarkable case was published
in the _Berliner Tageblatt_, No. 629, December 11, 1903: A
furniture-polisher of this town accosted boys whom he met in the
street, gave them some trifling commission, and so arranged matters
with them that they must ultimately return to him at his room. Here he
gave himself out to be a detective officer, showed the boy a token
which he pretended was his official commission, and then gave the boy
a severe lecture. “He regretted,” he said in conclusion, that, owing
to the misconduct of the lad, it would be necessary to fine his
parents, unless the offences were condoned by the immediate
chastisement of the boy. The “detective” easily persuaded his victims
that it would be better to accept the immediate flogging. After he had
stretched his victim across his knees and beaten him with a stick, he
looked to see that the blows had not made too obvious marks, and sent
the lad away with a further brief admonition. In most instances the
boys who had been whipped concealed what had happened from their
parents; but still the matter came to light, and this new Dippold is
to be tried for causing grievous bodily harm, and for the false
pretence that he occupied an official position. The accused is a young
man, twenty-five years of age, and, with his small and slender figure
and with a blonde moustache, he makes rather the impression of a young
man of eighteen.
Very frequently the tendency to flagellation is at first artificially
evoked in brothels. Hogarth, in his “A Harlot’s Progress,” has rightly
depicted the switch as a necessary requisite of the interior of a
brothel, and this simple instrument of flagellation is rarely absent
from a prostitute’s dwelling. It appears to be England alone, the
classical country of flagellomania, in which actual “flagellation
brothels” have existed.[609] A historical example is that of the
celebrated establishment of Theresa Berkley, the inventor of an especial
apparatus for the whipping of men, the so-called “Berkley-Horse.” It
appears that in England the female sex has a taste for active and
passive flagellation; and we find that a German author[610] attributes
to woman a greater inclination towards flagellomania than that exhibited
by man. This tendency is encouraged by certain male flagellants, who
obtain sexual gratification by the flagellation of women. Guénolé (_op.
cit._, pp. 151, 152) reports the existence of secret places in Paris
where young women and girls combine to form a kind of “school,” in which
male sadists carry out “instruction” with the switch!
In connexion with flagellation we must consider the peculiar tendency to
the =fettering= of the individual to be flogged, who desires to be
rendered =defenceless=. For this purpose various apparatus exist of the
same kind as the “fettering-chair” invented in the eighteenth century by
the Duke of Fronsac.[611] Of the same nature also is the impulse to wear
very tight shoes and gloves and very small corsets, the so-called
“=corset discipline=,” in which the person affected, who may be of
either sex, is laced up very tightly in a very small corset. This is met
with chiefly in England, especially in association with sexual
flagellation.
In comparatively rare cases flagellomania is a morbid condition by which
responsibility is entirely abrogated; but from the medico-legal point of
view responsibility is impaired or suspended in the majority of cases of
well-marked sadism, which we have now to describe. To this category
belong:
1. =Sadistic Bodily Injuries and “Lust-Murder.”=--The main types of this
category are the “girl-stabbers” and the “lust-murderers,” who simply
for the purpose of producing sexual excitement, or when already under
the influence of such excitement, inflict on women more or less severe
injuries with a knife or other murderous instrument. The actual
intention to =kill= is present only in very rare cases. The lust-murder
is, as a rule, only a murder as a =sequel= of a sexual act committed by
force, the murder being done from fear of discovery, etc.; thus the
murder has not in these cases anything directly to do with the sexual
act. In other cases we have what appears to be a lust-murder in which
death has resulted, contrary to the wish of the offender, from a
sadistic bodily injury. Killing from a purely sexual motive is a very
rare occurrence, of which, however, some very widely known cases are on
record--like those of Andreas Bickel, Menesclou, Alton, Gruyo,
Verzeni,[612] and “Jack the Ripper,” the Whitechapel murderer.
[Regarding the Whitechapel murders, see E. C. Spitza, “The Whitechapel
Murders: their Medico-Legal and Historical Aspects,” published in the
_Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases_, December, 1888. Great
attention and alarm was aroused in Paris in the years 1818-1819 by a
girl-stabber (_piqueur_). In numerous caricatures, popular songs, and
vaudevilles these assaults were “celebrated,” of which a very rare
pamphlet, “La Piqure à la Mode” (Paris, 1819), gives evidence. _Cf._ J.
Grand-Carteret in “Les Images Galantes” (1907, No. 7). Much alarm was
caused in July, 1902, by the crimes of a new “Jack the Ripper” in New
York, and by the horrible child-murders committed in Berlin by an
obviously insane sadist, not yet arrested. In a single day he ripped up
the abdomens of several small children with a pair of scissors.] Many
“murder epidemics” (_manie homicide_), such as the murders recently
committed in Sweden by Nordlund, who, though indubitably insane, was
executed for them, are certainly connected with sexuality. The two
following cases from German experience relate to typical
“girl-stabbers”:
_Ludwigshafen am Rhein, March 26, 1901._--After the manner of the
Whitechapel murderer, an unknown criminal had for several weeks made
the parts of the town lying in the direction of the suburb of
Mundenheim unsafe. Not less than eleven girls were seriously injured
after nightfall by stabs in the abdomen. To-night the police succeeded
in arresting the criminal, who is a drover, Wilhelm Damian by name,
twenty-eight years of age. Five years ago he was suspected of having
committed a lust-murder on a servant-girl; he was arrested at this
time, but was discharged owing to the lack of sufficient proof. Now
the suspicion is aroused that Damian is responsible also for the
lust-murder committed two years ago near Mundenheim on a little girl
seven years of age, because the circumstances of that case suggested
that the murderer was a butcher by occupation, and this applies to
Damian.
_Kiel, November 29, 1901._--It is not yet possible to arrest the
stabber who, during the last week, has been active in the poorest
quarter of the town. At first he limited himself to the northern
districts, and there wounded only women and girls; but in the last day
or two he appeared, not only in the central parts of the town, but
also in the southern quarter, where, the day before yesterday, in the
evening, he wounded a girl by two stabs, one in the neck and one in
the hip. Since then a man has been stabbed, apparently by this same
evil-doer, but was not seriously hurt. This happened in one of the
busiest streets of the town, so that the escape of the criminal is
very remarkable.
Other peculiar sadistic injuries sometimes occur. Thus, in the year 1902
a printer, twenty-two years of age, was condemned by the criminal court
of Breslau, because in =thirteen= cases he had thrown =oil of vitriol=
at young ladies! Here also we have probably to do with a sadistic
tendency. In the end of October, 1906, in Berlin, a case came under
notice in which a young girl took another girl to the dentist (!) and
(after previous anæsthetization) had two teeth drawn unnecessarily; but
whether this case was or was not of a sadistic nature remains
undetermined. But we certainly have to do with sadism in those cases in
which men or women inflict slight injuries on their love-partner for the
purpose of sucking blood, which gives them sexual gratification (=sexual
vampirism=). Many =murders by poison= (women murderers commonly prefer
the use of poison to that of any other instrument) also arise from
sadistic tendencies. At any rate, the majority of professional female
prisoners, such as Jegado, Brinvilliers, Ursinus, Gottfried (the
celebrated poisoner of Bremen), and others, were unquestionably women
given to sexual excesses or sexually very excitable, so that here
voluptuousness and the lust for murder appear to have an intimate
causal connexion.
The following remarkable case of sadistic deprivation of freedom is
reported by Kiernan (“A Remarkable Case of Fetishism,” published in _The
Alienist and Neurologist_, 1906, p. 462):
“Two citizens of good position, of Wladikaukas, in Russia, had
repeatedly carried off girls of good family, and had treated them in
an extraordinary way. On account of senile dementia they were
acquitted of criminality, and were sent to an asylum. The last victim
was a young heiress, who was kept prisoner by them for an entire year.
Two masked elderly men fell upon her by night, gagged her, put a
bandage over her eyes, and drove away with her in a carriage. When the
bandage was taken off, she was in a well-furnished drawing-room. The
two old men, without saying a word, gave her a scanty dress of
feathers, and shut her up in a great gilded cage, which stood in the
drawing-room. One of them--she never saw the other again--came in
silence to visit her every morning, looked at her through the bars of
the cage, often threw her lumps of sugar, and every morning brought
her a can of hot water, which he emptied into a vessel inside the
cage, saying, ‘Take a bath, little bird.’ These were the only words
which she heard. After a year had passed, the man let her out of the
cage, put a bandage over her eyes, and drove her in a carriage to a
place near her house. No similar case is known to me in medical
literature. Everything was conducted Platonically; there was no
coitus, no exhibitionism or masturbation, either before or after
looking at this peculiar bird. Certainly there must have been some
kind of abortive sexual gratification, of a sadistic character, and
with the limitation that only young girls of good family, dressed as
birds and kept in a cage, could excite libido. But why must they have
the appearance of a bird? Possibly in the subconsciousness the idea of
the bird as a lascivious animal played a certain part. But why did one
only come and see the ‘bird’ every day? That they must be young girls
is natural in the case of old men: extremes meet; but that they must
be of good family suggests a sadistic element, and still more is this
suggested by the imprisonment.”
2. =Offences against Property committed from Sadistic Motives.=--To this
class belong all sadistic injuries not of the person, but of property.
For example, pouring vitriol over the clothing, of which the following
case (_Vossische Zeitung_, No. 574, December 7, 1905) is an example:
At the present time an unknown man is making the south-eastern
districts of Berlin unsafe by the use of oil of vitriol. This
dangerous criminal pours the liquid upon women’s clothing, selecting
by preference light-coloured fabrics. Yesterday evening he almost
completely ruined the new light-coloured dress of a young lady who was
passing along the Hermannstrasse. The offender, who apparently derives
pleasure from injuring women’s clothing, is of middle height, about
twenty-five years of age, has fair hair, and wears a fashionable
overcoat.
To the same category belongs =arson= from sexual motives, which was
formerly[613] attributed to a “passion for fire” (pyromania); but when
sexual motives play a part, it is unquestionably of a purely sadistic
nature.[614]
Of the same character is =sexual kleptomania=--theft from sexual
motives. Lichtenberg was familiar with this, for he says “the sexual
impulse very frequently leads to thefts,” and he alludes to the proposal
which has been made in England to castrate thieves.[615]
The organic causation of the kleptomania so often seen at the present
day in large shops is very frequently of a sexual nature, dependent upon
puberty, the climacteric, menstrual anomalies, etc. Cases of this
character have been reported by Worbe, Gönner, Schmidtlein, Unzer,
Häussler, Lombroso, and Ferrero. The suspicion of sexual sadistic
grounds for kleptomania may always be justifiably entertained when rich
ladies repeatedly steal articles of small value of which they have no
need.
A typical case of sexual kleptomania is reported by H. Zingerle
(“Contributions to the Psychological Genesis of Sexual Perversities,”
published in the _Annual for Psychiatry and Neurology_, 1900):
A woman, twenty-one years of age, who from childhood had been
psychopathic, had from her school-days onwards had a definite desire
to appropriate certain objects, especially such as were made of brown
leather (brown shoes), umbrellas, money. Only the act of stealing gave
her any gratification, not the keeping of the stolen objects, which
she usually destroyed or gave away. =During the act of theft she had a
well-developed sense of voluptuousness, accompanied by a discharge of
secretion from the genital organs.= She performed these thefts as the
result of an irresistible impulse, and after them she felt remorse.
She preferred large objects such as were difficult to hide, and it was
=precisely when there were great hindrances to be overcome and dangers
to be run=, and when in the pursuit of her aim she was =subjected to
emotional disturbances=, that the accompanying =voluptuous sensations
were most prominent=. The psychopathic basis of this condition is
unquestionable.
In addition to these two categories of sadism, which for the most part
depend upon morbid conditions, we meet also with a =symbolic= form of
sadism, where this manifests itself rather in idea than in reality, and
where the person thus affected luxuriates in all possible =fantasies=
of the infliction of pain and of abasement.[616] This mitigated sadism
is certainly to some extent connected with physiological sadism. Thus
the so-called =verbal sadism= is nothing more than an increase in, an
emphatic instance of, the physiological voluptuous sighing and crying
_in coitu_, whose influence in verbal sadism is increased, and exercises
a stronger stimulus, by the accentuation of the =animal=, the =brutal=,
the =coarse=, and the =obscene=. Verbal sadism is not a peculiar
refinement of modern debauchees, but a phenomenon belonging to folk-lore
and ethnology, an extraordinarily widely diffused mode of expression of
the primitive sadistic instinct of the genus homo. In the popular speech
of all countries we find that =abusive terms= and =curses= are
intermingled with extraordinary frequency with sexual matters and ideas.
The naïveté of this sexual depravity and cursing, with its thousandfold
variations, shows its origin from the purely instinctive sources of the
popular soul, as the celebrated brothers Grimm recognized when they
devoted a careful, critical investigation in their well-known dictionary
to the obscene verbal treasury of the Germans. A rich material for the
study of the sources of verbal sadism is offered by the _vocabularia
erotica_ of Hesychios; also by the =collections= of local and provincial
=riddles= and =proverbs=.[617] A typically developed verbal sadism is
found among the Hindus, especially the women. The Indian erotist
Vātsyāyana rightly deduces it from the various sounds which are uttered
in normal coitus. In European brothels the verbal sadists and verbal
masochists are well-known phenomena--men who find sexual enjoyment in
the expression of the coarsest, commonest, obscene words, curses, and
abusive language; in some cases by doing this themselves (verbal
sadism), in other cases by listening to it when done by others (verbal
masochism). Such verbal sadists, also, are the individuals described by
A. Eulenburg (“Sexual Neuropathy,” p. 104) as “verbal exhibitionists,”
people who gladly indulge in lascivious conversation in the presence of
women, or who whisper obscene words in women’s ears. Many men visit
prostitutes, not for the purpose of having sexual intercourse with them,
but merely for the opportunity of such lecherous conversation. The
following case, complicated by bisexual or masochistic features, is
characteristic of this:
A leading merchant of middle age visits a cocotte from time to time,
and puts on the girl’s silken clothing, whilst she must put on man’s
dress; they then go out walking arm-in-arm in dark, unfrequented
streets, and converse meanwhile in an extremely obscene, indecent
manner; this alone suffices him for sexual gratification. During the
whole time he does not touch the girl.
This sexual depravity and obscene language can also be conducted by
correspondence. Thus we have a kind of “=epistolary sadism=” and
“=epistolary masochism=.” The former, especially, is frequently employed
in the circles of the “masseuses” and “strict governesses,” in relation
to their masochistic _clientèle_, whilst the answers belong to the
second category.
A remarkable symbolic form of sadism or masochism is represented by
=inunction= and =lathering=, for the purpose of sexual gratification.
Lathering with soap more especially is a phenomenon with which those who
have to do with brothels are especially familiar. Either the man finds
sexual pleasure in lathering the prostitute or he experiences
gratification in the passive attitude when she lathers him. Some time
ago, in a trial in which a man belonging to one of our leading
mercantile houses was accused, I referred in my evidence to analogous
occurrences in brothels and among prostitutes. This testimony was
disputed by another physician, who stated that this “lathering” for the
purpose of inducing sexual excitement was “unknown” to him. It is,
however, a well-known phenomenon whose existence has been confirmed to
me by colleagues in Berlin, and more especially in Hamburg. According as
it is active or passive, it is respectively sadistic or masochistic.
Whether, in such cases, a defilement of the woman’s person is effected,
as in a case reported by von Krafft-Ebing, in which a man blackened his
mistress with charcoal, is indifferent. The larval sadism consists in
the =act of manipulation=, in the inunction or lathering.
As a last form of symbolic sadism may be mentioned =blasphemy= based on
=sexual motives=, the so-called “=satanism=,” which played a great part
more especially in the middle ages, and as the “black mass” constituted
a peculiar cult, in which the Christian Mass was profaned by sexual
practices, and was insulted to the uttermost. According to Schwaeblé,
these obscene masses are still celebrated at the present day in two
places in Paris. He gives a detailed description of such a black mass
which was celebrated in a house in the Rue de Vaugirard.[618]
=Passive algolagnia=, =masochism=, the desire to endure =pain= and
=degradation= and =abasement= of every kind, for the purpose of inducing
sexual excitement, is perhaps to-day more widely diffused even than its
converse.[619] The cause of this, which is to be found in the
conventionality of our time, is a matter to which I have previously more
than once alluded (_vide supra_, pp. 322-324, 467-469). This view is
supported also by the remarkable fact that, above all, =lawyers=,
leading State officials, and judges, constitute a disproportionately
large contingent of masochists--that is to say, persons whose
professional life gives them a certain unusual exercise of power, and
whose profession imposes on them a strict official demeanour. Precisely
these conditions, perhaps, arouse masochistic tendencies to activity, as
a kind of liberation from conventional pressure and the professional
mask.
The connexion between love, voluptuousness, and the suffering of pain,
has already been discussed. In masochism there also comes into play the
important element of abasement, a complete self-surrender of body and
soul, self-sacrifice. The union of these perceptions and their
voluptuous tinge has been beautifully described by Alfred de
Musset:[620]
“My passion for my mistress had become extremely unruly, and my whole
life had assumed a kind of monastic savagery. I will give only one
example of this: She had given me her miniature likeness in a
medallion. I wear it on my heart--many men do this. But one day in the
shop of a second-hand dealer I found an iron scourge on the end of
which was a small plate covered with little spines. I had the
medallion fastened on to the plate and wore it in this way. The
spines, which at every movement pierced the skin of my breast,
produced in me the most peculiar ecstasy, so that I sometimes pressed
my hand on the place in order to drive them deeper. I am well aware
that this was folly; but love makes us commit many such follies.”
In masochism physical pain plays an important part. The “mistresses”
have at their disposal an extensive instrumentarium for producing such
pain, for masochists often have the most peculiar ideas regarding the
mode in which their pain should be caused. Probably unique in their kind
are the two following authentic cases, which my colleague, Dr. D----, in
Hamburg, was so good as to report to me:
1. A rich Hamburg merchant, known among the prostitutes by the name of
“Nail William,” had sexual intercourse only with certain prostitutes,
who had to allow their nails to grow quite long and pointed. They had
to scratch him on the scrotal raphe and on the penis until the blood
flowed in streams. One day he consulted a physician on account of
extensive œdema of the scrotum and the penis.
2. Another man had his scrotum sewn to the sofa-cushion with thick
sail-maker’s needles. He sat for a while in this “fettered” condition,
after which the strings were cut!
All possible cutting and stabbing instruments and burning substances are
used for the gratification of the masochist’s lascivious love of pain;
they have themselves scratched, bitten, pinched, burned, their hair torn
out; they are trodden upon, whipped with switches or ox-whips; they have
themselves “put to the question” in every possible way in special
“=torture chambers=” or “punishment rooms.” Such a genuine torture
chamber, in the house of a Hamburg prostitute, was recently described by
the public prosecutor, Dr. Ertel, in Hamburg.[621] Of the dwelling of
this prostitute the following account is given in the testimony of the
examining judge:
To the side of the flat towards the bath-room is the door of entrance
to the so-called “black room.”
The walls of this room, lighted by one window only, were covered with
a coal-black material of the nature of calico, and the plaster of the
ceiling was similarly covered; to the middle of the ceiling,
proceeding from the centre of a black rosette, was attached a pulley,
consisting of the usual rollers and blocks, made in this instance of
metal, and furnished with a strong twisted cord.
In the dark corner between the window and the wall there stood a
peculiar scaffold, made of roughly hewn planks, consisting of two
similar parts placed side by side; the back of this scaffold was
placed against the wall beside the window.
The purpose of this scaffold was not immediately apparent. Seen
sideways, the form of this wooden structure was somewhat like that of
a heavy, coarsely-made armchair; the upper parts of the arms were
about the height of a man’s shoulders. To the framework along the
upper edge there were attached five fairly strong iron rings, which
were screwed into the wood. The framework ran on rollers, so that it
could be moved about.
On the wall was hung on a nail a leather girdle with buckles; there
was also a rope about the thickness of the finger, ending in a loop;
there were also two dog-collars, part of a sword-stick, leather reins,
and fetters for wrists and ankles, the former being heavy iron
handcuffs.
The window in the wall separating the “black room” from the bathroom,
the glass of which was frosted, was covered with special hangings. The
inner side of the door of the room was also hung with black.
In respect to this “black room” A. testified:
“Z. insisted that one room should be entirely draped with black, as
the ‘hall of judgment.’ He sent me pulleys from Cologne, by which he
was to be drawn up and hanged.[622] This excited him, his face got
quite blue, and it made him ‘ready’ for intercourse. I was afraid that
it might kill him, and I only allowed him to have it done once.
“To the wooden framework in the ‘black room,’ Z. was securely
fastened, so that he had the illusion that he was on the scaffold.”
In all large towns widely diffused =masochistic prostitution= subserves
the desires of male masochists, and frequently also those of female
masochists. These priestesses of _Venus flagellatrix_ hide themselves
commonly under the cloak of a “=masseuse=”[623] an “=educationalist=,”
or “=governess=,” adding to this professional title the expressive
adjective “=severe=” or “=energetic=.” “=Wanda=” is also a favourite
pseudonym, which corresponds to the masochistic nickname of “=Severin=”
(the principal character of Sacher-Masoch’s “Venus im Pelz”).
These women, the “mistresses,” treat their masochistic clients as
“slaves” or “dogs,” and maintain this fiction not only in personal
association, but also in correspondence--masochists are all passionate
correspondents. The relationship also of the “=lady=” to her “=page=” is
a favourite one (the so-called “=pagism=”). The nature of the
relationship is clearly shown in the following original letter of such a
masochist:
“BERLIN,
“_June 7, 1902_.
“GRACIOUS LADY,--
“First of all I must sincerely ask your pardon for daring, most
honoured lady, to write to you. I saw recently a lady with a glorious
figure and magnificent hips enter your house, and I suspect that you
are this lady. If you, gracious lady, desire a servant and a slave,
who will blindly obey all your commands, and upon your order, as a
slave, without any will but your own, will perform the basest and
dirtiest services, I should be happy if you would be so gracious as to
make me that slave, if I might visit you from time to time in order to
serve you, my strict mistress and commander. If at any time I should
fail to obey you absolutely, you can treat me most cruelly and
chastise me most severely.
“Will you, gracious lady, deign to answer me, your basest servant, and
to make use of the enclosed envelope to tell me if you, this evening,
will go for a walk, and how, and where, in what café you may chance to
spend the evening, and if you will be my strict mistress, and if I may
venture to be your slave. Perhaps, most honoured lady, you could be at
the Oranienburger Tor at eight o’clock precisely on =Friday= evening,
with a rose in your hand. Full of subjection and abasement, obedient
to your strict commands, and slavishly kissing your feet and hands, I
am your most abject servant and your basest slave.”
Such a slave luxuriates voluptuously in the lowest services, in the most
loathsome abasements, such as are indicated sufficiently in the names
“=coprolagnia=” and “=urolagnia=.” I have in my possession a series of
letters by masochists full of such things, described with the utmost
particularity, some even in a poetic form (!), which I cannot print on
account of their loathsome contents. A sufficient idea of the slavery of
the masochist is given in the above-mentioned report of the public
prosecutor, Dr. Ertel, in which a “mistress” states:
“When I took my meals he lay either under the table, or in a corner of
the room; I threw him bones, and gave him the remains of my own food.
He often barked, and usually had a dog-collar round his neck, with a
chain attached to it. He had given himself the name of Nero, so this
is what I called him. When anyone wished to come near me without
permission, he bit him in the leg; this was the first step in a
slave’s duty. He swept out my room, boiled potatoes, roasted meat for
me, and did other work of the house. He also wanted to be my horse; I
had to ride on him; he carried me in this way from one room to the
other.[624] When he disobeyed me in any way, I had to use the whip. He
related to me that formerly he had corresponded with a music-hall
comedian who played woman’s parts, and subsequently had associated
with him, but he got weary of this, and disappeared for a long time to
get free from the man. He told me also that he was accustomed to make
appointments in the Schaarhof (a street in Hamburg in which the
prostitutes visited by the lowest classes of the population live). On
Sunday evenings these women have many visitors, when the workmen have
got their week’s money.
“Often I had to shut him up in a wardrobe, with a chain round his
neck, fastened to the wall of the wardrobe, so short that he could
hardly move; the door of the wardrobe was shut upon him.
“In my flat I had to give him a slave’s dress to wear, in order that
he might feel himself to be fully a slave. I took away all his money,
all the keys of his house, of his office, and of his safe, and
returned them to him only after a night and two days. Z. only does
this occasionally, when he is utterly beside himself; often he is
quite reasonable. He does not associate with any decent people; the
society in which he feels happiest is that of whores and other obscure
persons; he has himself said this to me. Even the people who make use
of him avoid him in the street.
“He would also learn to dress hair, and how to paint the face, if I
ordered him. Painted faces stimulate him.
“Once he said to me that I might have another slave; this I did. First
of all I had to bind Z. hand and foot, and to wrap up his head in
cotton-wool, in order to give the new slave the idea that he had been
very badly treated, and had been sent to the hospital. When, later,
the new slave came, and I explained everything to him as Z. had told
me to, and led him in to see Z., the new man was very much surprised
to see Z. tied up in this way, became frightened, and soon went home.”
Another prostitute reports:
“I made the acquaintance of Z. in No. 8, Schwiegerstrasse. He has
three or four times had intercourse with me. He had himself whipped by
me. Z. once asked me to fetch a man, which I did. This man got into
bed with me, and satisfied himself manually, without having
intercourse with me. Z. on this occasion lay under the bed: he wished
to do so; I believe he had arranged this in order to obtain sexual
excitement in this way. Z. and the other man did not see one another.
“When the other man had gone away, Z. did the most disgusting things.
“When Z. had himself whipped, he first had his hands fastened with
iron handcuffs.”
It would be quite erroneous to assume that in the case of these
masochistic “slaves,” whose human worth has been lowered to the depths,
who seem completely to discard their humanity and to sink below the
level of animals, that we always have to do with effeminate, degenerated
weaklings. No; much more frequently they are =healthy, powerful men, of
an imposing appearance and distinguished demeanour=, who find pleasure
in playing such tragic rôles, and who obviously obtain sexual
gratification by this complete reversal of their nature. The “slave”
just described was “by nature tall and stately. His features were
=energetic= and sympathetic, and he had a large beard. His eyes were
=clear and bright. In actions and appearance he was a thoroughly
masculine being.=”[625] In Berlin there exist masochists in high
official positions, in appearance and in profession true manly
natures--“supermen”--who only become “slaves” in relation to their
“mistresses.” According to Sacher-Masoch, Germans and Russians
especially are inclined to masochism; but, as a matter of fact, this
tendency is also widely diffused in France and England. Zola describes
such a type in “Nana.”
The slave type is not always completely developed; more commonly
masochism manifests itself in a less marked degree. There are many and
various shades: sometimes there is only a spiritual abasement, exhibited
in apparently trifling procedures and practices (symbolic masochism). A
few authentic cases will serve to illustrate this--they sound
incredible, but are in fact true:
1. A handsome and fine-looking officer, married to a beautiful wife,
continually associates with an elderly, robust washerwoman, with whom
he also has sexual intercourse. Since he refuses to leave this woman,
his wife has separated from him.
2. A State official of high position, fifty years of age, visits a
prostitute from time to time, and puts on her clothing, with corset
and stockings, while she wears man’s clothing. Then for two hours they
play cards. At eleven o’clock he lays himself, still clothed, in her
bed, whilst she must lie down naked upon the bed covering. Nothing
else happens. He does not make the least attempt to touch her; and
after a time he goes away, first paying her fifty marks.
3. An active Minister of State (!), now deceased, used often to visit
a cocotte, who had to sit upon him, and then _in corpus totum ei
minxit_. This was sufficient to give him sexual gratification
(urolagnia).
4. An engineer meets a prostitute (who has been previously instructed
what to do) in the street, and asks her if he may go home with her for
twenty marks (shillings). Having reached the home of the girl, he
suddenly declares with tears that he has only five marks with him. The
prostitute overwhelms him with abuse, takes the five marks from him,
and then carefully searches his clothing, until somewhere or other she
finds a hundred-mark piece! The moment of the discovery of this piece
of money is precisely the moment when the man has the sexual orgasm.
In answer to his prayers and whining, to his pitiful request that she
shall at least give him back half the money, he only receives scornful
abuse. Finally, she presses one mark into his hand, and gives him his
_congé_. This procedure is repeated regularly every fortnight--an
expensive amusement for a man who is by no means wealthy. But he is
unable to give up this peculiar passion, which for him is the only way
of obtaining sexual gratification.
5. A man of the upper classes, thirty years of age, frequents only
prostitutes with artificial teeth. They must take these teeth out, and
he puts them in his mouth and sucks them. He then stretches himself
upon the covering of the bed, and the prostitute must lay one of her
dirty chemises upon his face, whilst he at the same time holds one of
her shoes in each hand. This is for him the critical moment. To the
girl herself during the whole procedure he does not direct a single
glance; for him there exist only the teeth, the chemise, and the
shoes. Thus we have to do with a case of masochism with mental
fetishistic associations. The previously described medieval “cure by
disgust” (the exhibition of a dirty chemise) would in this man have
had the opposite effect to that intended.
Masochism is much commoner in men than in women, because the latter have
more command over their sexual impulse, and are not so readily
subordinated and enslaved thereby as are men. The physiological
masochism of woman is of a more spiritual nature. Still, in women who
are very excitable sexually a similar “sexual obedience” may appear to
that which we encounter in men. Shakespeare, in the “Midsummer-Night’s
Dream,” when he makes Helena feel herself to be Demetrius’ little dog,
gives her definite masochistic characteristics.
Masochistically inclined, also, are women of good position who play the
part of prostitutes, either in brothels or in the streets, such as have
recently been described by d’Estoc in “Paris-Eros”; we may regard the
celebrated Messalina as their prototype. Similarly disposed are women of
good position who have enduring sexual relationships with men of the
lower classes, such as workmen, coachmen, etc., and who even seek sexual
enjoyment with any casual member of the rabble they may meet in the
streets--a practice of which Lombroso has collected examples. Passive
algolagnia also occurs in women, as is proved by the following letter of
a typical masochist:
“BERLIN,
“_November 9, 1902_.
“HONOURED LADY,--
“I allow myself to make the polite inquiry whether you will consent to
visit me once a week, in my dwelling in the Kurfurstendamm, after your
reception hour. I have a peculiar wish from time to time =to be
chastised in the most severe and energetic manner, until the blood
flows=. I am twenty-eight years of age, and widowed, and have a very
large and luxuriant figure. For the flagellation I would pay fifty
marks (shillings). If you accede to my wish, I beg you to describe how
you intend to carry out the chastisement. On what part of the body
will you whip me? In what way should this be clothed, if clothed at
all? What instrument will you use for the whipping? In what position
should I receive the whipping? How many blows should I receive the
first time?
“After the sixth blow my voluptuous sensations increase to such a
degree that my whole body trembles with sensuality. Are you yourself
inclined to sensuality, and do you carry out this chastisement from
purely voluptuous motives?”
We cannot determine whether in this case homosexuality plays any part.
In my “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis” (vol.
ii., p. 183), I have printed a letter of another unquestionably
heterosexual masochist woman to an “energetic” man.
APPENDIX[626]
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION (HISTORY OF
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ALGOLAGNISTIC REVOLUTIONIST).
The author of the following sketch, the Russian anarchist N. K., was
arrested in Warsaw in the early months of 1906. Like all those who at
this time were considered to be members of the revolutionary party,
the intention of the authorities was to shoot him immediately, without
any elaborate inquiry, after a drum-head court-martial.
His demeanour during the shooting of his companions, who preceded him
to death, and also during the court-martial, showed that his psychical
individuality was so profoundly abnormal that the Colonel in command
of the firing-party suspected him to be a psychopath, and on his own
authority postponed his execution pending further examination in the
citadel. While imprisoned K. wrote his reminiscences, which are here
given word for word and without comment:
I.
My parents were opposite elements: my father, strong, coarse, brutal,
egotistic, material to excess; my mother, suffering, delicate,
sensitive, ethereal. From such a cross, a masochistic character =must=
necessarily be produced. My father brought me up with storms,
chastisements, and fear; my mother counteracted all this with
caresses, kisses, and tears.... I =trembled= with secret anxiety and
=exulted= inwardly at the same moment when my father stretched me
across his knees. As soon as the punishment was over, he immediately
proceeded to box someone’s ears--anyone’s, a footman’s, a maid’s,
anyone’s. I ran with a smarting posterior to my mother. By her first
my injuries were inspected, then I was cried over, embraced, kissed,
and finally laughed at and with. This scene repeated itself at
irregular intervals. To these years belong my first memory of the
masochistic principle of life. This was based upon the following
observations:
All my companions, boys and girls alike, endeavoured to play tricks on
one another; to tell tales of one another to their parents, tales true
and false; in every way to cause suffering, in order then, by
redoubled love, to make all right again. On the other hand, I noticed
that no child loved another unless it was tormented by that other.
Those who did not torment one another were mutually indifferent.
This mutual tormenting and =being= tormented must therefore, =in the
nature of things=, produce a certain charm, gives rise to a
=pleasure=. This pleasure consisted in increasing, mentally realizing,
=sympathizing= with, the pain of another. This is =not
sadism=--generally speaking, sadism does not exist--it is only
=refined masochism=; for we prepare pains in order to sympathize with
them--that is, in order that we may free =ourselves=.
I especially enjoyed teasing girls, destroying their toys, tearing
their dolls to pieces, dirtying their clothing, etc. When, thereupon,
they wept bitterly, I fought against their tears, until finally they
were consoled. Then I went close to them, embraced them, caressed
them, kissed them, and cried with sympathy. What pain and what
pleasure did I experience when they pushed me away, struck me, and
spat in my face! I bought them once more finer toys, and was =so
happy= when their tears gave place to laughter!
How often I told false tales of other children to their parents, in
order to be able to sympathize with the mental pain of an undeserved
chastisement! But I was no exception in this, because most of my
playmates were the same. I remember how a girl of eleven calumniated a
boy of twelve: she declared that he had put his hand on her private
parts when she was out walking! The happy, poor lad was frightfully
beaten at school and at home. All the children baited him, despised
him, and avoided him like the plague.... He became quite afraid of his
fellows.
What did I live through at that time?
Moody and spiteful, he lay under a tree; the girl who had told this
false tale about him softly drew near, stood by him, and with a
pleading voice called his name. Furiously he jumped to his feet, and
wished to run away; but she seized his hand, fell upon her knees, and
begged for his forgiveness. It was useless for him to abuse her, to
strike her, and to tread upon her toes. She threw her arms round him,
cried as if her heart was broken, and spoke tenderly to him for so
long a time, until at last he sat down beside her, and allowed himself
to be caressed. Thus they sat together for a long time, and wept and
laughed and wept. Suddenly she seized his hand and pressed it
violently between her thighs....
This contact formed the last link of a long logical chain....
These were the =facts= which first made me feel instinctively how,
like every fundamental thing--everything which is of a primeval
character: primeval force, primeval matter, primeval impulse,
etc.--all represent the union of two extremes; the primeval impulse
“love” can also be the coalescence of two opposites. These two
opposites in =this= case are pleasure and pain; as in the case of
electricity we have the union of the two opposites, positive and
negative electricity; in the case of magnetism, we have the union of
positive and negative magnetism; in the case of the atom, the positive
and negative ion; in the case of sex, man and woman, etc.
II.
My years of school and University life were spent at St. Petersburg.
Tempestuously I threw myself upon simple physical “love” (!), upon the
orgies, upon all the varieties, of physical love. Bodily-sexual
masochism, with all its artificial sensual charms, was a cup which I
drained to the dregs; but I was never able to explain to myself why
humanity was satisfied with so crude a definition of the idea of
“masochism.” Sexual masochism is indeed one of the most obvious facts
of life. But the same is true also of sexual love; and yet we do not
maintain that love is only sexual impulse.
I passed beyond this physical masochism; it was for me a necessary
phase of development. =The spiritual element within me began to sway
my existence.= At this time I learned to love a girl of a wonderful
character. She loved me to a similar degree of insanity.
Had I been a beggar or a tramp, she would have followed me through the
streets. She would have accompanied me to forced labour in Kara,
Kamtchatka, or Saghalien. For me she would also have mounted the
scaffold; to save me she would even have become a prostitute. It was a
blessedness to love her and to be loved by her.
How can we wonder that in conformity with this interminable love
accompanying sorrows should also extend into infinity, and ultimately
lead to a catastrophe?
Every night we slept together, although for months at a time we did
not have sexual intercourse; we embraced one another so closely and
slept =so gently=!...
To separate from one another only for a few hours was a torment. If I
went out alone, I must tell her the precise moment at which she might
expect me to return. If I remained away a quarter of an hour longer,
Mascha at once pictured to herself that I had been run over by a tram,
that I had fallen down in an epileptic fit, that I had suddenly become
insane and jumped into the Neva, or that some other disaster had
befallen to me. Thus she stood continually at the window, in order to
see what was passing in the street. If anyone came up to our floor,
she ran quickly to see who it was. If it was not I, then she felt
horrible anxiety. When at length I came, she stood waiting for me in
the doorway, laughing and crying at the same time. Then there followed
embraces and kisses as if I had returned from a journey to the North
Pole; but also reproaches, such as, “You do not love me at all; if you
did you would not torture me so! You know how anxious I always am
about you when you are away!”
Gradually I began to understand this condition, =as an inevitable
consequence of the masochistic principle of love=.
=This martyrdom of the soul, which lovers prepare for themselves in
the unceasing dread of losing one another, or of losing one another’s
love, is intimately connected with the very nature of love. Without
anxiety of this kind, love would be unthinkable. He who loves must
continually torment himself with this anxiety; and the stronger the
love, the greater is this torment. When the torment is increased by
the other’s participation in it, the mutual love is also increased
thereby.=
This necessity we also felt, and we resolved to procreate an
illegitimate child.
What this step meant to us--members of leading families--can readily
be understood; but we proudly resolved to defy society at large, in
order to consecrate our love by the sorrows which this would entail.
III.
As soon as Mascha became pregnant, I felt an irresistible impulse to
increase our mutual torments! To increase them!! To increase them!!!
For our love did not appear to me sufficiently great, nor yet
sufficiently worthy, nor yet sufficiently holy, for us to crystallize
ourselves in a new living being.
This idea racked me continually. In vain I sought to convince myself
that our love was a million times greater than the love of ordinary
mortals, that it was unique!... Again and again my conscience said to
me: “How can you use for =yourself= the measuring rule of ordinary
men, even if they are the leaders of men? You are the =conscious=
masochist! Your =ideals= must be suited to this fact! Is it anything
so much out of the common to have an illegitimate child? You must
increase your sorrows! Increase them!!”
(He proceeds to describe how in every possible way he tormented his
beloved.)
At length, in consequence of my continued vexation, Mascha became as
nervous as =I= was myself.... Now she really began to take everything
perversely.
“Leave me in peace! It is your fault! You are driving me quite out of
my mind!!”
On account of the most trifling matters we became furious with rage,
mutually making one another more wretched and more bitter. Ten, twenty
times a day, we stood facing one another, leaning forwards, shaking
with wrath, our mouths gaping with anger, our eyes sparkling, our
fingers widely separated, like tigers ready to spring; many times she
struck me in the face or spat at me!
“Oh, you wretch! How I hate you!!! I should like--I should like----!”
Then we said to one another calmly and quietly that we did not suit
one another; that we had been deceived; that everything was now at an
end; we begged one another for forgiveness, and separated.
Soon came the pangs of conscience, the question, “Who is to blame?”
Now the pains began: “What have I done? It is impossible that it =can=
be so; I will beg her forgiveness upon my knees. She must be =mine=
again--must be, must be!”
“Oh, love, love! How interminable is your pain!”
Now I began with nervous haste to say to myself, “Where will she be?
With Katja? Up! Go to her and ask her!”
“Has Mascha been here?”
“Yes--she has just gone away!”
“Did she not say where she was going?”
“No!... Have you quarrelled once more?”
“H’m!... A little, but it was my fault!... I must find her!...
Good-bye!”
At the house of A, B, C, and D she was not to be found. Is it possible
that in her pain----? No, no! Not =that=! Not =that=!!
This pulsed in my temples, whilst I ran up and down the stairs!
Six o’clock! now she will go out walking on the Newsky-Prospekt!!...
At last I reach the Newsky-Prospekt! I rush up and down looking for
her! Is that she? No! Or there? It is not she! That must be she?
No--yes--no--yes, yes!... It is she.... Now walk a little more
slowly.... Now she sees me.... She turns as if to pass by on the other
side.... She changes her mind and stays on this side....
“Have you been out walking long?”...
Mascha lies in my arms. We cry and laugh--cry and laugh.... Never,
never, never again!!... Forgive, forgive!!... We embrace one another,
press one another, kiss one another, as if we could be absorbed into
one another.... We abuse one another, pull one another’s hair, and
playfully box one another’s ears.... Then we rub our cheeks together,
and give one another the maddest pet names....
Oh, paradise of love! Why did I quarrel with my fate which imposed
upon me such unheard-of torments?... Nothing else could have brought
me such blessedness as this!!
Oh, fate! More, more, still more martyrdom!... In this way let my love
grow!
IV.
Our life together became continually more intolerable, and yet we
could not bear to be away from one another a single hour. A terrible
fate chained us together, and threw us into the maelstrom of this
furious impulse, irresistible in its elemental force. To tear
ourselves apart was rendered impossible by the fetters that chained us
together.
Continually more frightful, continually more insane, became our
scenes, and the love-eruptions which broke out from time to time.
(After mutual spiritual torments, becoming ever worse and worse, K.
begs his beloved to procure abortion!)
She wept quietly, then kissed me and went out....
The key grated in the lock....
“Mascha! Mascha! For God’s sake! Mascha! What are you going to do?...”
I shook the door like a madman.... It would not give way.... I tore
open the window.... “Help! Help!”... The door was burst open.... Break
open Mascha’s door!... It was quickly forced.... She lies there....
Dead.... Poison....
V.
Finally--after weeks--I was once more somewhat calmer, and was able to
think a little. I had so utterly lost all power that I was only able
to get from my bed to the sofa, or back again, with assistance. They
had been afraid that I should not get over it at all.... Week after
week to endure the most shattering, superhuman sorrows, to oscillate
between death and madness!...
But superhuman =love= had also been mine! The statue of Saïs had been
unveiled to me!... I had quaffed the cup of love to the =last=
dregs!... But he only will have had this experience who has first
drunk to the dregs the draught of =sorrow=!...
Oh, short-sighted world, which will call the murder of Mascha
“sadism”!... Had not her pains cut twice as deeply into =my own=
heart? Has not =my= soul been convulsed by her torment?... I wished
only to torture =myself=!... Am I to blame that it was only possible
to do so through her martyrdom?... Has not =she= shared also all my
superearthly blisses?... He who has experienced =this= does not
regret--even if he must pay =double= the price in sorrows!!
Is not that “=masochism=”?
Have you who wished to pass judgment on me learned that? No! Who will
set up to be a judge of a case of which he knows nothing?
Oh, crude psychology, which teaches that out of an =inhuman=
impulse--out of cruelty--we commit “crimes” on those nearest to us!
Only from a purely =human= impulse--from “love”--do we do to the
nearest to us what you call “crimes,” in order that he may share that
unnamable happiness which we ourselves feel. Thus the influences which
move us are purely =ethical=.
Do you believe that we only are masochists? Or do you believe that
those only are masochists who have themselves trodden on by a
prostitute, have had their ears boxed, have been whipped, befouled,
and have let the prostitute spit in their faces?
Oh, idiots! I say to you all love is masochistic, and all which leads
to it is associated with it, or results from it, bears the imprint
“pleasure and pain.”
Nature =never= fails. Who, then, believes that it was caprice, chance,
or irony, on Nature’s part, when she associated =love= with so much
=torment=?
Who does not think of all the tragedies of =unhappy= love, with its
murders and suicides, all its physical and spiritual martyrdom, which
every day brings to us?
Who does not think of the tragedy of sexual love which is offered to
us in the hospitals? all the hundreds of thousands who have to pay for
the licentiousness which results from sexual =lust=--all the tabetics,
syphilitics, general paralytics, etc.?
Who does not remember the torments which the sexually perverse have
brought on themselves and on humanity? All the =lust-murders=! And all
the punitive measures? The lust-murders which we commit--to prevent
lust-murders!...
Who does not think of the torments of pregnancy? its risks of life and
death?
Are all these mistakes of Nature? No! No!! The accompaniment of
pleasure by pain must have some definite purpose. This purpose is:
=That pleasure, without its opposite, pain, would not be perceptible,
would be unthinkable, would be inconceivable--just as cold could not
be apparent to our consciousness without heat, or light without
darkness. Thus pleasure, in the absence of pain, would not be
perceived as pleasure. Therefore, by increase of pain, pleasure
becomes of greater value, for the greater the contrast the more
readily do we perceive it.=
“=Masochism is thus a natural law.=”
=The more fully it is developed in any individual, the higher, the
more superhuman is that person.=
VI.
Through the recognition of the masochistic natural law, I passed into
a peculiar condition. Individual love and sorrow no longer made any
particular impression on me. I began to observe masochism in the life
and work of Nature, in the history of humanity, in social life, and in
civilization.
Is not the great developmental principle of Nature based upon
this--that the existence and progress of the species is dependent upon
pressure exercised on it by its environment? The more difficult the
conditions of existence, the harder the pressure of the environment,
the more =suffering= the species has to bear, the stronger must be the
reaction against these, the more strongly will the powers and
capacities of that species become active, and by this the species will
be elevated to a higher level.
“=Thus suffering is the driving force of Nature. Nature is therefore
masochistic!=”
Within the species itself the same law holds. Within the “human”
species have not those varieties developed to the highest which have
had to overcome the =hardest= environment? Those who by nature have
been troubled with the greatest difficulties in providing for their
food-supply? Those who have =suffered= most?
Is not the existence of the living being dependent upon the “struggle
for existence,” upon the mutual hostility of the species, striving for
one another’s annihilation?
It is a characteristic trait of human nature that all religions are
based upon the same fundamental principle: “Only by =suffering= canst
thou become happy!”
Is not this true =masochism=, when humanity, by means of modern
science, has also been robbed of the hope of a beyond, of the hope for
eternity and blessedness, and is offered =nothing= in its place? Look
at universal history!
Was not the birth of that great idea associated with frightful
sufferings, with the influence of fire and sword, blood and death? Has
not humanity crucified its greatest benefactors? Has it not rewarded
them with the gallows, the torture-chamber, the wheel, the stake, the
prison, and the asylum?
And all out of =love for humanity=!
All the persecutions of Christians and Jews, the inquisitions and
burnings of heretics, witch-trials, the religious sorrows of all
times--all were outflows of the =love for humanity=. Their aim was to
safeguard mankind from the robbery of its happiness by heresy!
The love of humanity begat our Neros, our Torquemadas, our Ivans the
Terrible, and Schdanows!
Why did these men torture other men?... In order =themselves= to
realize in imagination the others’ torments, to sympathize with them,
to feel with them. In order in their own spirit to endure these
martyrdoms; that is to say, to torture themselves with the
representation of the pain of another.... “=Thus in its motives sadism
is nothing else than masochism.=”
The =love of humanity= erected the cross of Christ, lighted the
faggots with which Huss and Bruno wore burned, tortured Thomas
Münzer, stabbed Marat, decapitated Hebert, and built the gallows of
Arad, St. Petersburg, Chicago, etc.!
The =love of humanity= built the Bastille, the Tower of London, the
Spielberg, Blackwell’s Island, and the Schlüsselburg, built the
torture-chambers of the Inquisition, constructed the medieval penal
system, and those of Montjuich, Alcalla del Valle, Borissoglebsk, and
many others.
Remarkable! That precisely your “love of humanity” was the most cruel
tormentor, the most inexorable executioner, the most bloodthirsty
butcher of men, and the greatest of all criminals.
=Do you not see in all this the wise rule of the masochistic
principle? That it was only persecution which diffused these ideas?=
All the progress which man makes in =civilization= must be paid for by
means of enormous sacrifice. The superhuman sorrows of millions of
slaves created the civilization of antiquity--the Phœnician, the
Babylonian, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Greek, and the Roman! (With
regard to this often disputed fact, see Mommsen: “In comparison with
the sufferings of the slaves of antiquity, all the sufferings of
modern negro slaves are simply a drop in the ocean!”)
=Indian= civilization is the product of the most horrible suppression
and plunder of the lower castes by the higher. The soil of the
Southern States of America was cultivated through being manured with
the sweat, blood, and bones of negro slaves.
The soil of Europe, again, was made fertile by the sufferings of
slaves and serfs, and so on!
Amid the most horrible birth-pangs, amid the slave rebellions, peasant
wars, and revolutions, in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
centuries, mankind was enabled to throw off the shell of the feudal
system. Therewith capitalism was born. This newest form of
civilization, once more, is based upon horrible plundering,
oppression, and misery of millions and millions of proletarians.
What a devastation of humanity results from the acquirements of
civilization in respect of engineering and the practical arts!...
Every invention and discovery demands its victims!...
How often have chemists been destroyed by an explosion in the creation
of new compounds, or killed by the development of poisonous vapours!
Count the engineers who have been sacrificed to their profession, or
bacteriologists who have been killed through infection in the study of
zymotic diseases!
Count all the victims of professional diseases, of tuberculosis,
phosphorus necrosis, lead poisoning, mercurial poisoning, etc.!...
Count all those who have fallen from scaffoldings, all the sailors who
have been drowned, all the railway employees who have been run over,
all the factory hands who have been torn to pieces by machinery, all
those who have been destroyed in mines by explosions, etc.!
Think of the hunger and misery of the widows and children of these
victims of industry and science, of the loss of work and other social
injuries resulting from capitalism!
The rebellion of the victims of this system, again, gives rise to the
class war, with new tortures, new sufferings!... In order ultimately,
by the creation of a new social system in the future, to free mankind
from these sufferings!... People believe it! But that is =nonsense=!
The sufferings will only assume a new =form=, and will =increase=!!
Do you, then, believe that all the miseries of mankind at the present
time have been the result only of chance, not of =foresight=?
Oh, no! These sufferings were only the =stimulus= which drove mankind
forward to new construction, to greater progress, in order to avoid
suffering!... Progress brought new suffering, and so on.
“=Thus suffering is the civilizing factor of mankind! To free mankind
from suffering would mean to rob mankind of civilization.=”
Can we represent to ourselves a life of complete satisfaction?
No! Without suffering, the needs would be wanting which alone provide
the stimulus to progress!... Without suffering, we should also be
without enjoyment. For everything reaches our consciousness only by
means of its opposite.
“=To free us from torment means to rob us of pleasure.... But then we
should no longer have any interest in life!=”
“=Civilization is a union, a hermaphrodite structure, of pleasure and
pain--that is, masochism!!... The progress of mankind is only possible
by means of the masochistic principle.=”
=Oh, cruel-sweet philosophy of Golgotha!! Eternally shalt thou remain
the Moira and Kismet of humanity!!!=
VII.
“Always the more, always the better of your kind shall perish, for it
shall always be worse for you. So only--so only--does man grow
upwards” (Nietzsche, “Zarathustra,” ii., p. 126).
Magnificent Nietzsche!
Now first do I grasp your “superman”!... Now I share your hatred of
the every day and the average!
Away with the philistine cowardice which says, “Above all, do not go
too far!... Do everything with moderation and for a definite end!...
Never go too far, and never fall into extremes!”...
No!... Go forward with courage into the extreme!... Only slothfulness,
comfortableness, and cowardice are afraid of a Turkish bath, with the
subsequent cold douche!
But how the body softens under this _laisser faire et laisser passer_,
how it loses its power of resistance, accumulates substances which are
superfluous, and therefore harmful! In the same way that part of
humanity which follows this device will perish from the philistine
disease named “moderation”!
Let mankind get into its Turkish bath--and then get under the cold
douche! Thus it will be steeled, rejuvenated, and invigorated! Thus it
will be freed from superfluous matters!
“Let things be made continually worse and harder for mankind, then the
reaction will step in and drive them forward!”
According to this device I acted henceforward. To increase pain, in
order that pleasure might become greater!
An immeasurable love for humanity took possession of me now that I had
at length attained the point of view which so perfectly harmonized
with my individuality.... =I myself became equivalent to humanity=; I
felt the heart-beat of millions in myself. Their contradictory
feelings were united in my own person. I felt equally capitalist and
proletarian; equally orthodox Christian and Catholic, Jew and atheist;
equally man and woman.
All the sorrows and joys in humanity I felt in myself, and I plunged
myself in them to the depths.
I wished to experience them all in my own spirit.... I studied
universal history, but with what perception!... I did not confine
myself to facts, but I turned to the persons of those who were acting;
I represented to myself all the misery of the crowd and the thought of
the crowd.
What intolerable pain all these provided for me! How I began to love
glorious humanity which suffered all that!
Now the moment had come! Now was the time quickly to plunge into the
extreme of life!... To plunge into all the sorrows of the millions,
and to increase them tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold! To drink
the voluptuous sensation which all experience in the paroxysm of
frenzy, and thus to become thoroughly man!!
VIII.
From now onwards I threw myself with enthusiasm into the arms of the
most extreme section of the anarchist movement. I gave up the whole of
my property to the support of newspapers, to the publication of
pamphlets, to the support of agitators, and so on. But, at the same
time, I remained in touch with the “upper ten thousand.” I travelled
through the principal countries of Europe and America, everywhere
forming associations, everywhere developing amid the receptive element
of the movement my most radical tendencies--in most cases with good
result.
(He now describes in detail his propagandist destructive activity,
especially in Spain.)
IX.
Meanwhile, in my home in Eastern Europe the revolutionary tendency was
continually gaining force; anarchism also became more influential. I
felt that there was the proper field for my further activity.
Henceforward I lived partly in Paris and partly in Genf and Zürich, in
order from these places to guide the movement in my direction.
Among my own countrymen I soon found adherents to whom nothing seemed
too fantastic, nothing too radical.
Soon we were in possession of a small printing-office, with the aid of
which we issued leaflets, pamphlets, and newspapers.
These generally contained the same ideas: the working classes should
not bother themselves with political demands, such as “universal
suffrage,” “individual liberty,” and the like. For, even if all these
were to be gained, social oppression and exploitation would remain
unaltered: these are what they feel most deeply, and from these evils
all the others result. The working classes should rather aim at the
“social revolution,” they should undertake the “expropriation of the
expropriators.”
In the newspapers and pamphlets we proved in a scientific manner the
justice of all forms of individual expropriation--robbery with
violence, theft, extortion, etc.; we conducted an attack on property;
we demanded the destruction of wealth, whether in private hands or in
the hands of the State, in order that its possession might be more
easily gained.
When the war between Japan and Russia broke out, we all felt that the
time for increased activity had now arrived--most of us moved to
Poland, Lithuania, or Bessarabia. A few only remained in Switzerland,
in order to keep a grip upon the organization in these parts.
X.
For me there now began a period of frightful sufferings.... With
frenzied haste, I seized all the possible news from the seat of war;
greedily I consulted the reports of great battles lasting for entire
weeks; I read of the dreadful storming of Port Arthur. All the
horrible details passed plainly before my eyes.
All the frightful tortures of the masses I represented in my
imagination. I saw how they stood in battle day after day; how they
had lost consciousness in consequence of hunger and thirst and
fatigue, and so went on fighting as mere automata. Ultimately they
even =forgot= to take nourishment, to drink, and to rest--they
actually did not any longer understand that they could free themselves
from their torture of hunger and thirst, could save their lives, by
eating and drinking--so they went on in a frenzy until they fell.
I was no longer capable of doing anything else than, with a swimming
head, with temples pulsating with fever, studying war reports. Day and
night these pictures were before me. Oh, if I could only stand with
them in this hell!... How I loved them, these people who were capable
of such grand actions!... I wished to call out to them: “Be embraced,
O millions! Receive the kiss of the whole world!”... Yes, these are
the true civilized nations!... To what progress must these horrible
sufferings give rise? What a future for mankind! What joys to come!
XI.
Meanwhile the whole of my property had been used up in the
revolutionary movement. The little money that was still available,
that we were still able to scrape together here and there, was
necessarily used for party purposes. I therefore suffered the most
horrible poverty--now in Warsaw, now in Lodz, Bialystok, Kiew, or
Odessa. ... Most of our adherents were among the poor Jewish quarters
of these towns.
My earnings consisted of occasional work and occasional theft. When
there was nothing doing in either of these ways, I moved on with a few
of my own kind from one of our supporters to another.... These people
divided with us the little they had.
It was a voluptuous joy to me, finally, to plunge into the uttermost
depths of misery which it is possible to reach.
It was an enormous victory to be able to live in such surroundings.
What glorious torments I suffered, until I had overcome the disgust
and loathing which the whole environment produced in me! Everywhere we
were amidst horrible dirt.
Notwithstanding all the dirt and misery in which I saw these people
wallowing--or, precisely, because of these things--I began to love
them as hitherto I had loved no others.... When they told me of the
frightful persecutions which their people had endured as no other had
done, then I experienced an unnamable yearning to be one of them; then
I wondered at the enormous power with which, notwithstanding all
persecutions, amidst the most frightful misery which I saw around me,
yet they were able to be the most ardent revolutionists.
XII.
Everywhere now the revolution was in flood. We developed a feverish
activity in all our centres.... At first we had no very great
influence, but our emissaries were actively at work everywhere, in
order to convert our movement from a political one to a social one, or
at least to an economic one.
For this purpose we had provided a secret printing-press in Warsaw,
where we prepared the necessary leaflets. They were written by a
student, who was a genius in this speciality. No one understood as
well as he how to appeal to the instincts of the crowd. The moving
power of his style was incomparable.... He put the facts side by side,
illuminated them from the side that seemed to him most suitable, and
then drew his conclusions, which, in their simple convincing logic,
seemed irresistible. Then he turned to inflame fanaticism, reminded us
how, then and there, and there, and there, so many victims had been
sacrificed to the same idea; how, there and elsewhere, on the
barricades men had died for it, and had rather rotted in prison than
abandon their just demands. In this way he =always= succeeded in
moving the crowd.
It was very efficacious, also, to remind the people of all the little
tricks which had been played upon them by the manufacturers and by the
authorities; he drew their attention to the fact how they, who had
created everything, were actually not recognized as human beings, far
less as human beings with equal rights.... These proofs most readily
infuriated the proletarians to frenzy, and in some places, as in
Lagonsk, Tiflis, and Baku, we succeeded in turning the movement in the
economic direction. It was a great advantage that we had associates
everywhere, and we were quickly notified when the rain was likely to
begin, so that we could speedily move to another place.
In Tiflis the affair did not go as I wished; here the people were only
=too= practical.... They began neither to strike, nor to demolish, nor
to attack the soldiers.... No.... They simply said: “So much wages do
we want; then we shall work only for such a time; and no commodity
must rise in price.... Every one who will not take part with us we
shall shoot.”... All the inhabitants joined them.... After a short
time all this came to nothing.
Baku was more pleasing to me.... Here the petroleum-borers made their
demands, and as these were not agreed to within two days, they set
fire to 140 wells.... Then, to my great regret, the proprietors
agreed to everything which had been demanded. I had been so inhumanly
glad to see my life-ideal fulfilled. It seemed as if the situation was
going to be such as I had often imagined....
A long time already had the religious and racial hatred between the
Armenians and the Tartars been inflamed to the uttermost. In the whole
of the Caucasus there was a bubbling as if in a witch’s cauldron....
Naturally, I remained in Baku, in order to be ready for what I hoped
would happen there.
The whole population was at the uttermost point of tension; everything
seemed painfully uncertain; would the dance begin or not?... I felt
that it would only be necessary to throw a grain of sand into machine,
and in an instant it would lead to an avalanche.... I was possessed by
a frightful excitement; this mental tension was intolerable.... From
minute to minute the horrible anxiety of the undetermined increased in
me, and the hellish desire still burned within me; I longed that it
might start at this very minute, so that, at last, my nerve-destroying
tension might be relieved.
Then I became possessed with a demoniacal idea: one only needed to
give the slightest little push at the right place, and the storm would
break.
Inwardly I shuddered at the idea of the horrible consequences; and yet
something within me drove me forward with an irresistible
force--finally, to close the switch, and to allow the current to pass
which must give rise to the explosion.... “It is only a kind of
benevolent midwifery,” something seemed to whisper in my ear. “It must
happen, in any case!... The sooner the storm breaks, the better!”
Thus I was subjected to a conflict of perceptions, which made me quite
irresponsible. I was hurled to and fro by momentary feelings like a
football. A single word from the other side would have produced in me
such a suggestion that I should have blindly done anything I might
have been asked to do.
My state resembled that of those people of whom Blanqui says: “Paris
at any moment contains 50,000 men who are ready at a wave of the hand
to shed blood for any cause.” It is indifferent to them, he might have
added, if it is for the cause of freedom or for the cause of reaction.
This “destroy-everything mood,” which had so long been to me a
psychological riddle, I was now able to study in my own person, as the
result of an intensified masochistic predisposition.... At the
foundation of the whole hermaphroditic state, there lay nothing else
than the love of humanity.... An everyday humanity offers us no new
sensations.... We are only able to love when it is out of the
ordinary.... For this reason, we strive to see mankind in pain and
poverty--in order that we may love men more ardently; to love them for
that reason, because their misery provides for =us= intense pain.
For days I wandered about, fighting within myself a frightful
spiritual battle.... I felt that the only alternatives were either to
bring about a catastrophe or suicide. To wait any longer was beyond my
powers. A chance must decide....
A kind of trance state had taken possession of my organism.... I knew
nothing rightly: I did not know if everything around me was reality
or only a dream!... Yes, I even doubted my own existence!... At no
moment did I know where I was, how I had come there, what I had just
been doing, what I really was.... I remember only that suddenly I was
walking in the street in deep conversation with a man entirely unknown
to me.... Our conversation turned round the question, What was going
to happen?... Both of us were reserved, both on the watch; each seemed
to have the feeling--“He is seeing through me; I must not betray
myself!... Perhaps I shall be able to get something out of him!”...
Thus, we spoke with the most extreme caution about that which each of
us read in the soul of the other....
The passers-by stared at us; possibly we had been speaking rather too
loudly. It appeared to me that someone was following us in order to
listen to our conversation; we stopped, in order that this person
might be compelled to walk past us. It was an impudent lad, in the
years between boyhood and manhood; he stopped also, with his hands in
his trousers pockets, a few paces distant, and listened to us with
interest.... My companion was as much taken aback as I was myself, and
we both began to stammer. At the moment a crowd of gapers had
collected around us, hoping to hear something of interest. We both
became continually more confused; my head began to swim, and I began
to say something. It must have been nonsense that I spoke, for my
companion looked at me, half astonished and half alarmed, and several
persons in the crowd began to titter. This made me suddenly lose my
head more even than before, and I began to get angry. Suddenly I
shouted out to my companion: “That will have the most frightful
results; they have cut off the Tartar’s feet and hands, and now the
Tartars will massacre the whole town!”... All those around me began to
talk to one another at once. “Cut off feet and hands!”... I had turned
the switch and the current had passed....
I do not know how I got home.... My landlady rushed to me with the
news: “The Tartars are going to burn the town to ashes, and to murder
all the Armenians. Some of them have had their feet and hands cut off;
their noses have been slit, their eyes cut out; boiling oil has been
poured into their ears.... The people are all running away, or
barricading themselves in their houses!”
XIII.
I did not see the beginning of the drama, for immediately after my
return home I fell into a death-like slumber, which lasted more than
fifty hours. No one could have kept about after such a spiritual
storm.... When I awoke, I was so weak that only with labour could I
move a few paces; my whole body trembled unceasingly.... I had
absolutely no other desire but for repose.... After I had somewhat
recovered, I went to sleep again until the next morning.
Now I once more felt comparatively strong, although my arms and legs
still trembled. My hostess--a German woman, long ago deserted in this
town--gave me an account of the atrocities perpetrated by the Tartars.
As I went out, the town seemed to be dead. In the streets there still
lay numerous horrible, mutilated corpses; the shops were closed; here
and there houses were demolished. As far as I could learn, in =Tiflis=
the Tartars had done even worse.... Here in Baku they had fired the
boring-wells of the Armenians; from these the fire had spread to the
rest, so that the entire petroleum industry was ruined, and 10,000 men
were out of work.
All this, however, made no impression on me. A frightful relaxation
and apathy had taken possession of me; I felt neither pain, nor
pleasure, nor sympathy. It was the reaction following the previous
hypertension of the nerves.
I cared no longer to stay here, and I resolved to return to Kiew, and
later to Warsaw or to Lodz.
XIV.
After a short stay in Rostow, on the Don, I reached Kiew, and was
received by the group with much joy. They had believed that I had
fallen in the massacre at Baku or Tiflis.
Our successes in Tiflis and Baku in the economic province, by means of
the economic terror, were now utilized at every opportunity; they only
regretted that, owing to the racial conflict, everything had been once
more destroyed.
During my absence there had been many changes here. In Odessa, Kiew,
Warsaw, Lodz, and Bialystok, successful “expropriations” had been
effected. These “new tactics” had not only been strikingly successful
in almost every case, but they had also attracted towards us the
sympathies of those who had hitherto not taken in much earnest our
influence upon the revolution.
These “expropriations” were carried out in various ways. For example,
by one of our associates, who was an official in the postal service,
we were kept informed when, anywhere in the neighbourhood of the town,
the post-office coach was to pass an isolated place, carrying anything
of considerable value. We then attacked it and plundered it.
Or we sent out spies to learn when, in any great person’s house, or in
any bank, large sums of money would be on hand, and at what time the
fewest employees would be there. Armed to the teeth, we crowded in,
and demanded the surrender of the money, leaving in its place a
receipt with the dreaded imprint of our organization. It also
happened--as in Odessa--that a bomb was exploded in a business
locality. Every one ran up to see what had happened. Meanwhile, one of
our bands entered the place of business from behind and plundered the
safe.
What a quantity of intelligence, energy, perseverance, and knowledge
had to be employed, to render such enterprises possible! How we had to
watch for weeks, to form plans and reject them; how our arrangements
must be altered at the last moment, or the enterprise entirely
abandoned! Of this every one and no one can form an idea for himself.
Here, at any rate, I do =not= propose to give a detailed description
of these affairs, because my sketches do not aim at giving a
description of the revolution, or of those who participated in it, but
=simply and solely to represent the motives of my own activity=:
Therefore I describe my own =environment=, only in so far as it is
necessary to do so for the =understanding= of these =motives=.
These “expropriations” were, moreover, not an anarchist speciality,
for they were also undertaken by the other terrorist parties.
He, however, who believes that the revolutionaries employed this money
for their personal needs is grossly deceived. After, as before, they
remained in their miserable holes, eating rotten herrings and going
barefoot, in order not to destroy their union with the workmen, and
not to lose the latter’s confidence. The money was used solely for
revolutionary purposes--for providing weapons and printing-presses;
for the erection of laboratories for making bombs; for the expenses of
the journeys of smugglers and propagandists; for bribery; and for the
support of those who had been arrested, and of their families--also
the families of those who had been killed or wounded.
XV.