PART I. The Nerves.—Gives in a clear form not only the Cranial and

PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS,

WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO

Contrary Sexual Instinct:

A MEDICO-LEGAL STUDY.

By Dr. R. von KRAFFT-EBING,

Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Vienna.

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION

OF THE

SEVENTH ENLARGED AND REVISED GERMAN EDITION,

BY

CHARLES GILBERT CHADDOCK, M.D.,

Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Marion-Sims College of

Medicine, St. Louis; Fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicine;

Corresponding Member of the Detroit Academy of Medicine; Associate

Member of the American Medico-Psychological Association, etc.

[Illustration]

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON:

THE F. A. DAVIS CO., PUBLISHERS.

1893.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by

THE F. A. DAVIS COMPANY,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C., U. S.

A.

All rights reserved.

Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A.:

The Medical Bulletin Printing House,

1916 Cherry Street.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Very few ever fully appreciate the powerful influence which sexuality

exercises over feeling, thought, and conduct, both in the individual and

in society. Schiller, in his poem, “Die Weltweisen,” recognizes it with

the words:—

“Einstweilen bis den Bau der Welt

Philosophie zusammenhält,

Erhält sie das Getriebe

Durch Hunger und durch Liebe.”[1]

It is remarkable that the sexual life has received but a very

subordinate consideration on the part of philosophers.

Schopenhauer (“The World as Will and Idea”) thought it strange that love

had been thus far a subject for the poet alone, and that, with the

exception of superficial treatment by Plato, Rousseau, and Kant, it had

been foreign to philosophers.

What Schopenhauer and, after him, the Philosopher of the Unconscious, E.

v. Hartmann, philosophized concerning the sexual relations is so

imperfect, and in its consequences so distasteful, that, aside from the

treatment in the works of Michelet (“L’amour”) and Mantegazza

(“Physiology of Love”), which are to be considered more as brilliant

discussions than as scientific treatises, the empirical psychology and

metaphysics of the sexual side of human existence rest upon a foundation

which is scientifically almost puerile.

The poets may be better psychologists than the psychologists and

philosophers; but they are men of feeling rather than of understanding,

and at least one-sided in their consideration of the subject. They

cannot see the deep shadow behind the light and sunny warmth of that

from which they draw their inspiration. The poetry of all times and

nations would furnish inexhaustible material for a monograph on the

psychology of love; but the great problem can be solved only with the

help of Science, and especially with the aid of Medicine, which studies

the psychological subject at its anatomical and physiological source,

and views it from all sides.

Perhaps it will be possible for medical science to gain a stand-point of

philosophical knowledge midway between the despairing views of

philosophers like Schopenhauer and Hartmann[2] and the gay, _näive_

views of the poets.

It is not the intention of the author to lay the foundation of a

psychology of the sexual life, though without doubt psychopathology

would furnish many important sources of knowledge to psychology.

The purpose of this treatise is a description of the pathological

manifestations of the sexual life and an attempt to refer them to their

underlying conditions. The task is a difficult one, and, in spite of

years of experience as alienist and medical jurist, I am well aware that

what I can offer must be incomplete.

The importance of the subject for the welfare of society, especially

forensically, demands, however, that it should be examined

scientifically. Only he who, as a medico-legal expert, has been in a

position where he has been compelled to pass judgment upon his

fellow-men, where life, freedom, and honor were at stake, and realized

painfully the incompleteness of our knowledge concerning the pathology

of the sexual life, can fully understand the significance of an attempt

to gain definite views concerning it.

Even at the present time, in the domain of sexual criminality, the most

erroneous opinions are expressed and the most unjust sentences

pronounced, influencing laws and public opinion.

He who makes the psychopathology of sexual life the object of scientific

study sees himself placed on a dark side of human life and misery, in

the shadows of which the godlike creations of the poet become hideous

masks, and morals and æsthetics seem out of place in the “image of God.”

It is the sad province of Medicine, and especially of Psychiatry, to

constantly regard the reverse side of life,—human weakness and misery.

Perhaps in this difficult calling some consolation may be gained, and

extended to the moralist, if it be possible to refer to morbid

conditions much that offends ethical and æsthetic feeling. Thus Medicine

undertakes to save the honor of mankind before the Court of Morality,

and individuals from judges and their fellow-men. The duty and right of

medical science in these studies belong to it by reason of the high aim

of all human inquiry after truth.

The author would take to himself the words of Tardieu (“Des attentats

aux moeurs”): “Aucune misère physique ou morale, aucune plaie, quelque

corrompue qu’elle soit, ne doit effrayer celui qui s’est voué a la

science de l’homme et le ministère sacré du médecin, en l’obligeant à

tout voir, lui permet aussi de tout dire.”[3]

The following pages are addressed to earnest investigators in the domain

of natural science and jurisprudence. In order that unqualified persons

should not become readers, the author saw himself compelled to choose a

title understood only by the learned, and also, where possible, to

express himself in _terminis technicis_. It seemed necessary also to

give certain particularly revolting portions in Latin[4] rather than in

German.

It is hoped that this attempt to present to physician and jurist facts

from an important sphere of life will receive kindly acceptance and fill

an actual hiatus in literature; for, with the exception of certain

single descriptions and cases, the literature presents only the writings

of Moreau and Tarnowsky, which cover but a portion of the field.[5]

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The distinguished author of “Psychopathia Sexualis” speaks for himself

and his work in its preface; but there are not wanting others to speak

for him.

Dr. A. von Schrenck-Notzing, of Munich, writes[6]:—

“It may be questioned whether it is justifiable to discuss the anomalies

of the sexual instinct apart, instead of treating of them in their

proper place in psychiatry. As a rule, they are certainly only symptoms

of a constitutional malady, or of a weakened state of the brain, which

manifest themselves in the various forms of sexual perversion.

“Moreover, attention has been directed to the baneful influence possibly

exerted by such publications as ‘Psychopathia Sexualis.’ To be sure, the

appearance of seven editions of that work could not be accounted for

were its circulation confined to scientific readers. Therefore, it

cannot be denied that a pornographic interest on the part of the public

is accountable for a part of the wide circulation of the book. But, in

spite of this disadvantage, the injury done by implanting knowledge of

sexual pathology in unqualified persons is not to be compared with the

good accomplished. History shows that uranism was very wide-spread long

before the appearance of ‘Psychopathia Sexualis.’ The courts have

constantly to deal with sexual crimes in which the responsibility of the

accused comes in question.

“For the physician himself, sexual anomalies, treated as they are in a

distant manner in text-books on psychiatry, are in greater part a _terra

incognita_. Exact knowledge of the causes and conditions of development

of sexual aberrations, and of the influence on them of hereditary

constitution, education, the impressions of every-day life, and modern

refined civilization, is the prerequisite for a rational prophylaxis of

sexual aberrations, and for a correct sexual education. Without careful

study of the circumstances which attend the _development_ of sexual

anomalies, we should never be in a position to use effectual

therapeusis. The majority of these unfortunates—Krafft-Ebing calls them

Nature’s step-children—are devoid of insight into their malady; like

insane patients destitute of understanding of the ethical development of

man, they are happy in their abnormal instinctive tendency. For this

reason, in spite of the great prevalence of uranism, very few of its

subjects seek medical treatment. While the terminal forms of sexual

aberrations end in asylums for the insane, the doubtful cases, in which

incompleteness of development or apparent viciousness render correct

diagnosis difficult, make up the majority. But a thorough knowledge of

the aberrations of the sexual instinct is absolutely indispensable to

the jurist. The reasons given are thus sufficiently important to

demonstrate the need of a hand-book on ‘psychopathia sexualis.’”

These words also hold true for English-speaking physicians and

jurists,—who can scarcely fail to welcome the translation of a work so

systematic and comprehensive as “Psychopathia Sexualis”; a work

conceived and executed in the highest scientific and humane spirit; a

work which not only broadens and systematizes our knowledge of

psycho-sexual phenomena, but also demonstrates, in the results of

hypnotic suggestion, how important mental therapeusis must ultimately

become in the hands of the physician; a work which is a trustworthy

guide in the study of the concrete case of sexual crime, and a

philosophical treatise on the inter-relations of sexual criminality,

disease, and criminal anthropology.

The difficulties of translation have not been slight; but minor errors

cannot destroy the author’s meaning.

For much encouragement in the work of translation my gratitude to Dr.

James G. Kiernan and Dr. G. Frank Lydston, of Chicago, both well-known

investigators in this domain of psychopathology, is here expressed; and

to Dr. William A. Stone, Assistant Superintendent at the Michigan

Asylum, Kalamazoo, I am greatly indebted for assistance in the

preparation of the manuscript.

CHARLES GILBERT CHADDOCK.

ST. LOUIS, MO.,

November, 1892.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

I. FRAGMENT OF A PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE, 1

Power of the sexual instinct, 1

Sexuality as the foundation of ethical feeling, 1

Love as a passion, 2

History of development of sexuality, 2

Modesty, 2

Christianity, 4

Monogamy, 4

Woman’s place in Islam, 5

Sensuality and morality, 5

Decadence of sexual morality, 6

Development of sexual feelings in the individual; puberty, 7

Sensuality and religious enthusiasm, 9

Relations between the spheres of religion and sexuality, 9

Sensuality and art, 10

Idealizing tendency of first love, 11

True love, 11

Sentimentality, 11

Platonic love, 12

Love and friendship, 12

Difference between male and female love, 13

Celibacy, 14

Unfaithfulness, 15

Marriage, 15

Desire for adornment, 16

Facts of physiological fetichism, 17

Religious and erotic fetichism, 17

Eyes, odors, voices, and mental qualities as fetiches, 21

Hair, hand, and foot of woman as fetiches, 22

II. PHYSIOLOGY, 23

Sexual maturity, 23

Duration of sexual instinct, 23

Sexual sense, 24

Localization (?), 24

Physiological development of sexuality, 24

Erection; erection-centre, 24

Sexuality and the olfactory sense, 26

Flagellation an excitant of sexual desire, 28

Sects of flagellants, 28

Paullini’s “Flagellum Salutis,” 29

Erogenous zones, 31

Control of the sexual instinct, 32

Cohabitation, 32

Ejaculation, 33

III. GENERAL PATHOLOGY, 34

Frequency and importance of pathological manifestations, 34

Schema of the sexual neuroses, 34

Spinal neuroses, 35

Cerebral neuroses, 36

Paradoxia sexualis, 37

Anæsthesia sexualis (congenital), 42

Anæsthesia sexualis (acquired), 47

Hyperæsthesia sexualis, 48

Paræsthesia sexualis, 56

Perversion and perversity, 56

Sadism, 57

An attempt to explain sadism, 57

Sadistic lust-murder, 62

Anthropophagy, 64

Violation of corpses, 67

Injury of women, 70

Defilement of women, 79

Symbolic sadism, 81

Sadism with any object, 82

Whipping of boys, 82

Sadistic acts with animals, 84

Sadism in woman, 87

Masochism, 89

Relation of passive flagellation to masochism, 101

Ideal masochism, 115

Symbolic masochism, 116

Rousseau, 119

Larvated masochism, 123

Feminine masochism, 137

An attempt to explain masochism, 139

Masochism and sadism, 148

Fetichism, 152

Part of the female body as a fetich, 157

Female attire as a fetich, 167

Special materials as fetiches, 180

Contrary sexual instinct, or homo-sexuality, 185

Acquired homo-sexuality, 188

Simple reversal of sexual feeling, 191

Eviration and defemination, 197

Transition to metamorphosis sexualis paranoica, 202

Metamorphosis sexualis paranoica, 216

Congenital homo-sexuality, 222

Psychical hermaphroditism, 230

Urnings, 255

Effemination and viraginity, 279

Androgyny and gynandry, 304

Diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of contrary sexuality, 319

IV. SPECIAL PATHOLOGY, 358

Pathological sexuality in the various forms of mental

disease, 358

Imbecility, 359

Dementia, 361

Paretic dementia, 363

Epilepsy, 364

Periodical insanity, 370

Psychopathia sexualis periodica, 371

Mania, 372

Satyriasis and nymphomania, 373

Melancholia, 374

Hysteria, 375

Paranoia, 376

V. PATHOLOGICAL SEXUALITY IN ITS LEGAL ASPECTS, 378

Dangers to society from sexual crimes, 378

Increase of sexual crimes, 378

Causes, 378

Defective appreciation of such crimes by jurists, 379

Conditions necessary to remove legal responsibility, 381

Exhibition, 382

Violation of statues, 396

Rape and lust-murder, 397

Bodily injury, injury to property, and torture of animals

dependent on sadism, 401

Fetichism, 401

Violation of children, 402

Sodomy, 404

Pederasty, 408

Cultivated pederasty, 414

Social life of pederasts, 415

Ball of the woman-haters, 417

Pædicatio mulierum, 420

Lesbian love, 428

Necrophilia, 430

Incest, 431

Immoral acts with persons in the care of others, 432

I. A FRAGMENT

OF A

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE.

The propagation of the human species is not committed to accident or to

the caprice of the individual, but made secure in a natural instinct,

which, with all-conquering force and might, demands fulfillment. In the

gratification of this natural impulse are found not only sensual

pleasure and sources of physical well-being, but also higher feelings of

satisfaction in perpetuating the single, perishable existence, by the

transmission of mental and physical attributes to a new being. In

coarse, sensual love, in the lustful impulse to satisfy this natural

instinct, man stands on a level with the animal; but it is given to him

to raise himself to a height where this natural instinct no longer makes

him a slave: higher, nobler feelings are awakened, which,

notwithstanding their sensual origin, expand into a world of beauty,

sublimity, and morality.

On this height man overcomes his natural instinct, and from an

inexhaustible spring draws material and inspiration for higher

enjoyment, for more earnest work, and the attainment of the ideal.

Maudsley (_Deutsche Klinik_, 1873, 2, 3) rightly calls the sexual

feeling the foundation for the development of the social feeling. “Were

man to be robbed of the instinct of procreation and all that arises from

it mentally, nearly all poetry and, perhaps, the entire moral sense as

well, would be torn from his life.”

Sexuality is the most powerful factor in individual and social

existence; the strongest incentive to the exertion of strength and

acquisition of property, to the foundation of a home, and to the

awakening of altruistic feelings, first for a person of the opposite

sex, then for the offspring, and, in a wider sense, for all humanity.

Thus all ethics and, perhaps, a good part of æsthetics and religion

depend upon the existence of sexual feeling.

Though the sexual life leads to the highest virtues, even to the

sacrifice of the ego, yet in its sensual force lies also the danger that

it may degenerate into powerful passions and develop the grossest vices.

Love as an unbridled passion is like a fire that burns and consumes

everything; like an abyss that swallows all,—honor, fortune, well-being.

It seems of high psychological interest to trace the developmental

phases through which, in the course of the evolution of human culture to

the morality and civilization of to-day, the sexual life has passed.[7]

On primitive ground the satisfaction of the sexual appetite of man seems

like that of the animal. Openness in the sexual act is not shunned; man

and woman are not ashamed to go naked. To-day we see savages in this

condition (comp. Ploss, “Das Weib,” p. 196, 1884); as, for example, the

Australians, the Polynesians, and the Malays of the Philippines. The

female is the common property of the males, the temporary booty of the

strongest, who strive for the possession of the most beautiful of the

opposite sex, thus carrying out instinctively a kind of sexual

selection.

Woman is a movable thing, a ware, an object of bargain and sale and

gift; a thing to satisfy lust and to work.

The appearance of a feeling of shame before others in the manifestation

and satisfaction of the natural instinct, and modesty in the intercourse

of the sexes, form the beginning of morality in the sexual life. From

this arose the effort to conceal the genitals (“And they knew that they

were naked”) and the secret performance of the sexual act.

The development of this degree of culture is favored by the rigors of

climate and the necessity for complete protection of the body thus

entailed. Thus in part the fact is explained that among northern races

modesty may be proved anthropologically earlier than among southern

races.

A further stage in the development of culture in sexual life is marked

when the female ceases to be a movable thing. She becomes a person; and

if still for a long time placed far below the male socially, yet the

idea that the right of disposal of herself and her favors belongs to her

is developed.

Thus she becomes the object of the male’s wooing. To the barbarous

sensual feeling of sexual desire the beginnings of ethical feeling are

added. The instinct is intellectualized. Property in women ceases to

exist. Individuals of the opposite sexes feel themselves drawn toward

each other by mental and physical qualities, and show love for each

other only. At this stage woman has a feeling that her charms belong

only to the man of her choice, and wishes to conceal them from others.

Thus, by the side of modesty, the foundations of chastity and

faithfulness—as long as the bond of love lasts—are laid.

Woman attains this degree of social elevation earlier when, at the

transition from nomadic life to a state of fixed habitation, man obtains

a house and home, and the necessity arises for him to possess in woman a

companion for the household,—a housewife.

Among the nations of the East, the Egyptians, the Israelites, and the

Greeks, and among those of the West, the Germans, early attained this

stage of culture. Among all these races, at this stage of advancement,

the esteem in which virginity, chastity, modesty, and sexual

faithfulness are held is in marked contrast with other nations which

offer the female of the house to the guest for his sexual enjoyment.[8]

That this stage in the culture of sexual morality is quite high and

makes its appearance much later than other developmental forms of

culture—as, for example, æsthetics—is seen from the condition of the

Japanese, with whom it is the custom to marry a woman only after she has

lived for a year in the tea-houses (which correspond with European

houses of prostitution), and to whom the nakedness of women is nothing

shocking. At all events, among the Japanese every unmarried woman can

prostitute herself without lessening her value as a future wife,—a proof

that with this remarkable people woman possesses no ethical worth, but

is valued in marriage only as a means of enjoyment, procreation, and

work.

Christianity gave the most powerful impulse to the moral elevation of

the sexual relations by raising woman to social equality with man and

elevating the bond of love between man and woman to a religio-moral

institution.[9]

The fact that in higher civilization human love must be monogamous and

rest on a lasting contract was thus recognized. If nature does no more

than provide for procreation, a commonwealth (family or state) cannot

exist without a guaranty that the offspring shall flourish physically,

morally, and intellectually. Christendom gained both mental and material

superiority over the polygamous races, especially Islam, through the

equalization of woman and man, and by establishing monogamous marriage

and securing it by legal, religious, and moral ties.

If Mohammed was actuated by a desire to raise woman from her place as a

slave and means of sensual gratification to a higher social and

matrimonial plane, nevertheless, in the Mohammedan world woman remained

far below man, to whom alone divorce was allowed and also made very

easy.

Islam kept woman from any participation in public life under all

circumstances, and thus hindered her intellectual and moral development.

In consequence of this the Mohammedan woman has ever remained

essentially a means of sensual gratification and procreation; while, on

the other hand, the virtues and capabilities of the Christian woman, as

housewife, educator of children, and equal companion of man, have been

allowed to unfold in all their beauty. Islam, with its polygamy and

harem-life, is glaringly contrasted with the monogamy and family life of

the Christian world.

The same contrast is apparent in a comparison of the two religions with

reference to the conception of the hereafter. The picture of eternity

seen by the faith of the Christian is that of a paradise freed from all

earthly sensuality, promising the purest of intellectual happiness; the

fancy of the Mussulman fills the future life with the delights of a

harem full of houris.

In spite of all the aids which religion, law, education, and morality

give civilized man in the bridling of his passions, he is always in

danger of sinking from the clear height of pure, chaste love into the

mire of common sensuality.

In order to maintain one’s self on such a height, a constant struggle

between natural impulses and morals, between sensuality and morality, is

required. Only characters endowed with strong wills are able to

completely emancipate themselves from sensuality and share in that pure

love from which spring the noblest joys of human life.

It is yet questionable whether, in the course of the later centuries,

mankind has advanced in morality. It is certain, however, that the race

has become more modest; and this phenomenon of civilization—this hiding

of the animal propensities—is, at least, a concession that vice makes to

virtue.

From a reading of Scherr’s works (“History of German Civilization”) one

would certainly gain the impression that, in comparison with those of

the Middle Ages, our own ideas of morals have become refined, even when

it must also be allowed that in many instances finer manners, without

greater morality, have taken the place of earlier obscenity and

coarseness of expression.

When widely separated periods of history are compared, no doubt is left

that public morality, in spite of occasional temporary retrogression,

makes continuous progress, and that Christianity is one of the most

powerful of the forces favoring moral progress.

To-day we are far beyond the sexual conditions which, as shown in the

sodomitic worship of the gods, in the life of the people, and in the

laws and religious practices, existed among the ancient Greeks,—to say

nothing of the worship of Phallus and Priapus among the Athenians and

Babylonians, of the bacchanals of ancient Rome, and the prominent place

prostitutes took among these peoples. In the slow and often

imperceptible progress which human morality makes there are variations

or fluctuations, just as in the individual sexuality manifests an ebb

and flow.

Periods of moral decadence in the life of a people are always

contemporaneous with times of effeminacy, sensuality, and luxury. These

conditions can only be conceived as occurring with increased demands

upon the nervous system, which must meet these requirements. As a result

of increase of nervousness, there is increase of sensuality, and, since

this leads to excesses among the masses, it undermines the foundation of

society,—the morality and purity of family life. When this is destroyed

by excesses, unfaithfulness, and luxury, then the destruction of the

state is inevitably compassed in material, moral, and political ruin.

Warning examples of this character are presented by Rome, Greece, and

France under Louis XIV and XV.[10] In such times of political and moral

destruction monstrous perversions of the sexual life were frequent,

which, however, may in part be referred to psycho-pathological or, at

least, neuro-pathological conditions existing in the people.

It is shown by the history of Babylon, Nineveh, Rome, and also by the

“mysteries” of life in modern Capitals, that large cities are the

breeding-places of nervousness and degenerate sensuality. The fact which

may be learned from reading Ploss’s work is remarkable, viz., that

perversion of the sexual instinct (save among the Aleutians, and in the

form of masturbation among the females of the East and the Nama

Hottentots) does not occur in uncivilized or half-civilized races.[11]

The study of the sexual life in the individual must begin at its

development at puberty, and follow it through its different phases to

the extinction of sexual feelings. In his “Physiology of Love,”

Mantegazza describes the longings and impulses of awakening sexual life,

of which presentiments, indefinite feelings, and impulses have existed

long before the epoch of puberty. This epoch is, physiologically, the

most important. In the abundant increase of feelings and ideas which it

engenders is manifested the significance of the sexual factor in mental

life.

These impulses, at first vague and incomprehensible, arising from the

sensations which are awakened by organs which were previously

undeveloped, are accompanied by a powerful excitation of the emotions.

The psychological reaction of the sexual impulse at puberty expresses

itself in a multitude of manifestations which have in common only the

mental condition of emotion and the impulse to express in some way, or

render objective, the strange emotionality. Religion and poetry lie

close to it, which, after the time of sexual development is past and

these originally incomprehensible feelings and impulses have cleared up,

receive powerful incentives from the sexual sphere. He who doubts this

has only to think how often religious enthusiasm occurs at the time of

puberty; how frequent sexual episodes are in the lives of the

saints;[12] how powerfully sensuality expresses itself in the histories

of religious fanatics; and in what revolting scenes, true orgies, the

religious festivals of antiquity, no less than the “meetings” of certain

sects in modern times, express themselves,—to say nothing of the lustful

mysteries which characterized the cults of the ancients. On the other

hand, we see that unsatisfied sensuality very frequently finds an

equivalent in religious enthusiasm.[13]

This relation between religious and sexual feeling is also shown on the

basis of unequivocal psycho-pathological states. It suffices to recall

how intense sensuality makes itself manifest in the clinical histories

of many religious maniacs; the motley mixture of religious and sexual

delusions that is so frequently observed in psychoses (_e.g._, in

maniacal women, who think they are or will be the Mother of God), but

particularly in masturbatic insanity; and, finally, the sensual, cruel

self-punishments, injuries, self-castrations, and even self-crucifixions

resulting from abnormal sexual-religious feeling.

Any attempt to explain the relations between religion and love has

difficulties to encounter. Many analogies present themselves. The

feeling of sexual attraction and religious feeling (considered as a

psychological fact) consist of two elements.

In religion the primary element is a feeling of dependence,—a fact

which Schleiermacher recognized long before the later studies in

anthropology and ethnography, founded on the observation of primitive

conditions, had led to the same conclusion. It is only at a higher

stage of culture that the second and essentially ethical element—love

of God—enters into religious feeling. In the place of the evil spirits

of the primitive peoples came the two-faced—now kind, now

angry—creations of the more complicated mythologies, until, finally,

the God of love, as the giver of eternal happiness, is reverenced,

whether this be hoped for from Jehovah, as a blessing on earth; from

Allah, as a physical blessing in Paradise; from Christ, as eternal

bliss in heaven; or as the Nirvana of the Buddhists.

In sexual desire, love, the expectation of unbounded happiness is the

primary element. The feeling of dependence is of secondary

development. The nucleus of this feeling exists in both parties, but

it may remain undeveloped in one. As a rule, owing to her passive part

in procreation and social conditions, it is more pronounced in woman;

but exceptionally this is true of men having minds that approach the

feminine type.

In both the religious and sexual spheres love is mystical,

transcendental. In sexual love the real purpose of the instinct, the

propagation of the species, does not enter into consciousness; and the

strength of the desire is greater than any that consciousness of

purpose could create. In religion, however, the good sought and the

object of devotion are of such nature that they cannot become a part

of empirical knowledge. Therefore, both mental processes give

unlimited range to the imagination.

But both have an immortal object, in as far as the bliss which the

sexual sentiment creates in fancy seems incomparable and infinite in

contrast with all other pleasurable feelings; and the same is true of

the promised blessings of faith, which are conceived to be eternal and

supreme.

From the correspondence between the two states of consciousness, with

reference to the commanding importance of their objects, it follows

that they both often attain an intensity that is irresistible, and

which overcomes all opposing motives. Owing to their similarity in

that their objects cannot be attained, it follows that both easily

degenerate into silly enthusiasm, in which the intensity of feeling

far surpasses the clearness and constancy of the ideas. In both cases,

in this enthusiasm, with the expectation of a happiness that cannot be

attained, the necessity of unconditional submission plays a part.

Owing to the correspondence in many points between these two emotional

states, it is clear that when they are very intense the one may take

the place of the other; or one may appear by the side of the other,

since every intensification of one element of mental life also

intensifies its associations. The constant emotion thus calls into

consciousness now one and now the other of the two series of ideas

with which it is connected. Either of these mental states may become

transformed into the impulse to cruelty (actively exercised or

passively suffered).

In the religious life this is expressed by sacrifice. Primarily this

is done with the idea that the victim is materially enjoyed by the

deity; then, in reverence, as a sign of submission, as a tribute; and,

finally, with the belief that sins and transgressions against the

deity are thus atoned for and blessing obtained. If, however, the

offering consist of self-punishment, which occurs in all religions, in

individuals of very excitable religious nature, it serves not only as

a symbol of submission and as an equivalent in the exchange of present

pain for future bliss, but everything that is thought to come from the

deity, all that happens in obedience to divine mandate or to the honor

of the godhead, is felt directly as pleasure. Thus religious

enthusiasm leads to ecstasy, to a condition in which consciousness is

so preoccupied with feelings of mental pleasure that the concept of

suffering endured can only be apperceived without its painful quality.

The exaltation of religious enthusiasm may lead actively to pleasure

in the sacrifice of another, if pity be overcompensated by feelings of

religious pleasure.

Sadism, and particularly masochism (_v. infra_), show that in the

sphere of the sexual life there may be similar phenomena. Thus the

well-established relations between religion, lust, and cruelty[14] may

be comprehended in the following formula: States of religious and

sexual excitement, at the acme of their development, may correspond in

the amount and quality of excitement, and, therefore, under favoring

circumstances, one may take the place of the other. Both, in

pathological conditions, may become transformed into cruelty.

The sexual factor proves to be no less influential in awakening æsthetic

feelings. What would poetry and art be without a sexual foundation? In

(sensual) love is gained that warmth of fancy without which a true

creation of art is impossible; and in the fire of sensual feelings its

glow and warmth are preserved. It may thus be understood why great poets

and artists have sensual natures.

This world of ideals reveals itself with the inception of the processes

of sexual development. He who, at this period of life, cannot become

enthusiastic for all that is great, noble, and beautiful, remains a

Philistine all his life. At this epoch does not the least of natural

poets forge verses?

At the limits of physiological reaction there are events which take

place at the time of puberty in which these obscure feelings of longing

express themselves in paroxysms of despair of self and the world, which

may go on to _tædium vitæ_, and are often accompanied by a desire to do

harm to others (weak analogies of a psychological connection between

lust and cruelty).

Youthful love has a romantic, idealistic character. It elevates the

beloved object to apotheosis. In its inception it is platonic, and turns

to forms of poetry and romance. With the awakening of sensuality there

is danger that this idealizing power may be brought to bear upon persons

of the opposite sex who are mentally, physically, and socially of

inferior station. Thus there may occur _méssalliances_, seductions, and

errors, with the whole tragedy of a passionate love that comes in

conflict with the dictates of social position and prospects, and

sometimes terminates in suicide or double suicide.

Over-sensual love can never be lasting and true. For this reason the

first love is, as a rule, very fleeting; because it is nothing else than

the flare of a passion, the flame of a fire of straw.

Only the love that rests upon a recognition of the social qualities of

the beloved person, only a love which is willing not only to enjoy

present pleasures, but to bear suffering for the beloved object and

sacrifice all, is true love. The love of a strongly constituted man

shrinks before no difficulties or dangers in order to gain and keep

possession of its object.

Love expresses itself in acts of heroism and daring. Such love is in

danger, under certain circumstances, of becoming criminal, if moral

principles be weak. Jealousy is an ugly spot in this love. The love of a

weakly constituted man is sentimental. It sometimes leads to suicide

when it is not returned or meets with obstacles, while, under like

conditions, the strongly constituted man may become a criminal.

Sentimental love is in danger of becoming a caricature, _i.e._, when the

sensual element is weak (the Knight of Toggenburg, Don Quixote, many

minnesingers and troubadours of the Middle Ages).

Such love is flat and soft, and may be even silly; but the true

expression of this powerful feeling awakens appropriate pity, respect,

or sorrow in the hearts of others.

Frequently this weak love expresses itself in equivalents—in poetry,

which, however, under such circumstances, is effeminate; in æsthetics

which are overdrawn; in religion, in which it gives itself up to

mysteries and religious enthusiasm; or, where there is a more powerful

sensual foundation, founds sects or expresses itself in religious

insanity. The immature love of the age of puberty has something of all

this in it. Of all the poems and rhymes written at this time of life,

they only are readable that are the product of poets divinely endowed.

Notwithstanding all the ethics which love requires in order to develop

into its true and pure form, its strongest root is still sensuality.

Platonic love is an impossibility, a self-deception, a false designation

for related feelings.

In as far as love rests upon sensual desire, it is only conceivable in a

normal way as existing between individuals of opposite sex and capable

of sexual intercourse. If these conditions are wanting or destroyed,

then, in the place of love, comes friendship.

The _rôle_ which the retention of sexual functions plays in the case of

a man, both in originating and retaining the feeling of self-respect, is

remarkable. In the deterioration of manliness and self-confidence which

the onanist, in his weakened nervous state, and the man that has become

impotent, present, may be estimated the significance of this factor.

Gyurkovechky (männl. Impotenz. Vienna, 1889) says, very justly, that

old and young men essentially differ mentally, on account of the

condition of their virility, and that impotence has a detrimental

effect upon the feeling of well-being, mental freshness, activity,

self-confidence, and the play of fancy. This loss becomes the more

important the younger a man is when he loses his virility and the more

sensually he was constituted.

Under such circumstances a sudden loss of virility may induce severe

melancholia, and even lead to suicide. For such natures life without

love is unbearable.

But, also, in cases where the reaction is not so deep, the man bereft

of his virility is morose and spiteful, egotistic, jealous, contrary,

listless, has but little self-respect or sense of honor, and is

cowardly. Analogies are seen in the Skopzens,[15] who, after their

castration, change for the worse.

The loss of virility is still more noticeable in certain weakly

constituted individuals, where it expresses itself in formal

effemination (_v. infra_).

In a woman who has become a matron the condition is of much less

importance psychologically, though it is noticeable. If the past period

of sexual life has been satisfactory, if children delight the heart of

the aging mother, then she is scarcely conscious of the change of her

personality.

The situation is different, however, where sterility or circumstances

have kept a woman from the performance of her natural functions and

denied her that happiness.

These facts place in a clear light the differences which exist between

man and woman in the psychology of the sexual life, and in all the

sexual functions and desires.

Undoubtedly man has a much more intense sexual appetite than woman. As a

result of a powerful natural instinct, at a certain age, a man is drawn

toward a woman. He loves sensually, and is influenced in his choice by

physical beauty. In accordance with the nature of this powerful impulse,

he is aggressive and violent in his wooing. At the same time, this

demand of nature does not constitute all of his mental existence. When

his longing is satisfied, love temporarily retreats behind other vital

and social interests.

With a woman it is quite otherwise. If she is normally developed

mentally, and well bred, her sexual desire is small. If this were not so

the whole world would become a brothel and marriage and a family

impossible. It is certain that the man that avoids women and the woman

that seeks men are abnormal.

Woman is wooed for her favor. She remains passive. This lies in her

sexual organization, and is not founded merely on the dictates of good

breeding.

Nevertheless, the sexual sphere occupies a much larger place in the

consciousness of woman than in that of man. The need of love in her is

greater than in man, and is continual, not intermittent; but this love

is rather more spiritual than sensual. While a man loves a woman first

as wife and then as mother of his children, a woman is primarily

conscious of a man as the father of her children and then as husband. In

the choice of a life-companion a woman is influenced much more by the

mental than the physical qualities of a man. When she has become a

mother she divides her love between child and husband. Sensuality

disappears in the mother’s love. Thereafter, in marital intercourse, the

wife finds less sensual satisfaction than proof of the love of her

husband.

A woman loves with her whole soul. To her love is life; to a man it is

the joy of life. To him misfortune in love is a wound; but it costs a

woman her life, or at least her happiness. A psychological question

worthy of consideration is whether a woman can truly love twice in her

life. Certainly the mental inclination of woman is monogamous, while in

man it is polygamous.

The weakness of men in comparison with women lies in the great intensity

of their sexual desires. Man becomes dependent upon woman, and the more,

the weaker and more sensual he becomes; and this just in proportion as

he becomes neuropathic. Thus may be understood the fact that, in times

of effeminateness and luxury, sensuality flourishes luxuriantly. Then

arises the danger to society that mistresses and their dependents may

rule the state and compass its ruin (the mistresses of the courts of

Louis XIV and XV; the prostitutes of ancient Greece).

The biographies of many statesmen of ancient and modern times show that

they were the instruments of women, owing to their great sensuality,

which had its foundation in their neuropathic constitutions. The fact

that the Catholic Church enjoins celibacy upon its priests, in order to

emancipate them from sensuality and preserve them entirely for the

purpose of their calling, is an example of discerning psychological

knowledge of mankind; but it is unfortunate that the priests, living in

celibacy, lose the elevating effect which love and matrimony exert upon

the development of character.

From the fact that man by nature plays the aggressive _rôle_ in sexual

life, he is in danger of overstepping the limits which morality and law

have set. The unfaithfulness of a wife, in comparison with that of a

husband, is morally much more weighty, and should be more severely

punished legally. The unfaithful wife dishonors not only herself, but

also her husband and her family, not to speak of the possibility of

_pater incertus_. Natural instinct and social position favor

unfaithfulness on the part of a husband, while the wife is afforded much

protection. In the case of an unmarried woman, sexual intercourse is

something quite different from what it is in an unmarried man. Of a

single man society demands decency; of a woman, also chastity. In the

cultivated social life of to-day, woman, occupying a sexual position and

concerning herself in the interests of society, can only be thought of

as a wife.

The aim and ideal of woman, even when she is sunken in the mire of vice,

is, and remains, marriage. Woman, as Mantegazza justly remarks, desires

not only satisfaction of her sexual feeling, but also protection and

support for herself and her children. A man of right feeling, no matter

how sensual he may be, demands a wife that has been, and is, chaste. The

emblem and ornament of a woman seeking this, her only worthy purpose in

life, is modesty. Mantegazza finely characterizes modesty as “one of the

forms of psychical self-respect” in woman. This is not the place for

anthropological and historical consideration of this, the most beautiful

attribute of woman. Probably, feminine modesty is an hereditarily

evolved product of the development of civilization.[16]

In remarkable contrast with it, there is occasional exposition of

physical charms, conventionally sanctioned by the law of fashion, in

which even the most discreet maiden allows herself to indulge in the

ball-room. The reasons which lead to this display are evident.

Fortunately the modest girl is as little conscious of them as of the

reason for the occasionally recurring mode of making certain portions of

the body more prominent (panniers); to say nothing of corsets, etc.

In all times, and among all races, women show a desire to adorn

themselves and be charming.[17] In the animal kingdom nature has

distinguished the male with the greater beauty. Men designate women as

the beautiful sex. This gallantry clearly arises from the sensual desire

of men. As long as this personal adornment has a purpose only in itself,

or the true psychological reason of the desire to please remains unknown

to the woman, nothing can be said against it. When it is done with

knowledge, the effort is called flirting.

Under all circumstances a dandified man is ridiculous. We are accustomed

to this slight weakness in a woman, and find no fault with it, so long

as it is but a subordinate manifestation. When it has become the

all-absorbing aim, the French apply to it the word coquetry.

Woman far surpasses man in the natural psychology of love, partly

because, through heredity and education, her native element is love; and

partly because she has finer feelings (Mantegazza). Even in a man of the

very highest breeding, it cannot be found objectionable that he

recognizes woman as a means of satisfying his natural instinct. But it

becomes his duty to belong only to the woman of his choice. In a

civilized state this becomes a binding social obligation,—marriage; and,

inasmuch as the wife requires for herself and children protection and

support, it becomes a marriage right.

It is of great importance psychologically, and, for certain

pathological manifestations to be later described, indispensable, to

examine the psychological events which draw a man and a woman together

and unite them; so that, of all other persons of the same sex, only

the beloved one seems desirable.

If one could demonstrate design in the processes of nature,—adaptation

cannot be denied them,—the fact of fascination by a single person of

the opposite sex, with indifference toward all others, as it occurs

between true and happy lovers, would appear as a wonderful creative

provision to insure monogamous unions for the promotion of their

object.

To the scientific observer, however, this love, or “harmony of souls,”

this “heart-bond,” does not, by any means, appear as a “soul-mystery;”

but, in the majority of cases, it may be referred to certain physical

or mental peculiarities, as the case may be, by which the

attractiveness of the beloved person is exerted.

Thus we speak of what is called _fetich_ and _fetichism_. In the term

_fetich_ we are wont to comprehend objects, or parts, or simply

peculiarities of objects, which, by virtue of associative relations to

an intense feeling, or to a personality or idea that awakens deep

interest, exert a kind of charm (“_fetisso_,” Portuguese), or, at

least, owing to peculiar individual coloring, produce a very deep

impression which does not belong to the external sign (symbol, fetich)

in itself.[18]

The individual valuation of the fetich, which may go to the extent of

an unreasoning enthusiasm in the individual affected, is called

fetichism. This interesting psychological phenomenon is explicable by

an empirical law of association,—the relation of a particular to a

general concept,—in which, however, the essential thing is the

pleasurable emotional coloring of the particular concept peculiar to

the individual. It is most common in two related mental spheres,—those

of religious and erotic feelings and ideas. Religious fetichism

differs in relation and significance from sexual fetichism, for it

found, and still finds, its original motive in the delusion that the

object of the fetichism, or the idol, possesses divine attributes, and

that it is not simply a symbol; or peculiar wonder-working (relics) or

protective (amulet) virtues are superstitiously ascribed to the

fetich.

It is otherwise with erotic fetichism, which finds its psychological

motive in fetiches which consist of physical or mental qualities of a

person, or even merely of objects which a person has used. These

always awaken intense associative ideas of the personality as a whole,

and, moreover, are always colored with a lively feeling of sexual

pleasure. Analogies with religious fetichism are always discernible;

for, under certain circumstances, in the latter, the most

insignificant objects (bones, nails, hair, etc.) become fetiches, and

are associated with pleasurable feelings which may reach the intensity

of ecstasy.

With respect of the development of physiological love, it is probable

that its nucleus is always to be found in an individual fetich (charm)

which a person of one sex exercises over a person of the opposite sex.

The case is the simplest where the sight of a person of the opposite sex

occurs simultaneously with sensual excitement, and the latter is thus

increased.

Emotional and visual impressions are brought into associative

connection, and this association is strengthened in proportion as the

recurring emotion awakens the visual memory-picture, or the latter

(another meeting) renews sexual excitement, which may possibly reach the

intensity of orgasm and pollution (dream-picture). In this case the

whole physical personality has the effect of a fetich.

As Binet and others show, merely parts of the whole, simply

peculiarities, either physical or mental, may affect the person of the

opposite sex as a fetich, when the perception of them is associated with

(accidental) sexual excitement (or induces it).

It is well known from experience that accident determines this mental

association, that the objects of the fetich may be individually very

diverse, and that thus the most peculiar sympathies (and antipathies)

arise.

These physiological facts of fetichism explain the individual sympathies

between husband and wife; the preference of a certain person to all

others of the same sex. Since the fetich represents a symbol that is

purely individual, it is clear that its effect must be individual. Since

it is colored by the most intense pleasurable feeling, it follows that

possible faults in the beloved object are overlooked (“Love is blind”),

and an exaltation of it is induced that to others is incomprehensible,

and even silly under some circumstances. Thus it is clear why lovers are

not understood by their unaffected fellow-men; and why they deify their

idols, develop a true cult of devotion, and invests them with attributes

which objectively they do not possess. Thus we may understand why love

appears sometimes more like a passion, sometimes as a formal,

exceptional mental state, in which the unattainable seems attainable,

the ugly beautiful, the profane sacred, and every other interest, every

duty, disappears.

Tarde (_Archives de l’anthropologie criminelle_, v year, No. 30)

rightfully emphasizes the fact that the fetich may vary with nations as

well as with individuals, but that the general ideal of beauty remains

the same among civilized people of the same era.

Binet deserves great credit for having studied and analyzed in detail

the fetichism of love. The particular sympathies all spring from it.

Thus one is attracted to slender, another to plump beauties, to blondes

or brunettes. For one a peculiar expression of the eyes; for another a

peculiar tone of the voice, or a particular (even an artificial) odor

(perfume); or the hand, the foot, the ear, etc., may be the individual

fetich (charm),—the beginning of a complicated chain of mental processes

which, as a whole, represent love, _i.e._, the longing to possess,

physically and mentally, the beloved object.

This fact is important, as showing a condition for the origin of a

fetichism that falls within physiological limits. The fetich may

constantly retain its significance without being pathological; but this

is possible only when the particular concept is developed to a general

concept; when the resulting love comes to take as its object the whole

mental and physical personality.

Normal love can be nothing but a synthesis, a generalization. Ludwig

Brunn,[19] under the heading, “The Fetichism of Love,” cleverly says:—

“Thus normal love appears to us as a symphony of tones of all kinds. It

results from the most various stimuli. It is likewise polytheistic.

Fetichism recognizes only the tone of a single instrument; it results

from a certain stimulus; it is monotheistic.”

On slight reflection any one will see that real love (this word is only

too often abused) can be spoken of only when the whole person is both

physically and mentally the object of adoration. Love must always have a

sensual element, _i.e._, the desire to possess the beloved object, to be

united with it and fulfill the laws of nature. But when merely the body

of the person of the opposite sex is the object of love, when

satisfaction of sensual pleasure is the sole object, without desire to

possess the soul and enjoy mutual communion, love is not genuine, no

more than that of platonic lovers, who love only the soul and avoid

sensual pleasure (many cases of contrary sexuality). For the former

merely the body, for the latter simply the soul, is a fetich, and the

love fetichism. Such cases certainly represent transitions to

pathological fetichism. This assumption is even more justified when, as

a further criterion of real love, mental[20] satisfaction must be given

by the sexual act.

There remains to be mentioned, within the physiological phenomena of

fetichism, the fact that among the many things that may become fetiches

there are certain ones that gain such significance for a majority of

persons.

As such for a man may be mentioned the hair, the hand, the foot of a

woman, the expression of her eyes. Certain ones of these gain a

remarkable significance in the pathology of fetichism. These facts

clearly play a _rôle_ in the feminine mind, either consciously or

unconsciously.

One of the greatest cares of women is the cultivation of the hair, to

which often an unreasonable amount of time and money is devoted. How a

mother cares for her little daughter’s hair! What a part the

hair-dresser plays! Falling of the hair would cause despair in a young

lady. I recall a proud lady who became insane over it, and died by

suicide. Young ladies like to talk of coiffures, and are envious of

beautiful hair.[21]

Beautiful hair is a powerful fetich with many men. In the legend of the

Loreley, who lured men to destruction, the golden hair, which she combs

with a golden comb, appears as a fetich. Frequently the hand and foot

possess an attractiveness no less powerful, when, indeed, often (though

by no means invariably) masochistic and sadistic feelings aid in

determining the peculiar kind of fetich.

By a transference through association of ideas, the gloves or shoes may

obtain the significance of a fetich.

Brunn (_op. cit._) justly points out that among the customs of the

Middle Ages drinking from the shoe of a beautiful woman (still to be

found in Poland) played a remarkable part in gallantry and homage. The

shoe also plays an important _rôle_ in the legend of Aschenbrödel.

The expression of the eyes is particularly important as a means of

kindling the sparks of love. A neuropathic eye frequently affects

persons of both sexes as a fetich. “Madame, vos beaux yeux me font

mourir d’amour” (Molière).

There is superfluity of examples showing that odors of the body may

become fetiches.

This fact is also taken advantage of in the _ars amandi_ of woman,

either consciously or unconsciously. Ruth sought to attract Boaz by

perfuming herself. The _demi-monde_ of ancient and modern times is noted

for its use of perfume. Jäger, in his “Discovery of the Soul,” calls

attention to many olfactory sympathies.

Cases are known where men have married ugly women simply because their

personal odors were exceedingly pleasing.

Binet makes it probable that the voice may also become a fetich. He

relates a case in point of Dumas, who used it in his novel, “La Maison

du Vent.” It was the case of a wife who fell in love with a tenor’s

voice, and thus became untrue to her husband. Belot’s romance, “Les

Baigneuses de Trouville,” speaks in favor of this assumption. Binet

thinks that many marriages with singers are due to the fetich of their

voices. He also calls attention to the interesting fact that among

singing-birds the voice has the same sexual significance as odors among

quadrupeds. The birds allure by their song, and the male that sings most

beautifully flies at night to his charmed mate.

The pathological facts of masochism and sadism show that mental

peculiarities may also act as fetiches in a wider sense.

Thus the fact of idiosyncrasies is explained, and the old saying, “_De

gustibus non est disputandum_,” retains its force.

II. PHYSIOLOGY.

During the time of the physiological processes in the reproductive

glands, desires arise in the consciousness of the individual which have

for their purpose the perpetuation of the species (sexual instinct).

Sexual desire during the years of sexual maturity is a physiological

law. The duration of the physiological processes in the sexual organs,

as well as the strength of the sexual desire manifested, vary, both in

individuals and in races. Race, climate, heredity, and social

circumstances have a very decided influence upon it. The greater

sensuality of southern races as compared with the sexual needs of those

of the North is well known. Sexual development in the inhabitants of

tropical climes takes place much earlier than in those of more northern

regions. In women of northern countries ovulation, recognizable in the

development of the body and the occurrence of a periodical flow of blood

from the genitals (menstruation), usually begins about the thirteenth or

fifteenth year; in men puberty, recognizable in the deepening of the

voice, the appearance of hair on the face and the mons veneris, and the

occasional occurrence of pollutions, etc., takes place about the

fifteenth year. In the inhabitants of tropical countries, however,

sexual development takes place several years earlier in women,—sometimes

as early as the eighth year.

It is worthy of remark that girls who live in cities develop about a

year earlier than girls living in the country, and that the larger the

town the earlier, _ceteris paribus_, the development takes place.

Heredity, however, has no small influence on libido and sexual power.

Thus there are families in which, with great physical strength and

longevity, great libido and virility are preserved until a great age,

while in other families the vita sexualis develops late and is early

extinguished.

In women the time of the activity of the reproductive glands is shorter

than in men, in whom the sexual function may last until a great age.

Ovulation ceases about thirty years after puberty. This period of

cessation of activity of the ovaries is called the change of life

(climacterium). This biological phase does not represent merely a

cessation of function and final atrophy of the reproductive organs, but

also a transformation of the whole organism. In Middle Europe the sexual

maturity of men begins about the eighteenth year, and their virility

reaches its acme at forty. After that age it slowly declines.

The potentia generandi ceases usually at the age of sixty-two, but

potentia cœundi may be present even in old age. The existence of the

sexual instinct is continuous during the time of sexual life, but it

varies in intensity. Under physiological conditions it is never

intermittent (periodical), as in animals. In men it manifests an organic

variation of intensity in consonance with the collection and expenditure

of semen; in women the increase of sexual desire coincides with the

process of ovulation, and in such a way that libido sexualis is greater

after the menstrual period.

Sexual instinct—as emotion, idea, and impulse—is a function of the

cerebral cortex. Thus far no definite region of the cortex has been

proved to be exclusively the seat of sexual sensations and impulses.[22]

Owing to the close relations which exist between the sexual instinct and

the olfactory sense, it is to be presumed that the sexual and olfactory

centres lie close together in the cerebral cortex. The development of

the sexual life has its beginning in the organic sensations which arise

from the developing reproductive glands. These excite the attention of

the individual. Readings and the experiences of every-day life (which,

unfortunately, to-day are too early and too frequently suggestive)

convert these notions into clear ideas. These become accentuated by

organic sensations which are pleasurable. With this accentuation of

erotic ideas by lustful feelings, an impulse to induce these (sexual

desire) is developed.

Thus there is established a mutual dependence between the cerebral

cortex (as the place of origin of sensations and ideas) and the

reproductive organs. The latter, by reason of physiological processes

(hyperæmia, secretion of semen, ovulation), give rise to sexual ideas,

images, and impulses.

The cerebral cortex, by means of apperceived or reproduced sensual

ideas, reacts on the reproductive organs, inducing hyperæmia, secretion

of semen, erection, ejaculation. This results by means of centres for

vasomotor innervation and ejaculation, which are situated in the lumbar

portion of the cord and lie close together. Both are reflex centres.

The erection-centre (Goltz, Eckhard) is an intermediate station placed

between the brain and the genital apparatus. The nervous paths which

connect it with the brain probably run through the pedunculi cerebri and

the pons. This centre may be excited by central (psychical and organic)

stimuli, by direct irritation of the nerve-tract in the pedunculis

cerebri, pons, or cervical portion of the cord, as well as by peripheral

irritation of the sensory nerves (penis, clitoris, and annexa). It is

not directly subordinated to the will.

The excitation of this centre is conveyed to the corpora cavernosa by

means of nerves (nervi erigentes—Eckhard) running in the first three

sacral nerves.

The action of the nervi erigentes, which renders erection possible, is

an inhibitory one. They inhibit the ganglionic nervous mechanism in the

corpora cavernosa upon the action of which the smooth muscle-fibres of

the corpora cavernosa are dependent (Kölliker and Kohlrausch). Under the

influence of the action of the nervi erigentes these fibres of the

corpora cavernosa become relaxed and their spaces fill with blood.

Simultaneously, as a result of the dilatation of the capillary net-work

of the corpora cavernosa, pressure is exerted upon the veins of the

penis and the return of blood is impeded. This effect is aided by

contraction of the bulbo cavernosus and ischio cavernosus muscles, which

are inserted by means of an aponeurosis on the dorsal surface of the

penis.

The erection-centre is under the influence of both exciting and

inhibitory innervation arising in the cerebrum. Ideas and

sense-perceptions of sexual content have an exciting effect. Also,

according to observations made on men that have been hung, it is evident

that the erection-centre may be excited by excitation of the tract in

the spinal cord. Observations on the insane and those suffering with

cerebral disease show that this is also possible as a result of organic

irritation in the cerebral cortex (psycho-sexual centre?). Spinal

diseases (tabes, especially myelitis) affecting the lumbar portion of

the cord, in their earlier stages, may directly excite the

erection-centre.

Reflex excitation of the centre is possible and frequent in the

following ways: by irritation of the (peripheral) sensory nerves of the

genitals and surrounding parts by friction; by irritation of the urethra

(gonorrhœa), of the rectum (hæmorrhoids, oxyuris), of the bladder

(distension with urine, especially in the morning, irritation of

calculi); by distension of the vesicular seminales with semen; by

hyperæmia of the genitals, occasioned by lying on the back, and thus

inducing pressure of the intestines upon the blood-vessels of the

pelvis.

The erection-centre may also be excited by irritation of the nervous

ganglia which are so abundant in the prostatic tissue (prostatitis,

introduction of catheter, etc.).

The experiment of Goltz, according to whom, when (in dogs) the lumbar

portion of the cord is severed, erection is more easily induced, shows

that the erection-centre is also subject to inhibitory influences from

the brain.

In men the fact that the will and emotions (fear of unsuccessful coitus,

surprise inter actum sexualem, etc.) may inhibit the occurrence of

erection, and cause it, when present, to disappear, also indicates this.

The duration of erection is dependent upon the duration of its exciting

causes (sensory stimuli), the absence of inhibitory influences, the

nervous energy of the centre, and the early or late occurrence of

ejaculation (_v. infra_).

The central and highest portion of the sexual mechanism is the cerebral

cortex. It is justifiable to presume that there is a definite region of

the cortex (cerebral centre) which gives rise to sexual feelings, ideas,

and impulses, and is the place of origin of the psycho-somatic processes

which we designate as sexual life, sexual instinct, and sexual desire.

This centre is excitable to both central and peripheral stimuli.

Central stimuli, in the form of organic excitation, may be due to

diseases of the cerebral cortex. Physiologically they consist of

psychical stimuli (memory and sensory perceptions).

Under physiological conditions these stimuli are essentially visual

perceptions and memory-pictures (_i.e._, lascivious stories) and also

tactile impressions (touch, pressure of the hand, kiss, etc.).

Within physiological limits auditory and olfactory perceptions certainly

play but a very subordinate _rôle_. Under pathological conditions (_v.

infra_) the latter have a very decided influence in inducing sexual

excitement.

Among animals the influence of olfactory perceptions on the sexual sense

is unmistakable. Althaus (“Beiträge zur Physiol. und Pathol. des

Olfactorius.” _Archiv für Psych._, xii, H 1) declares that the sense of

smell is important with reference to the reproduction of the species. He

shows that animals of opposite sexes are drawn to each other by means of

olfactory perceptions, and that almost all animals, at the time of

rutting, emit a very strong odor from their genitals. An experiment by

Schiff is confirmatory of this. He extirpated the olfactory nerves in

puppies, and found that, as the animals grew, the male was unable to

distinguish the female. On the other hand, an experiment by Mantegazza

(“Hygiene of Love”), who removed the eyes of rabbits and found that the

defect constituted no obstacle to procreation, shows how important in

animals the olfactory sense is for the vita sexualis.

It is also remarkable that many animals (musk-ox, civet-cat, beaver)

possess glands on their sexual organs, which secrete materials having a

very strong odor.

Althaus also shows that in man there are certain relations existing

between the olfactory and sexual senses. He mentions Cloquet

(“Osphrésiologie,” Paris, 1826), who calls attention to the sensual

pleasure excited by the odors of flowers, and tells how Richelieu lived

in an atmosphere loaded with the heaviest perfumes, in order to excite

his sexual functions.

Zippe (_Wien. Med. Wochenschrift_, 1879, Nr. 24), in connection with a

case of kleptomania in an onanist, likewise establishes such relations,

and cites Hildebrand as authority, who in his popular physiology says:

“It cannot be doubted that the olfactory sense stands in remote

connection with the sexual apparatus. Odors of flowers often occasion

pleasurable sensual feelings, and when one remembers the passage in the

‘Song of Solomon,’ ‘And my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with

sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock,’ one finds that it

did not escape Solomon’s observation. In the Orient the pleasant

perfumes are esteemed for their relation to the sexual organs, and the

women’s apartments of the Sultan are filled with the perfumes of

flowers.”

Most, professor in Rostock (comp. Zippe), relates: “I learned from a

sensual young peasant that he had excited many a chaste girl sexually,

and easily gained his end, by carrying his handkerchief in his axilla

for a time, while dancing, and then wiping his partner’s perspiring face

with it.”

The case of Henry III shows that contact with a person’s perspiration

may be the exciting cause of passionate love. At the betrothal feast of

the King of Navarre and Margaret of Valois, he accidentally dried his

face with a garment of Maria of Cleves, which was moist with her

perspiration. Although she was the bride of the Prince of Condé, Henry

conceived immediately such a passionate love for her that he could not

resist it, and made her, as history shows, very unhappy. An analogous

instance is related of Henry IV, whose passion for the beautiful Gabriel

is said to have originated at the instant when, at a ball, he wiped his

brow with her handkerchief.

Professor Jäger, the “discoverer of the soul,” refers to the same thing

in his well-known book (2d ed., 1880, chap. xv, p. 173); for he regards

the sweat as important in the production of sexual effects and as being

especially seductive.

One learns from reading the work of Ploss (“Das Weib”) that attempts to

attract a person of the opposite sex by means of the perspiration may be

discerned in many forms in popular psychology.

In reference to this, a custom which holds among the natives of the

Philippine Islands when they become engaged, as reported by Jäger, is

remarkable. When it becomes necessary for the engaged pair to separate,

they exchange articles of wearing-apparel, by means of which each

becomes assured of faithfulness. These objects are carefully preserved,

covered with kisses, and smelled.

The love of certain libertines and sensual women for perfumes[23]

indicates a relation between the olfactory and sexual senses.

A case mentioned by Heschl (_Wiener Zeitschrift f. pract. Heilkunde_,

March 22, 1861) is remarkable, where the absence of both olfactory lobes

was accompanied by imperfectly developed genitals. It was the case of a

man aged 45, in all respects well developed, with the exception of the

testicles, which were not larger than beans and contained no seminal

canals, and the larynx, which seemed to be of feminine dimensions. Every

trace of olfactory nerves was wanting, and the trigona olfactoria and

the furrow on the under surface of the anterior lobes were absent. The

perforations of the ethmoid plate were sparingly present, and occupied

by nerveless processes of the dura instead of by nerves. In the mucous

membrane of the nose there was also an absence of nerves. Finally, the

clearly-defined relation of the olfactory and sexual senses in mental

diseases is worthy of notice, in that in the psychoses of both sexes

dependent on masturbation, as well as in insanity due to disease of the

sexual organs of the female, or during the climacteric[24], olfactory

hallucinations are especially frequent, while in cases where a sexual

cause is wanting they are very infrequent.

I am inclined to doubt[25] that olfactory impressions in man, under

normal conditions, as in animals, play an important _rôle_ in the

excitation of the sexual centre. On account of the importance of this

_consensus_ for the understanding of pathological cases, it is necessary

here to thoroughly consider the relations existing between the olfactory

and sexual senses.

The sexual sphere of the cerebral cortex may be excited, in the sense of

an excitation of sexual concepts and impulses, by processes in the

generative organs. This is possible as a result of all conditions which

also excite the erection-centre by means of centripetal influence

(stimulus resulting from distension of the seminal vesicles; enlarged

Graafian follicle; any sensory stimulus, however produced, about the

genitals; hyperæmia and turgescence of the genitals, especially of the

erectile tissue of the corpus cavernosum of the penis and clitoris, as a

result of luxurious, sedentary life; plethora abdominalis, high external

temperature, warm beds, clothing; taking of cantharides, pepper, and

other spices).

Libido sexualis may also be induced by stimulation of the gluteal region

(castigation, whipping).[26]

This fact is not unimportant for the understanding of certain

pathological manifestations. It sometimes happens that in boys the first

excitation of the sexual instinct is caused by a spanking, and they are

thus incited to masturbation. This should be remembered by those who

have the care of children.

On account of the dangers to which this form of punishment of children

gives rise, it would be better if parents, teachers, and nurses were to

avoid it entirely.

Passive flagellation may excite sensuality, as is shown by the sects of

flagellants, so wide-spread in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

They were accustomed to whip themselves, partly as atonement and partly

to kill the flesh (in accordance with the principle of chastity

promulgated by the Church,—_i.e._, the emancipation of the soul from

sensuality).

These sects were at first favored by the Church; but, since sensuality

was only excited the more by flagellation, and the fact became apparent

in unpleasant occurrences, the Church was finally compelled to oppose

it. The following facts from the lives of the two heroines of

flagellation, Maria Magdalena of Pazzi and Elizabeth of Genton, clearly

show the significance of flagellation as a sexual excitant. The former,

a child of distinguished parents, was a Carmelite nun in Florence (about

1580), and, by her flagellations, and, still more, through the results

of them, she became quite celebrated, and is mentioned in the Annals. It

was her greatest delight to have the prioress bind her hands behind her

and have her whipped on the naked loins in the presence of the assembled

sisters.

But the whippings, continued from her earliest youth, quite destroyed

her nervous system, and perhaps no other heroine of flagellation had so

many hallucinations (“Entzückungen”). While being whipped her thoughts

were of love. The inner fire threatened to consume her, and she

frequently cried, “Enough! Fan no longer the flame that consumes me.

This is not the death I long for; it comes with all too much pleasure

and delight.” Thus it continued. But the spirit of impurity wove the

most sensual, lascivious fancies, and she was several times near losing

her chastity.

It was the same with Elizabeth of Genton. As a result of whipping she

actually passed into a state of bacchanalian madness. As a rule, she

rested when, excited by unusual flagellation, she believed herself

united with her “ideal.” This condition was so exquisitely pleasant to

her that she would frequently cry out, “O love, O eternal love, O love,

O you creatures! cry out with me, love, love!”

It is known, on the authority of Taxil (_op. cit._, p. 175), that rakes

sometimes have themselves flagellated, or pricked until blood flows,

just before the sexual act, in order to stimulate their diminished

sexual power.

These facts find an interesting confirmation in the following

experiences, taken from Paullini’s “Flagellum Salutis” (1st ed., 1698;

reproduction, Stuttgart, 1847):—

“There are some nations, viz., the Persians and Russians, where the

women regard blows as a peculiar sign of love and favor. Strangely

enough, the Russian women are never more pleased and delighted than when

they receive hard blows from their husbands, as John Barclay relates in

a remarkable narrative. A German, named Jordan, went to Russia, and,

pleased with the country, he settled there and took a Russian wife, whom

he loved dearly and to whom he was always kind in everything. But she

always wore an expression of dissatisfaction, and went about with sighs

and downcast eyes. The husband asked the reason, for he could not

understand what was wrong. ‘Aye,’ she said, ‘though you love me you do

not show me any sign of it.’ He embraced her and begged to be told what

he had carelessly and unconsciously done to hurt her feelings, and to be

forgiven, for he would never do it again. ‘I want nothing,’ was the

answer, ‘but what is customary in our country,—the whip, the real sign

of love.’ Jordan observed the custom and accustomed himself to it, and

then his wife began to love him dearly. Similar stories are told by

Peter Petrius, of Erlesund, with the addition that the husbands,

immediately after the wedding, among other indispensable household

articles, provide themselves with whips.”

On page 73 of this remarkable book, the author says further: “The

celebrated Count of Mirindula, John Picus, relates of one of his

intimate acquaintances that he was an insatiable fellow, but so lazy and

incapable of love that he was practically impotent until he had been

roughly handled. The more he tried to satisfy his desire, the heavier

the blows he needed, and he could not attain his desire until he had

been whipped until the blood came. For this purpose he had a suitable

whip made, which was placed in vinegar the day before using it. He would

give this to his companion and on bended knees beg her not to spare him,

but to strike blows with it, the heavier the better. The good count

thought this singular man found the pleasure of love in this punishment.

While in other respects he was not a bad man, he understood and hated

his weakness. Coelius Rhodigin relates a similar story, as does also the

celebrated jurist, Andreas Tiraquell. In the time of the skillful

physician, Otten Brunfelsen, there lived in Munich, then the Capital of

the Bavarian Electorate, a debauchee who could never perform his

[sexual] duties without a severe preparatory beating. Thomas Barthelin

also knew a Venetian who had to be beaten and driven before he could

have intercourse,—just as Cupid himself moved reluctantly driven by his

followers with sprays of hyacinth. A few years ago there was in Lübeck a

cheesemonger, living on Mill Street, who, on a complaint to the

authorities of unfaithfulness, was ordered to leave the city. The

prostitute with whom he had been went to the judges and begged in his

behalf, telling how difficult all intercourse had become for him. He

could do nothing until he had been mercilessly beaten. At first the

fellow, from shame and to avoid disgrace, would not confess, but after

earnest questioning he could not deny it. There is said to have been a

man in the Netherlands who was similarly incapable, and could do nothing

without blows. On the decree of the authorities, however, he was not

only removed from his position, but also properly punished. A credible

friend, a physician in an important city of the kingdom, told me, on

July 14th, last year, how a woman of bad character had told a companion,

who had been in the hospital a short time before, that she, with another

woman of like character, had been sent to the woods by a man who

followed them there, cut rods for them, and then exposed his nates,

commanding them to belabor him well. This they did. It is easy to

conclude what he then did with them. Not only men have been excited and

inflamed to lasciviousness, but also women, that they too might

experience greater intensity of pleasure. For this reason the Roman

woman had herself whipped and beaten by the _lupercis_. Thus Juvenal

writes:—

“‘Steriles moriuntur, et illis

Turgida non prodest condita psycido Lyde:

Nec prodest agili palmas præbere Luperco.’”

In men, as well as in women, erection and orgasm, or even ejaculation,

may be induced by irritation of various other regions of the skin and

mucous membrane. These “erogenous” zones in woman are, while she is a

virgin, the clitoris, and, after defloration, the vagina and cervix

uteri.

In woman the nipple particularly seems to possess this quality.

Titillatio hujus regionis plays an important part in the _ars erotica_.

In his “Topographical Anatomy,” 1865, Bd. i, p. 552, Hyrtl cites Val.

Hildebrandt, who observed a peculiar anomaly of the sexual instinct in a

girl, which he called _suctusstupratio_. She had her mammæ sucked by her

lover, and finally, by gradually drawing on her nipples, she became able

to suck them herself,—an act that gave her most intense pleasure. Hyrtl

also calls attention to the fact that cows sometimes suck the milk from

their own udders. L. Brunn (_Zeitg. f. Literatur_, etc., d. Hamburg.

Correspondent, 1889, Nr. 21), in an interesting article on “Sensuality

and Love of Kin,” points out how zealously the nursing mother gives

herself to nursing the babe, “for love of the weak, undeveloped,

helpless being.”

It is easy to assume that, by the side of the ethical motives, the fact

that the sucking may be attended by feelings of physical pleasure plays

a part. The remark of Brunn, which is correct in itself, but one-sided,

that, according to Houzeau’s experience, among the majority of animals

it is only during the time of nursing that the relations between mother

and offspring are close, and thereafter indifferent, also speaks in

favor of this assumption.

Bastian found the same thing (blunting of the feeling for the offspring

after weaning) among savages.

Under pathological conditions, as is shown by Chambard, among others, in

his thesis for the doctorate, other portions of the body (in hysterical

persons) about the mammæ and genitals may attain the significance of

“erogenous” zones.

In man, physiologically, the only “erogenous” zone is the glans penis,

and, perhaps, the skin of the external genitals.

Under pathological conditions the anus may become an “erogenous” area.

Thus anal auto-masturbation, which seems to be only too frequent, and

passive pederasty would be explained. (Comp. Gamier, “Anomalies

sexuelles,” Paris, p. 514; F. Moll, “Conträre Sexualempfindung,” p.

163.)

The psycho-physiological process comprehended in the idea of sexual

instinct is composed of (1) concepts awakened centrally or peripherally;

(2) the pleasurable feelings associated with them.

The longing for sexual satisfaction (libido sexualis) arises from them.

This desire grows stronger constantly, in proportion as the excitation

of the cerebral sphere accentuates the feeling of pleasure by

appropriate concepts and activity of the imagination; and the

pleasurable sensations are increased to lustful feeling by excitation of

the erection centre and the consequent hyperæmia of the genitals

(entrance of liquor prostaticus into the urethra, etc.).

If circumstances are favorable for the performance of the sexual act

satisfactorily, the constantly-increasing desire is complied with; if,

however, conditions are unfavorable, inhibitory concepts occur, overcome

the sexual longing, and prevent the sexual act.

To civilized man cultivation of a readiness with ideas which inhibit

sexual desire is necessary and distinctive. The moral freedom of the

individual, and the decision whether, under certain circumstances,

excess, and even crime, be committed or not, depend, on the one hand,

upon the strength of the instinctive concepts and the accompanying

organic sensations; on the other, upon the power of the inhibitory

concepts. Constitution and, especially, organic influences have a marked

effect upon the instinctive impulses; education and cultivation of

self-control have a decisive influence on the opposing concepts.

The exciting and inhibitory powers are variable quantities.

Over-indulgence in alcohol in this respect is very fatal, since it

awakens and increases libido sexualis, while at the same time it reduces

moral resistance.

THE ACT OF COHABITATION.[27]

The essential condition for the man is sufficient erection. Anjel

(_Arch. für Psych._, viii, H. 2) calls attention to the fact that in

sexual excitement the erection centre is not alone influenced,—the

nervous excitement is distributed to the entire vasomotor system of

nerves. The proof of this is the turgescence of the organs in the sexual

act, injection of the conjunctiva, prominence of the eyes, dilatation of

the pupils, and cardiac palpitation (resulting from paralysis of the

vasomotor nerves of the heart, which arise from the cervical

sympathetic, and the consequent dilatation of the cardiac arteries, and

the increased stimulation of the cardiac ganglia induced by the

consequent hyperæmia of the cardiac walls). The sexual act is

accompanied by a pleasurable feeling, which, in the male, is conditioned

by the passage of semen through the _ductus ejaculatorii_ to the

urethra, caused by sensory stimulation of the genitals. The pleasurable

sensation occurs earlier in the male than in the female, grows rapidly

in intensity until the moment of commencement of ejaculation, reaching

its height in the instant of free emission, and disappears quickly _post

ejaculationem_.

In the female the pleasurable feeling occurs later and comes on more

slowly, and generally outlasts the act of ejaculation.

The distinctive event in coitus is ejaculation. This function is

dependent on a centre (genito-spinal), which Budge has shown to be

situated at the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra. It is a reflex

centre. The stimulus that excites it is the ejection of sperma from

the vesiculæ seminales into the pars membranacea urethræ, which

follows reflexly from stimulation of the glans penis. As soon as the

collection of semen, with ever-increasing pleasurable sensation, has

reached a sufficient amount to be effectual as a stimulus of the

ejaculation-centre, the centre acts. The reflex motor path lies in the

fourth and fifth lumbar nerves. The action consists of a convulsive

excitation of the bulbo-cavernosus muscle (innervated by the third and

fourth sacral nerves), which forces the semen out.

In the female as well, at the height of sexual and pleasurable

excitement, a reflex movement occurs. It is induced by stimulation of

the sensory genital nerves, and consists of a peristaltic movement in

the tubes and uterus as far down as the portio vaginalis, which presses

out the mucous secretions of the tubes and uterus. Inhibition of the

ejaculation centre is possible as a result of cortical influence (want

of desire in coitus, emotions in general; influence of the will, in a

measure).

Under normal conditions, with the completion of the sexual act, libido

sexualis and erection disappear, and the psychical and sexual excitement

gives place to a comfortable feeling of lassitude.

III. GENERAL PATHOLOGY.[28]

(NEUROLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL.)

Abnormality of the sexual functions proves to be especially frequent in

civilized races. This fact is explained in part by the frequent abuse of

the sexual organs, and in part by the circumstance that such functional

anomalies are often the signs of an abnormal constitution of the central

nervous system, which is, for the most part, hereditary (“functional

signs of degeneration”).

Since the generative organs stand in important functional connection

with the entire nervous system, and especially with its psychical and

somatic functions, it is easy to understand the frequency of general

neuroses and psychoses arising in sexual (functional or organic)

disturbances.

SCHEMA OF THE SEXUAL NEUROSES.

} }_a._ Anæsthesia.

}1. Sensory. }_b._ Hyperæsthesia.

} }_c._ Neuralgia.

I. PERIPHERAL.[29] }2. Secretory. }_a._ Aspermia.

} }_b._ Polyspermia.

}3. Motor. }_a._ Pollutions

} } (spasm).

} }_b._ Spermatorrhœa

} } (paralysis).

II. SPINAL. }1. Affections of the erection centre.

}2. Affections of the ejaculation centre.

}1. Paradoxia.

}2. Anæsthesia.

III. CEREBRAL. }3. Hyperæsthesia.

}4. Paræsthesia.

II. SPINAL NEUROSES.

_1. Affections of the Erection Centre._

(a) _Irritation_ (priapism) arises reflexly from peripheral sensory

irritants (_e.g._, gonorrhœa); directly, from organic irritation of the

nerve-tracts from the brain to the erection centre (spinal disease in

the lower cervical and upper dorsal regions), or of the centre itself

(certain poisons); or from psychical irritation. In the latter case

satyriasis exists, _i.e._, abnormal duration of erection, with libido

sexualis. In simply reflex or direct organic irritation, libido sexualis

may be wanting, and the priapism be accompanied by unpleasant feelings.

(b) _Paralysis_ from destruction of the centre or of the nerve-tracts

(nervi erigentes), in diseases of the spinal cord (paralytic impotence).

A milder form is that of lessened excitability of the centre, resulting

from overstimulation (in sexual excesses, especially in onanism), or

from alcoholic intoxication, abuse of bromides, etc. It may be

accompanied by cerebral anæsthesia, and often with anæsthesia of the

external genitals. Cerebral hyperæsthesia is here more frequent

(increased libido sexualis, lust). A peculiar form of diminished

excitability is shown in those cases where the centre responds only to

certain stimuli. Thus there are men for whom sexual contact with their

virtuous wives does not supply the necessary stimulus for the excitation

of an erection, but in whom it occurs when the act is attempted with a

prostitute, or in the form of some unnatural sexual act. As far as

psychical stimuli are here concerned, they may be inadequate (_v.

infra_, paræsthesia and perversion of sexual instinct).

(c) _Inhibition._ The erection centre may become functionally incapable

as a result of cerebral influence. This inhibitory influence is an

emotion (disgust, fear of contagion), or an idea[30] of impotence. There

are many men in the first condition who have an unconquerable loathing

for their wives, or fear of infection, or are suffering with perverse

sexual feelings. In the latter condition are neuropathic individuals

(neurasthenics, hypochondriacs), frequently weakened sexually

(masturbators), who have reason, or think they have, to mistrust their

sexual power. This idea acts as an inhibitory concept, and makes the act

with the person concerned of the opposite sex temporarily or absolutely

impossible.

(d) _Irritable weakness._ In this condition there is abnormal

impressionability of the centre, but accompanied by rapid diminution of

its energy. There may be functional disturbance of the centre itself, or

weakness of the innervation through the nervi erigentes; or there may be

weakness of the ischio-cavernosus muscle. Cases in which the erection is

ineffectual, on account of abnormally early ejaculation, form a

transition to the following anomalies:—

_2. Affections of the Ejaculation Centre._

(a) _Abnormally easy ejaculation_ from absence of cerebral inhibition,

resulting from excessive psychical excitement or irritable weakness of

the centre. In this case, under certain circumstances, the simple

conception of a lascivious situation is sufficient to set the centre in

action (high degree of spinal neurasthenia, usually resulting from

sexual abuse). A third possibility is hyperæsthesia of the urethra, by

virtue of which, when the semen enters it, an immediate and excessive

reflex action of the ejaculation centre is induced. In such a case,

simple proximity to the female genitals may be sufficient to induce

ejaculation (_ante portam_).

In case of hyperæsthesia of the urethra as a cause, the ejaculation may

be accompanied by painful, instead of pleasurable, sensations. Usually,

in cases where there is hyperæsthesia of the urethra, there is, at the

same time, irritable weakness of the centre. Both functional

disturbances are important in the production of pollutio nimia and

diurna.

The accompanying pleasurable feeling may be pathologically absent. This

occurs in defective men and women (anæsthesia, aspermia?), and, further,

as a result of disease (neurasthenia, hysteria); or (in prostitutes) it

follows overstimulation and the blunting thus induced. The intensity of

the pleasurable feeling depends on the degree of psychical and motor

excitement accompanying the sexual act. Under pathological conditions

this may become so pronounced that the movements of coitus take on the

character of involuntary convulsive movements, and even pass into

general convulsions.

(b) _Abnormally difficult ejaculation._ It is occasioned by

inexcitability of the centre (absence of libido, paralysis of the

centre: organic, from disease of brain or spinal cord; functional, from

sexual abuses, marasmus, diabetes, morphinism), and, in this case, for

the most part, in connection with anæsthesia of the genitals and

paralysis of the erection centre. Or it is the result of a lesion of the

reflex arc, or of peripheral anæsthesia (urethra), or of aspermia. The

ejaculation occurs not at all, or tardily, in the course of the sexual

act, or only afterward, in the form of a pollution.

III. CEREBRAL NEUROSES.

1. _Paradoxia_, _i.e._, sexual excitement occurring independently of the

period of the physiological processes in the generative organs.

2. _Anæsthesia_ (absence of sexual instinct). Here all organic impulses

arising in the sexual organs, as well as all concepts, and visual,

auditory, and olfactory sense-impressions, fail to excite the individual

sexually. This is physiological in childhood and old age.

3. _Hyperæsthesia_ (increased desire, satyriasis). In this state there

is an abnormally increased impressionability of the vita sexualis to

organic, psychical, and sensory stimuli (abnormally intense libido,

lustfulness, lasciviousness). The stimulus may be central (nymphomania,

satyriasis) or peripheral, functional or organic.

4. _Paræsthesia_, (perversion of the sexual instinct, _i.e._,

excitability of the sexual functions to inadequate stimuli).

These cerebral anomalies fall within the domain of psychopathology. The

spinal and peripheral anomalies may occur in combination with them, but

these affect persons, as a rule, that are free from mental disease. They

may occur in various combinations, and become the cause of sexual

crimes. For this reason, they demand consideration in the following

description. However, the cerebral anomalies claim the principal

interest, since they very frequently lead to the commission of perverse

and even criminal acts.

A. PARADOXIA. SEXUAL INSTINCT MANIFESTING ITSELF INDEPENDENTLY OF

PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES.

_1. Sexual Instinct Manifested in Childhood._

Every physician conversant with nervous affections and diseases incident

to childhood is aware of the fact that manifestation of sexual instinct

may occur in very young children. The observations of Ultzmann

concerning masturbation in childhood[31] are worthy of attention in

relation to it. It is necessary here to differentiate between the

numerous cases where, as a result of phimosis, balanitis, or oxyuris in

rectum or vagina, young children have itching of the genitals, and

experience a kind of pleasurable sensation from manipulations thus

induced, and thus come to practice masturbation; and those cases in

which sexual ideas and impulses occur in the child as a result of

cerebral processes without peripheral causes. It is only in this latter

class of cases that we have to do with the early manifestation of sexual

instinct. In such cases it may always be regarded as an accompanying

symptom of a neuro-psychopathic constitutional condition. A case of

Marc’s (“Die Geisteskrankheiten,” etc., von Ideler, i, p. 66)

illustrates very well these conditions. The subject was a girl of eight

years, of respectable family, who was devoid of all child-like and moral

feelings, and had masturbated from her fourth year; at the same time she

consorted with boys of the age of ten or twelve. She had thought of

killing her parents, that she might become her own mistress and give

herself up to pleasure with men. In these cases of early manifestation

of libido the children come also to masturbate; and, since they are

greatly predisposed constitutionally, they frequently sink into

dementia, or become subjects of severe degenerative neuroses or

psychoses.

Lombroso (_Archiv di Psichiatria_, iv, p. 22) has collected a number

of cases of children affected with very decided hereditary taint,

which belong in this category. One was that of a girl who masturbated

shamelessly and almost constantly at the age of three. Another girl

began at the age of eight, and continued to practice masturbation when

married, and even during pregnancy. She was pregnant twelve times.

Five of the children died early, four were hydrocephalic, and two boys

began to masturbate,—one at the age of seven, the other at the age of

four.

Zambaco (_L’Encéphale_, 1882, Nr. 1, 2) tells the disgusting story of

two sisters affected with premature and perverse sexual desire. The

elder, R., masturbated at the age of seven, practiced lewdness with

boys, stole wherever she could, seduced her four-year-old sister into

masturbation, and at the age of ten was given up to the practice of

the most revolting vices. Even _ferrum candens ad clitoridem_ had no

effect in overcoming the practice, and she masturbated with the

cassock of a priest while he was exhorting her to reformation.

_2. Re-awakening of Sexual Instinct in Old Age._[32]

There are infrequent cases in which the sexual instinct persists until a

great age. “Senectus non quidem annis sed viribus magis æstimatur”

(Zittmann). Oesterlen (Maschka, Handb., iii, p. 18) mentions the case of

a man aged 83, who was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a

Wurtemberg court on account of sexual misdemeanors. Unfortunately

nothing is said of the nature of the crime or of the mental condition of

the criminal.[33]

The manifestation of sexual instinct in old age is not in itself

pathological; but presumption of pathological conditions must

necessarily be entertained when the individual is decrepit and his

sexual life has already long become extinct; and when the impulse, in a

man whose sexual needs were in his early life, perhaps, not very marked,

manifests itself with greater strength, and strives for even perverse

satisfaction in a shameless and impulsive manner. In such cases there is

at once suggested a presumption of pathological conditions. Medical

science recognizes the fact that such an impulse depends upon the morbid

alterations of the brain which lead to senile dementia. This abnormal

manifestation of sexual life may be the precursor of senile dementia,

and make its appearance even long before there are any well-defined

manifestations of intellectual weakness. The attentive and experienced

observer will always be able to detect in this prodromal stage an

alteration of character _in pejus_, and a deterioration of the moral

sense accompanying the peculiar sexual manifestation.

The libido of those passing into senile dementia is at first expressed

in lascivious speech and gesture. The next objects of the attempts of

these senile subjects of brain atrophy and psychical degeneration are

children. This sad and dangerous fact is explained by the better

opportunity they have of falling in with children, but more especially

by a feeling of imperfect sexual power. Defective sexual power and

greatly diminished moral sense explain the additional fact of the

perversity of the sexual acts of these aged men. They are the

equivalents of the impossible physiological act.

The annals of legal medicine distinguish, as such, exhibition of the

genitals,[34] lustful handling of the genitals of children,[35] inducing

them to perform manustupration of the seducer, and performing

masturbation[36] or flagellation on the victim.

In this stage the intellect may still be sufficiently intact to allow

avoidance of publicity and discovery, while the moral sense is too far

gone to allow consideration of the moral significance of the act and

resistance to the impulse. With the progress of dementia, these acts are

more and more shamelessly committed. Then care on account of defective

sexual power disappears, and adults also become the objects of the

senile passion; but the defective sexual power necessitates equivalents

for coitus. Not infrequently sodomy results, and, as Tarnowsky (_op.

cit._, p. 77) points out, in the sexual act performed with geese,

chickens, etc., the sight of the dying animal and its death-struggles at

the time of coitus afford complete satisfaction. The perverse sexual

acts with adults are quite as horrible, and may be explained

psychologically in the same way.

Case 49, in the author’s “Text-Book of Legal Psychopathology,” second

ed., p. 161, demonstrates how enormously increased sexual lust may be

during the course of senile dementia. Quum senex libidinosus germanam

suam filiam æmulatione motus necaret et adspectu pectoris sciosi puellæ

moribundæ delectaretur.

Erotic delirium and states of satyriasis may occur, in the course of the

malady, with or without maniacal episodes, as the following case shows:—

Case 1. J. René, always given to indulgence in sensuality and sexual

pleasures, but always with regard for decorum, has shown, since his

seventy-sixth year, a progressive loss of intelligence and increasing

perversion of his moral sense. Previously bright and outwardly moral,

he now wasted his property in concourse with prostitutes, frequented

brothels only, asked every woman on the street to marry him or allow

coitus, and thus became so publicly obnoxious that it was necessary to

place him in an asylum. There the sexual excitement increased to a

veritable satyriasis, which lasted until he died. He masturbated

continuously, even before others; took delight only in obscene ideas;

thought the men about him were women, and followed them with indecent

proposals (Legrand du Saulle, “La Folie,” p. 533).

Moreover, women previously moral, when affected with senile dementia,

may manifest similar conditions of great sexual excitement

(nymphomania, furor uterinus).

It may be seen from a reading of Schopenhauer,[37] that, as a result of

senile dementia, the abnormally excited and perverse instinct may be

directed exclusively to persons of the same sex (_v. infra_). The manner

of the satisfaction is here passive pederasty, or, as I ascertained in

the following case, mutual masturbation:—

Case 2. Mr. X., aged 80, of high social position, from a family having

hereditary taint. He was always very sensual and a cynic, of

uncontrollable temper, and, according to his own confession, as a

young man, preferred masturbation to coitus. However, he never showed

signs of contrary sexual instinct, and kept mistresses, raising a

child by one. At the age of forty-eight he married, out of

inclination, and begat six children, and never gave his wife cause for

complaint. I could obtain but an incomplete history of his family. It

was certain that his brother was suspected of love for men, and that a

nephew became insane as a result of excessive masturbation.

The patient, always peculiar and quick-tempered, for years has been

growing more extreme in character. He has become exceedingly

suspicious, and slight opposition to his wishes induces attacks of

anger which may become actual raving, and in which he may raise his

hand against his wife. For a year there have been unmistakable signs

of incipient senile dementia. The patient has become forgetful,

localizes past events incorrectly, and has false ideas of time. For

fourteen months it has been noticed that he manifests affection for

certain male servants, especially for a gardener’s boy. Otherwise rude

and overbearing to servants, he surfeits his favorite with favors and

presents, and commands his family and his house officials to treat the

boy with the greatest respect. The aged patient awaits the hour of

rendezvous in true sexual excitement. He sends his family away, that

he may be with his favorite undisturbed, and remains shut up with him

for hours; and when the doors are opened again, he is found lying on

the bed exhausted. Besides this object of his passion, the patient had

intercourse episodically with other servants. It is certain that he

enticed them, asked them for kisses, exhibited himself, allowed

manipulation ad genitalia, and practiced mutual masturbation. By these

practices absolute demoralization was brought about. The family was

powerless; for any opposition caused violent outbreaks of anger and

even threats against his relatives. The patient was completely without

appreciation of his perverse sexual acts; and therefore the only

course left to the afflicted family was to remove all authority from

his hands and place him in an asylum. No erotic inclination toward the

opposite sex was observed, though the patient occupied a

sleeping-apartment with his wife. With reference to the perverse

sexuality and the defective moral sense of this unfortunate man, it is

worthy of note that he questioned the servants of his daughter-in-law

as to whether she had a lover.

B. ANÆSTHESIA SEXUALIS (ABSENCE OF SEXUAL FEELING).

_1. As a Congenital Anomaly._

Only those cases can be regarded as unquestionable examples of absence

of sexual instinct dependent on cerebral causes, in which, in spite of

generative organs normally developed and the performance of their

functions (secretion of semen, menstruation), the corresponding emotions

of sexual life are absolutely wanting. These functionally sexless

individuals are seldom seen, and are, indeed, always persons having

degenerative defects, and in whom other functional cerebral

disturbances, states of psychical degeneration, and even anatomical

signs of degeneration, are observed. Legrand du Saulle describes a

classical case that falls under this head (_Annales médico-psychol._,

May, 1876).

Case 3. D., aged 33, had a mother who suffered with insanity of

persecution. The mother’s father also suffered with persecutory

insanity, and committed suicide. Her mother was insane, and this

woman’s mother became insane in the puerperal state. Three of her

mother’s children died in babyhood, and those that lived longer had an

abnormal character. As early as his thirteenth year, D. was troubled

with the thought of becoming insane. At fourteen he attempted suicide.

Later, vagabondage, and, as a soldier, repeated insubordination and

crazy pranks. His intelligence was very limited; no sign of

degeneration, genitals normal. At seventeen or eighteen he had

emissions of semen, had never masturbated or had sexual feeling, and

never had sought intercourse with women.

Case 4. P., aged 36, common laborer, was received at my clinic in the

beginning of November on account of spastic spinal paralysis. He

declares he comes of a healthy family. A stutterer from his youth.

Cranium microcephalic (cf. 53 cm.). Patient somewhat imbecile. He was

never sociable, never had a sexual emotion. The sight of a woman never

had anything enticing for him. He never had a desire to masturbate.

Erections frequent, but only on waking in the morning with a full

bladder, and without a trace of sexual feeling. Pollutions very

infrequent,—about once a year, in sleep,—and usually while dreaming

that he is concerned with a female. These dreams, however, as his

dreams in general, are not markedly erotic. He says the act of

pollution is not accompanied by any pleasurable sensation. Patient

does not feel this absence of sexual sensations. He gives the

assurance that his brother, aged 34, is in exactly the same sexual

condition as himself, and he makes it seem probable that a sister,

aged 21, is in a similar state. A younger brother, he says, is normal

sexually. The examination of his genitals reveals nothing abnormal

besides phimosis.

Hammond (“Sexual Impotence”), even with his wide experience, reports

only the following three cases of anæsthesia sexualis:—

Case 5. Mr. W., aged 33; strong, healthy, with normal genitals. He had

never experienced libido, and had vainly sought to awaken his

defective sexual instinct by means of obscene stories and intercourse

with prostitutes. On the occasion of such attempts he experienced only

disgust, with even a feeling of nausea, and became nervously and

mentally exhausted. Only once, when he forced the situation, did he

have a transitory erection. W. had never masturbated, and had had

pollutions about once every two months from his seventeenth year.

Important interests demanded that he marry. He had no _horror feminæ_,

and longed for a home and a wife, but felt that he was incapable of

the sexual act. He died, unmarried, in the American civil war.

Case 6. X., aged 27; genitals normal; never felt libido. Mechanical or

thermic stimuli easily induced erection, but instead of libido

sexualis there was regularly a desire for alcoholic indulgence. Such

excesses also induced erections, and he then sometimes masturbated. He

had a disinclination for women and a loathing of coitus. If, with an

erection, he made an attempt at coitus, it disappeared at once. Death

in coma during an attack of cerebral hyperæmia.

Case 7. Mrs. O., normally developed, healthy, menstruated regularly;

aged 35, fifteen years married. She never experienced libido, and

never had any erotic excitement in sexual intercourse with her

husband. She was not averse to coitus, and sometimes seemed to

experience pleasure in it, but she never had a wish for repetition of

cohabitation.

In connection with such pure cases of anæsthesia there should be

considered other cases in which the mental side of the vita sexualis is

a blank leaf in the life of the individual, but where elementary sexual

sensations manifest themselves at least in masturbation (comp. the

transitional Case 6). According to Magnan’s ingenious classification,

which, however, is not strictly correct and somewhat too dogmatic, in

such cases the sexual life is so limited as to be designated spinal.

Possibly in some such cases there exists virtually a mental side of the

vita sexualis, but it is very weak, and undermined by masturbation

before it attains development. These represent the transitional cases

from the congenital to the acquired (psychical) anæsthesia sexualis.

This danger threatens many masturbators of vicious constitution. It is

psychologically interesting that when the sexual element is early

vitiated, then an ethical defect is manifested.

The two following cases, previously published by me in the _Archiv für

Psychiatrie_, vii, are given here as illustrations worthy of

consideration:—

Case 8. F. J., aged 19, student; mother was nervous, sister epileptic.

At the age of four, acute brain affection, lasting two weeks. As a

child he was not affectionate, and was cold toward his parents; as a

student he was peculiar, retiring, preoccupied with self, and given to

much reading. Well endowed mentally. Masturbation from fifteenth year.

Eccentric after puberty, with continual alternation between religious

enthusiasm and materialism,—now studying theology, now natural

sciences. At the university his fellow-students took him for a fool.

He read Jean Paul almost exclusively, and wasted his time. Absolute

absence of sexual feeling toward the opposite sex. Once he indulged in

intercourse, experienced no sexual feeling in the act, found coitus

absurd, and did not repeat it. Without any emotional cause whatever,

he often had a thought of suicide. He made it the subject of a

philosophical dissertation, in which he contended that it was, like

masturbation, a justifiable act. After repeated experiments, which he

made on himself with various poisons, he attempted suicide with

fifty-seven grains of opium; but he was saved, and sent to an asylum.

Patient is destitute of moral and social feelings. His writings

disclose incredible frivolity and vulgarity. His knowledge is of a

wide range, but his logic is peculiarly distorted. There is no trace

of emotionality. He treats everything (even the sublime) with

incomparable cynicism and irony. He pleads for the justification of

suicide with false philosophical premises and conclusions, and, as one

would speak of the most indifferent affair, he declares that he

intends to accomplish it. He regrets that his penknife has been taken

from him. If he had it he would open his veins as Seneca did,—in the

bath. A short time before a friend had given him, instead of a poison

as he supposed, a cathartic. Instead of having been a means to send

him to the other world, it had sent him to the water-closet. Only the

Great Operator could eradicate his foolish and fatal idea by removing

his senses, etc.

The patient has a large, rhombic, distorted skull, the left half of

the forehead being flatter than the right. The occiput is very

straight. Ears far back, widely projecting, and the external meatus

forms a narrow slit. Genitals very lax; testicles unusually soft and

small.

Now and then the patient suffers with onomatomania. He is compelled to

think of the most useless problems and give up to an interminable

distressing and worrying thought; and is so fatigued after it that he

is no longer capable of any rational thought. After some months the

patient was sent home unimproved. There he spent his time in reading

and frivolities, and busied himself with the thought of founding a new

Christianity, because Christ had been subject to grand delusions and

had deceived the world with wonders (!). After remaining at home some

years the sudden occurrence of a maniacal outbreak brought him again

to the asylum. He presented a mixture of primordial delirium of

persecution (devil, anti-christ, persecution, poisoning, persecutory

voices) and delusions of grandeur (Christ, redemption of the world),

with impulsive, incoherent actions. After five months there was a

remission of this intercurrent acute mental disease, and the patient

returned to the level of his original intellectual peculiarity and

moral defect.

Case 9. E., aged 30, journeyman-painter, was arrested while trying to

cut off the scrotum of a boy he had caught in the woods. He gave as a

motive for this act that he wished to cut into it in order that the

world should not multiply. Often in his youth, with like purpose, he

had cut into his own genitals.

It is impossible to learn anything of his ancestry. From his childhood

he was mentally abnormal, violent, never lively, very irritable,

irascible, selfish, and weak-minded. He hated women, loved solitude,

and read much. He sometimes laughed to himself and did silly things.

Of late years his hatred of women had increased, especially of those

that were pregnant, they being responsible for the misery of the

world. He also hated children, and cursed his father. He entertained

communistic ideas, and berated the rich and the ministry, and God, who

had allowed him to come into the world so poor. He declared that it

would be better to castrate all children than to allow others to come

into the world that could only be fated to endure poverty and misery.

He had always had the intention, from his fifteenth year, to castrate

himself, in order to have no part in increasing unhappiness and adding

to the number of men. He hated the female sex because it was a means

of procreation. Only twice in his life had he allowed women to

practice manustupration on him, and, with the exception of this, he

had never had anything to do with them. Occasionally he had sexual

desire, but never for a natural satisfaction of it. When nature did

not help him, he occasionally helped himself by means of masturbation.

He is a powerful, muscular man. The formation of the genitals presents

no abnormality. On the scrotum and penis are numerous scars, which

resulted from his attempts at self-emasculation, but which, he

asserts, were not carried out on account of pain. Genu valgum of right

limb. No evidence of onanism could be discovered. He is moody,

defiant, irritable. Social feelings are absolutely foreign to him.

With the exception of imperfect sleep and frequent headaches, there

are no functional disturbances.

From cases of this kind, depending on cerebral causes, there must be

distinguished others where the absence of function arises from an

absence or malformation of the generative organs, as in certain

hermaphrodites, idiots, and cretins. A case belonging here is found in

Maschka’s hand-book.

Case 10. Complainant pleads for divorce on account of impotence of her

husband, who has never had intercourse with her. She is thirty-one

years old, and a virgin. The husband is somewhat weak mentally,

physically strong; the genitals well developed. He declares that he

has never had a complete erection or a flow of semen, and says that he

is totally indifferent about intercourse with women.

Ultzmann’s[38] observations show that anæsthesia sexualis is not caused

by aspermia simply. He shows that even in congenital aspermia the vita

sexualis and sexual power may be entirely satisfying; an additional

proof that defective libido _ab origine_ is to be sought for in cerebral

conditions.

The _naturæ frigidas_ of Zacchias are examples of a milder form of

anæsthesia. They are met more frequently among women than among men. The

characteristic signs of this anomaly are: slight inclination to sexual

intercourse, or pronounced disinclination to coitus without sexual

equivalent, and failure of corresponding psychical, pleasurable

excitation during coitus, which is indulged in simply from sense of

duty. I have often had occasion to hear complaints from husbands about

this. In such cases the wives have always proved to be neuropathic _ab

origine_. Some were at the same time hysterical.

_2. Acquired Anæsthesia._

Acquired diminution of sexual instinct, extending through all degrees to

extinction, may depend on various causes. These may be organic and

functional, psychical and somatic, central and peripheral. The

diminution of libido, as age advances, and its temporary disappearance

after the sexual act, are physiological. The variations with reference

to the duration of the sexual instinct are dependent upon individual

factors. Education and manner of life have a great influence upon the

intensity of the vita sexualis. Intense mental activity (hard study),

physical exertion, emotional depression, and sexual continence decidedly

diminish sexual inclination. Continence at first induces increase, but

sooner or later, according to constitutional conditions, the activity of

the generative organs decreases, and with it libido. At all events, in a

person sexually mature, a close connection exists between the activity

of the generative glands and the degree of libido. That this relation is

not determinate is shown by the cases of sensual women, who, after the

climacterium, continue to have sexual intercourse, and may manifest

states of sexual excitement (cerebral). Also in eunuchs it is seen that

libido may long outlast the production of semen.

On the other hand, however, experience teaches that libido is

essentially conditioned by the function of the generative glands, and

that the facts mentioned are exceptional manifestations. As peripheral

causes of diminution or extinction of libido, may be mentioned

castration, degeneration of the sexual glands, marasmus, sexual excesses

in the form of coitus and masturbation, and alcoholism [cocainism]. In

the same way, the disappearance of libido in general disturbances of

nutrition (diabetes, morphinism, etc.) may be explained. Finally, the

atrophy of the testicles should be remembered, which has sometimes been

observed to follow focal lesions of the brain (cerebellum).

A diminution of the vita sexualis, from degeneration of the tracts of

the cord and genito-spinal centre, occurs in diseases of the spinal cord

and brain. A central interference with the sexual instinct may be

organically induced by cortical disease (dementia paralytica in its

advanced stages); functionally, by hysteria (central anæsthesia?) and

emotional insanity (melancholia, hypochondria).

C. HYPERÆSTHESIA (ABNORMALLY INCREASED SEXUAL DESIRE).

Pathology has no easy task, in the single case, when it has to decide

whether the impulse to sexual satisfaction has reached a pathological

degree. Emminghaus (“Psychopathologie,” p. 225) declares that the

immediate re-awakening of desire after satisfaction, with its occupation

of the entire attention, and no less the excitation of libido by the

sight of persons and things which in themselves should have but an

indifferent sexual effect, are decidedly abnormal. In general, sexual

instinct and its corresponding needs are in proportion to physical

strength and age. Sexual desire rapidly increases after puberty, until

it reaches a marked degree; is strongest from the twentieth to the

fortieth year, and then slowly decreases. Married life seems to preserve

and control the instinct. Sexual intercourse with many persons increases

the desire.

Since woman has less sexual need than man, a predominating sexual desire

in her arouses a suspicion of its pathological significance; and the

more, when this finds expression in desire for adornment, coquetry, or

male society, which, passing beyond the limits set by good breeding and

manners, becomes quite noticeable.

The constitution, in both sexes, is of the greatest significance. An

abnormally strong sexual instinct is frequently accompanied by a

neuropathic constitution; and such individuals pass a great part of

their lives heavily burdened with the weight of this constitutional

anomaly of their sexual life. The power of the sexual impulse in such

cases may at times rise to the importance of an organic necessity, and

really endanger the freedom of the will. The want of satisfaction of

this impulsive desire may, under such conditions, induce a condition

allied to actual rutting, or a psychical condition, accompanied by

emotions of fear, in which the individual gives up to the impulse, and

responsibility becomes doubtful. If the individual does not give up to

his powerful impulse, he is in danger, by reason of his enforced

abstinence, of ruining his nervous system by inducing a neurasthenia, or

seriously increasing such a condition if it be already present. In

normally constituted individuals, too, the sexual instinct is an

inconstant quantity. Aside from the temporary indifference following

satisfaction, and the diminution of sexual desire in long-continued

continence after a certain reactionary stage of sexual desire is

overcome, the manner of life has a great influence. Those living in

large cities, who are constantly reminded of sexual things and incited

to sexual enjoyment, certainly have more sexual desire than those living

in the country. A dissipated, luxurious, sedentary manner of life,

preponderance of animal food, and the consumption of spirits, spices,

etc., have a stimulating influence on the sexual life. In woman the

sexual inclination is post-menstrually increased. At this time, in

neuropathic women, the excitement may reach a pathological degree.

The great libido of consumptives is remarkable. Hofmann tells of a

consumptive peasant who satisfied his wife sexually on the evening

before his death.

The sexual acts are coitus (eventually rape) and, _faute de mieux_,

masturbation; and, with defective moral sense, pederasty or bestiality.

If sexual power is diminished or extinct, with excessive sexual desire,

all manner of perversity of sexual acts becomes possible.

Excessive libido may be peripherally or centrally induced. The former

manner of origin is the more infrequent. Pruritus and eczema of the

genitals may cause it; and likewise certain substances, like

cantharides, which powerfully stimulate sexual desire. Not infrequently,

in women at the climacteric, sexual excitement occurs, occasioned by

pruritus; and also in cases where there is neuropathic taint. Magnan

(_Annales médico-psychol._, 1885, p. 157) reports the case of a lady who

was afflicted mornings with attacks of frightful erethismus genitalis,

and the case of a man, aged 55, who was tormented at night by unbearable

priapism. In each case there was a neurosis.

The central origin of sexual excitement is of frequent occurrence[39] in

persons having neurotic taint or hysteria, and in conditions of

psychical exaltation. Here, where the cortex and the psycho-sexual

centre are in a condition of hyperæsthesia (abnormal excitability of the

imagination, increased ease of association), not only visual and tactile

impressions, but also auditory and olfactory sensations, may be

sufficient to call up lascivious concepts.

Magnan (_op. cit._) reports the case of a young woman who had an

increasing sexual desire from puberty, and satisfied it by

masturbation. Gradually she grew to become sexually excited at the

sight of any man pleasing to her; and, since she was unable to control

herself, she would sometimes shut herself up in a room until the storm

had passed. At last she gave herself up to men of her choice, that she

might get rest from her tormenting desire; but neither coitus nor

masturbation brought relief, and she went to an asylum.

The case of a mother of five children is added, who, in despair about

her inordinate sexual impulse, attempted suicide, and then sought an

asylum. There her condition improved, but she never trusted herself to

leave it.

There are several illustrative cases in men and women in the author’s

article, “On Certain Anomalies of Sexual Instinct,” Cases 6 and 7

(_Archiv für Psychiatrie_, vii, 2); Cases 3 and 5 are given here.

Case 11. On the afternoon of July 7, 1874, Clemens, engineer, being on

his way, on business, from Trieste to Vienna, left the train at the

town of Bruck, and, passing through the town to the neighboring

village of St. Ruprecht, attempted a rape on an old woman, aged 70,

whom he found alone in a house. He was seized by the neighbors and

arrested by the local police. At his hearing he declared that he had

tried to find the pound, in order to satisfy his sexual desire with a

bitch. He said that he often suffered with such sexual excitement. He

did not deny his act, but excused it as the result of disease. The

heat, the motion of the cars, and anxiety about his family, to which

he wished to go, had confused him and made him ill. Shame and remorse

were not shown. His conduct was open, his mien gay; eyes red and

bright, head hot, tongue coated; pulse full, soft, beating over 100;

fingers somewhat tremulous. The statements of the accused were

precise, but hurried; his glance uncertain, and with an unmistakable

expression of lasciviousness. To the medical expert summoned to

examine him, he gave the impression of one suffering with disease,—as

if he were in the beginning of alcoholic insanity.

C. is forty-five years old, married, father of one child. He does not

know what diseases his parents or other members of his family have

had. In childhood he was weak and neuropathic. At the age of five his

head was injured by a blow with a hoe. A scar one-half cm. broad by

one cm. long, situated on the right parietal and frontal bones, dates

from that injury. The bone is here somewhat depressed. The overlying

skin is united to the bone. Pressure at this point causes pain, which

radiates along the lower branch of the trigeminus. This spot is also

frequently spontaneously painful. In his youth he had frequent attacks

of “fainting”; before puberty, pneumonia, rheumatism, and intestinal

catarrh. At the age of seven he experienced a peculiar inclination for

men,—_i.e._, for a certain superior. Whenever he saw this man he had a

peculiar feeling in his heart; kissed the ground he walked on. At ten

he fell in love with a certain deputy. Later he had an enthusiasm for

men, though it was entirely platonic. He began to masturbate at the

age of fourteen; first intercourse at seventeen. Then the earlier

manifestations of contrary sexual feeling disappeared entirely. At

that time he passed through a peculiar acute psychopathic condition,

which he described as a kind of clairvoyance. From fifteen,

hæmorrhoids, with symptoms of plethora abdominalis. When he had

profuse hæmorrhoidal hæmorrhage, which occurred usually every three or

four weeks, he was better. At other times he was constantly in a

condition of painful sexual excitement, which he satisfied partly by

means of onanism and partly by coitus. Every woman he met excited him;

even when he was among female relatives he was impelled to make

indecent proposals. Sometimes it was possible for him to master his

desire; sometimes he was driven to indecent acts. If, after these, he

was kicked out-of-doors, it seemed perfectly right to him; for he

thought that he needed such correction and support against his

powerful impulse, which was a burden to him. No periodicity in this

sexual excitement was recognizable.

Until 1861 he committed excesses in venery and was several times

infected with gonorrhœa and chancres. In 1861, marriage. He was

sexually satisfied, but became a burden to his wife on account of his

great sensuality. In 1864 he passed through an attack of mania in the

hospital at Fiume, and in the same year he again fell ill, and was

taken to the insane asylum at Ybbs, where he remained until 1867.

There he suffered with recurrent mania accompanied by great sexual

excitement. He says that intestinal catarrh and anxiety were the cause

of his illness at that time.

Thereafter he was well, but he suffered much on account of his

excessive sexual desire. If he were absent from his wife but a short

time, the impulse became so powerful that man or animal was

indifferent to him for the satisfaction of his lust. In summer these

impulses were much stronger, and were always accompanied by abdominal

plethora. Something that he remembered in medical reading, made him

think that in his case the ganglionic system was more powerful than

the cerebral. In October, 1873, on account of business, he had to

leave his wife. From that time until Easter, with the exception of

occasional masturbation, there was no sexual indulgence. After that he

made use of women and bitches. From the middle of June until July 7,

he had no opportunity for sexual indulgence. He felt nervously

excited, relaxed, and as if he were going crazy. Of late he had slept

badly. A longing for his wife, who lived in Vienna, drove him to leave

his business. He obtained leave of absence. The heat and the noise of

the train confused him, and he could no longer hold out against his

sexual excitement and the pressure of blood in his abdomen. Everything

danced before his eyes. He left the car at Bruck, and was absolutely

confused, not knowing where he went; and for a moment the thought came

to him to throw himself in the water; all was like a mist before his

eyes. Then he saw a woman, exposed his genitals, and tried to embrace

her. She cried for help, and thus he was arrested.

After the attempt it suddenly became clear to him what he had done. He

openly confessed his crime, which he remembered in all its details,

but which seemed to him to be something abnormal. He could not help

it. For some days after this, C. suffered with headache and

congestions, and was now and then excited and restless, and slept

badly. His mental functions are undisturbed, but he is, nevertheless,

a congenitally peculiar man, with a character weak and devoid of

energy. The facial expression has something lascivious and peculiar

about it. He suffers with hæmorrhoids. The genitals present nothing

abnormal. The cranium is narrow and retreating at the forehead. Body

large and well nourished. With the exception of diarrhœa, there is no

disturbance of the vegetative functions.

Case 12. Mrs. E., aged 47. Uncle on father’s side was insane; father

was sanguine, and given to excess in venery. Patient’s brother died of

an acute cerebral affection. Patient from childhood has been nervous,

eccentric, and romantic; and while little more than a child manifested

excessive sexual desire, and at ten began sexual indulgence. At

nineteen, marriage. Unhappy married life; her husband, who was normal,

did not satisfy her, and until recent years she constantly had other

friends besides her husband. She was well aware of the immorality of

her life, but felt her powerlessness against her insatiable desire,

which she sought to keep, at least outwardly, a secret. Later she

thought that she had suffered with a “mania for men.” Patient has

borne six children. Six years ago she was thrown from a wagon and

received a severe cerebral concussion. Following this there was

melancholia, with delusions of persecution, which sent her to the

asylum. She is approaching the climacterium, and of late the menses

have been profuse and too frequent. Since this period she is pleased

to note that the previously powerful sexual impulse has declined.

Proper behavior. Slight degree of descensus uteri and prolapsus ani.

Hyperæsthesia sexualis may be continuously present with exacerbations,

or it may be intermittent or periodic. In the latter case it is a

cerebral neurosis _per se_ (_vide_ “Special Pathology”), or an

accompanying symptom of a condition of general psychical excitement

(mania; episodically in dementia paralytica, dementia senilis, etc.).

Lentz has published a remarkable case of intermittent satyriasis

(_Bulletin de la société de méd. légale de Belgique_, Nr. 21):—

Case 13. For three years the generally respected farmer D., married,

aged 35, has manifested states of sexual excitement, with increasing

frequency and severity, which, during the past year, have become true

paroxysms of satyriasis. It was impossible to discover hereditary or

other organic cause. D. was compelled, at times when his sexual

excitement was excessive, to perform the sexual act from ten to

fifteen times in twenty-four hours, without deriving any feeling of

satisfaction. Gradually he developed a condition of general nervous

hyper-irritability (_éréthisme général_) with increased emotional

irritability to the extent of pathological outbreaks of anger, and

impulse to over-indulgence in alcohol, which induced symptoms of

alcoholism. His attacks of satyriasis became so violent that

consciousness was interfered with, and the patient raged about in

blind impulse to sexual acts. He demanded that his wife give herself

to other men or to animals in his presence; that she allow copulation

with him, _presentibus filiabus_, because this would afford him

greater enjoyment. Memory for the events at the height of these

attacks, in which the extreme irritability even led to outbreaks of

maniacal rage, was entirely wanting. D. himself thought that he must

have had moments in which he no longer had control of his senses, and

without satisfaction from his wife would have been compelled to seize

the next best female. After an attack of violent emotion, these

attacks of sexual excitement suddenly disappeared entirely.

The two following cases show how powerful, dangerous, and painful sexual

hyperæsthesia may become in those afflicted with this anomaly:—

Case 14. _Hyperæsthesia Sexualis_—_Delirium Acutum ex Abstinentia._—On

May 29, 1882, F., aged 29, single, shoemaker, was received at the

clinic. Father was of passionate temper; mother neuropathic, and had

an insane brother. Patient had never been seriously ill previously,

and was not a drinker, but had always been sexually very passionate.

Five days before, he was taken acutely ill mentally. He made two

attempts at rape in broad daylight, before witnesses, and when

arrested talked in delirium only of obscene things, and masturbated

without stint, and for three days had been raving mad. On admission he

presented the picture of a severe acute delirium, with violent motor

symptoms of irritation, and fever. Under treatment with ergotin a cure

was effected.

On January 5, 1888, second admission, in a state of violent mania. On

January 4, he had become morose, irritable, whining, and sleepless;

and then, after vain assaults on women, had manifested symptoms of

increasing angry excitement.

On January 6, progress of the condition to severe acute delirium

(great disturbance of consciousness, jactation, grinding of the teeth,

grimacing, and other motor symptoms of irritation; temperature as high

as 40.7° C.); impulsive masturbation. Recovery was complete by January

11, under energetic treatment with ergotin.

After his recovery the patient gives an interesting account of the

cause of his illness. Always very passionate sexually; first coitus at

the age of sixteen. Continence caused headache, great psychical

irritability, lassitude, great loss of pleasure in work, and

sleeplessness. Since he had few opportunities in the country to

satisfy his desire, he had recourse to masturbation. It was necessary

for him to masturbate once or twice daily. No coitus in two months.

Increasing sexual excitement; could think of nothing save means for

the gratification of his impulse. Masturbation was not sufficient to

banish the constantly increasing torment _ex abstinentia_. During the

last four days violent impulse to coitus; increasing sleeplessness and

irritability. There was only a summary recollection of the height of

the illness. Patient recovered in December. A very respectable man; he

considers his inordinate desire decidedly pathological, and is anxious

about his future.

Case 15. On July 11, 1884, R., aged 33, servant, was admitted

suffering with paranoia persecutoria and neurasthenia sexualis. Mother

was neuropathic; father died of spinal disease. From childhood he had

an intense sexual desire, of which he became conscious as early as his

sixth year. From this age, masturbation; from fifteenth year, _faute

de mieux_, pederasty; occasionally, sodomitic indulgences. Later,

abusus coitus in marriage cum uxore. Now and then even perverse

impulse to commit cunnilingus and to administer cantharides to his

wife, because her libido did not equal his own. His wife died after a

short period of married life. Patient’s circumstances became

straightened, and he had no means to indulge himself sexually. Then

masturbation again; employment of lingua canis to induce ejaculation.

At times, priapism and conditions approaching satyriasis. He was then

driven to masturbate, in order not to become stuporous. Beneficial

diminution of the libido nimia, with the gradually predominating

sexual neurasthenia and hypochondria.

The following case, valuable for an understanding of many Messalinas,

some of whom are historically celebrated, is a classical example of pure

hyperæsthesia sexualis, which I take from Trelat’s “Folie lucide”:—

Case 16. Mrs. V. has suffered with a passion for men since her

earliest youth. Of good family, well bred, of pleasant disposition,

exceedingly modest, she was, as a little girl, a terror to her family,

because she could scarcely be alone with a person of the opposite sex,

no matter whether it was with child or man of any age, without

exposing herself immediately and demanding satisfaction for her sexual

passion, even going so far as to lay hold of him. An attempt was made

to cure her by marriage. She loved her husband passionately, but even

with him she could not keep from demanding coitus of every one with

whom she could be alone, no matter whether it was servant, laborer, or

school-boy.

Nothing could cure her of this impulse. Even when she became a

grandmother, she was still a Messalina. One day she locked a

twelve-year-old boy in her room and tried to seduce him. The boy

defended himself and escaped. She was severely punished by his

brother. All was in vain. She was put in a cloister. There she was an

example of morality, and gave not the slightest cause for blame.

Immediately after her return the scandal began again. The family

banished her, and set aside money to support her. She earned by her

own hand-work enough to buy herself lovers. Any one seeing this neatly

dressed matron, of good manners and amiable disposition, would never

suspect how recklessly passionate she still was at the age of

sixty-five. On January 7, 1854, her family, in despair at new

scandals, placed her in an asylum. She lived there until May, 1858,

when she died of apoplexia cerebri, in her seventy-third year. Her

conduct in the asylum was exemplary. Left to herself, and under

favorable conditions, her sexual impulses manifested themselves

shortly before her death. With the exception of this, during an

observation of four years by physicians of the asylum, she never

showed a sign of mental abnormality.

D. PARÆSTHESIA OF SEXUAL FEELING (PERVERSION OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT).

In this condition there is perverse emotional coloring of the sexual

ideas. Ideas physiologically and psychologically accompanied by feelings

of disgust, give rise to pleasurable sexual feelings; and the abnormal

association finds expression in passionate, uncontrollable emotion. The

practical results are perverse acts (perversion of the sexual instinct).

This is more easily the case if the pleasurable feelings, increased to

passionate intensity, inhibit any opposing ideas with corresponding

feelings of disgust; or the influence of such opposing concepts may be

impossible on account of the absence or loss of all ideas of morality,

æsthetics, and law. This loss, however, is only too frequently found

where the spring of ethical ideas and feelings (a normal sexual

instinct) has been poisoned from the beginning.

With opportunity for the natural satisfaction of the sexual instinct,

every expression of it that does not correspond with the purpose of

nature,—_i.e._, propagation,—must be regarded as perverse. The perverse

sexual acts resulting from paræsthesia are of the greatest importance

clinically, socially, and forensically; and, therefore, they must here

receive careful consideration; all æsthetic and polite disgust must be

overcome.

Perversion of the sexual instinct, as will be seen from what follows, is

not to be confounded with perversity in the sexual act; since the latter

may be induced by conditions which are not psychopathology. The concrete

perverse act, monstrous as it may be, is not decisive. In order to

differentiate between disease (perversion) and vice (perversity), one

must investigate the whole personality of the individual and the

original impulse leading to the perverse act. Therein will be found the

key of diagnosis (_v. infra_).

Paræsthesia may occur in combination with hyperæsthesia. This

association seems to be frequent clinically. Sexual acts are then

confidently to be expected. The perverse direction of sexual activity

may be toward sexual satisfaction with the opposite or the same sex.

Thus two great groups of perversions of the sexual life may be

distinguished.

_1. Sexual Inclination toward Persons of the Opposite Sex, with Perverse

Activity of the Instinct._

1. _Association of Active Cruelty and Violence with

Lust_—_Sadism._[40]—That lust and cruelty frequently occur together is a

fact that has long been recognized and not infrequently observed.

Writers of all kinds have called attention to this phenomenon.[41] The

not infrequent cases where individuals of very excitable sexual natures

bite or scratch the companion in intercourse fall within physiological

limits.[42] The older authors have called attention to the relation

between lust and cruelty.

Blumröder (“Ueber Irresein,” Leipzig, 1836, p. 51) saw a man who had

several wounds bitten into the pectoral muscle, which a woman, in

great sexual excitement, had given him at the acme of lustful feeling

during coitus. Blumröder (“Ueber Lust und Schmerz,” Friedreich’s

_Magazin für Seelenkunde_, 1830, ii, 5) calls especial attention to

the psychological connection between lust and murder. In relation to

this, he especially refers to the Indian myths of Siva and Durga

(Death and Lust); to human sacrifice with sensual mysteries; and to

sexual instinct at puberty with a lustful impulse to suicide, with

whipping, pinching, and pricking of the genitals, in the blind impulse

to satisfy sexual desire. Lombroso (“Verzeni e Agnoletti,” Rome, 1874)

also cites numerous examples of the occurrence of a desire to murder

with greatly increased lust.

On the other hand, when murderous lust has been excited, lust itself

often follows. Lombroso (_op. cit._) alludes to the fact, mentioned by

Mantegazza, that, with fear of being plundered by bandits, there was

always a dread of brutal lust.[43] These examples form transitions to

the pronounced pathological cases.

The examples of the degenerate Cæsars (Nero, Tiberius) are also

instructive. They took delight in having youths and maidens

slaughtered before their eyes. Not less so is the history of that

monster, Marschalls Gilles de Rays (Jacob, “Curiosités de l’histoire

de France,” Paris, 1858), who was executed in 1440, on account of

mutilation and murder, which he had practiced for eight years on more

than eight hundred children. As the monster confessed it, it was from

reading Suetonius and the descriptions of the orgies of Tiberius,

Caracalla, etc., that the idea was gained of locking children in his

castles, torturing them, and then killing them. This inhuman wretch

confessed that in the commission of these acts he enjoyed

inexpressible pleasure. He had two assistants. The bodies of the

unfortunate children were burned, and only a number of heads of

particularly beautiful children were preserved—as memorials.

In an attempt to explain the association of lust and cruelty, it is

necessary to return to a consideration of the quasi-physiological cases,

in which, at the moment of most intense lust, very excitable

individuals, who are otherwise normal, commit such acts as biting and

scratching, which are usually the result of anger. It must further be

remembered that love and anger are not only the most intense emotions,

but also the only two forms of active (sthenic) emotion. Both seek their

object, try to possess themselves of it, and naturally exhaust

themselves in a physical effect on it; both throw the psycho-motor

sphere into the most intense excitement, and thus, by means of this

excitation, reach their normal expression.

From this stand-point it is clear how lust impels to acts that otherwise

are expressive of anger.[44] The one, like the other, is a state of

exaltation, an intense excitation of the whole psycho-motor sphere. Thus

there arises an impulse to react on the object that induces the

stimulus, in every possible way, and with the greatest intensity. Just

as maniacal exaltation easily passes to furibund destructiveness,

exaltation of the sexual emotion often induces an impulse to expend

itself in senseless and apparently harmful acts. To a certain extent

these are psychical accompaniments; but it is not simply an unconscious

excitation of innervation of muscles (which also sometimes occurs as

blind violence); it is a true hyperbulia, a desire to exert the most

intense effect on the individual giving rise to the stimulus. The most

intense means, however, is the infliction of pain.

Through such cases of infliction of pain, during the most intense

emotion of lust, we approach the cases in which a real injury, wound, or

death, is inflicted on the victim.[45] In these cases, the impulse to

cruelty, which may accompany the emotion of lust, becomes unbounded in a

psychopathic individual; and, at the same time, owing to defect of moral

feeling, all normal inhibitory ideas are absent or weakened. Such

monstrous, sadistic acts have, however, in men, in whom they are much

more frequent than in women, another source in physiological conditions.

In the intercourse of the sexes, the active or aggressive _rôle_ belongs

to man; woman remains passive, defensive.[46] It affords a man great

pleasure to win a woman, to conquer her; and in the _ars amandi_, the

modesty of a woman who keeps herself on the defensive until the moment

of surrender, is an element of great psychological significance and

importance. Under normal conditions a man meets obstacles which it is

his part to overcome, and for which nature has given him an aggressive

character. This aggressive character, however, under pathological

conditions, may likewise be excessively developed, and express itself in

an impulse to subdue absolutely the object of desire, even to destroy or

kill it.[47][48]

If both these constituent elements occur together,—the abnormally

intensified impulse to a violent reaction toward the object of the

stimulus, and the abnormally intensified desire to conquer the

woman,—then the most violent outbreaks of sadism occur.

Sadism is thus nothing else than an excessive and monstrous pathological

intensification of phenomena,—possible, too, in normal conditions in

rudimental forms,—which accompany the psychical vita sexualis,

particularly in males. It is, of course, not at all necessary, and not

even the rule, that the sadistic individual should be conscious of his

instinct. What he feels is, as a rule, only the impulse to cruel and

violent treatment of the opposite sex, and the coloring of the idea of

such acts with lustful feelings. Thus arises a powerful impulse to

commit the imagined deeds. When the actual motive of this instinct is

not comprehended by the individual, the sadistic acts have the character

of impulsive deeds.

When the association of lust and cruelty is present, not only does the

lustful emotion awaken the impulse to cruelty, but _vice versâ_; cruel

ideas and acts cause sexual excitement, and in this way are used by

perverse individuals.[49]

A differentiation of original and acquired cases of sadism is scarcely

possible. Many individuals, tainted _ab origine_, for a long time do

everything to conquer the perverse instinct. If they are potent, at

first they are able to lead a normal vita sexualis, often with the

assistance of subjective ideas of a perverse nature. Later, after the

opposing motives of an ethical and æsthetic kind have been gradually

overcome, and after the constantly repeated experience that the natural

act does not bring complete satisfaction, the abnormal instinct bursts

forth. Owing to this late expression, in acts, of an originally perverse

disposition, the appearances are those of an acquired perversion. As a

rule, it may be safely assumed that this psychopathic state exists _ab

origine_.

Sadistic acts vary in monstrousness with variation in the power of the

perverse instinct over the individual afflicted, and with variation in

the strength of opposing ideas that may be present, which almost always

are more or less weakened by original ethical defect, hereditary

degeneracy, or moral insanity. Thus there arises a long series of forms

which begins with capital crime and ends with silly acts which afford

the perverse desires of the sadistic individual merely symbolic

satisfaction.

Sadistic acts may be further differentiated with reference to their

nature: either as they are indulged in after consummated coitus by which

the libido nimia remains unsatisfied; or, with diminished virility, as

they are used to stimulate the diminished power; or, finally, where

virility is absolutely wanting, as they become an equivalent for the

impossible coitus, for the induction of ejaculation. In the last two

cases, notwithstanding the impotence, there is still intense libido; or

there was, at least, intense libido in the individual at the time when

the sadistic acts became habitual. Sexual hyperæsthesia is always to be

regarded as the basis of sadistic inclinations. The impotence which

occurs so frequently in the psychopathic and neuropathic individuals

here considered, as a result of excesses indulged in from early youth,

is usually dependent upon spinal weakness. Often, too, there is a kind

of psychical impotence, induced by concentration of thought on the

perverse act with simultaneous fading of the idea of normal

satisfaction. No matter what the external form of the act may be, the

mentally perverse predisposition and instinct of the individual are

essential to an understanding of it.

(a) _Lust-Murder_[50] (_Lust Potentiated as Cruelty, Murderous Lust

Extending to Anthropophagy_).—The most horrible example, and one which

most pointedly shows the connection between lust and a desire to kill,

is the case of Andreas Bichel, which Feuerbach published in his

“aktenmässige Darstellung merkwürdiger Verbrechen.”

B. puellas stupratas necavit et dissecuit. With reference to one of

his victims, at his examination he expressed himself as follows: “I

opened her breast and with a knife cut through the fleshy parts of the

body. Then I arranged the body as a butcher does a beef, and hacked it

with an axe into pieces of a size to fit the hole which I had prepared

up in the mountain for burying it. I may say that while opening the

body I was so greedy that I trembled, and could have cut out a piece

and eaten it.”

Lombroso, too (“Geschlechtstrieb und Verbrechen in ihren gegenseitigen

Beziehungen.” Goltdammer’s _Archiv_, Bd. xxx), mentions cases falling

in the same category. A certain Phillipe indulged in choking

prostitutes, post-actum, and said: “I am fond of women, but it is

sport for me to choke them after having enjoyed them.”

A certain Grassi (Lombroso, _op. cit._, p. 12) was one night seized

with sexual desire for a relative. Irritated by her remonstrance, he

stabbed her several times in the abdomen with a knife, and also

stabbed her father and uncle who attempted to hold him back.

Immediately thereafter he hastened to visit a prostitute in order to

cool his sexual passion in her arms. But this was not sufficient. He

then murdered his father and slaughtered several oxen in the stable.

It cannot be doubted, from what has gone before, that a great number of

so-called lust-murders depend upon a combination of hyperæsthesia and

paræsthesia sexualis. As a result of this perverse coloring of the

feelings, further acts of bestiality with the body may result,—_e.g._,

cutting it up and wallowing in the intestines. The case of Bichel points

to this possibility.

A modern example is that of Menesclou (_Annales d’hygiène publique_),

who was examined by Lasègue, Brouardel, and Motet, declared to be

mentally sound, and executed.

Case 17. A four-year-old girl was missing from her parents’ home,

April 15, 1880. On April 16th, Menesclou, one of the occupants of the

house, was arrested. The forearm of the child was found in his pocket,

and the head and entrails, in a half-burned condition, were taken from

the stove. Parts of the body were found in the water-closet. The

genitals could not be found. M., when asked their whereabouts, became

embarrassed. The circumstances, as well as an obscene poem found on

his person, left no doubt that he had violated the child and then

murdered her. M. expressed no remorse, asserting that his deed was an

accident. His intelligence is limited. He presents no anatomical signs

of degeneration; is somewhat deaf, and scrofulous.

M., aged 20; convulsions at the age of nine months. Later, he suffered

from poor sleep (enuresis nocturna); was nervous, and developed

tardily and imperfectly. From the time of puberty he was irritable,

showed evil inclinations; was lazy; could not be taught, and in all

trades proved, to be of no use. He grew no better even in the House of

Correction. He was made a marine, but there, too, he proved useless.

When he returned home he stole from his parents, and spent his time in

bad company. He did not run after women, but gave himself up

passionately to masturbation, and occasionally indulged in sodomy with

bitches. His mother suffered with mania menstrualis periodica. An

uncle was insane, and another an inebriate. The examination of M.’s

brain showed morbid changes of the frontal lobes, of the first and

second temporal convolutions, and of a part of the occipital

convolutions.

Case 18. Alton, a clerk in England, goes out of town for a walk. He

lures a child into a thicket, and returns after a time to his office,

where he makes this entry in his note-book: “Killed to-day a young

girl; it was fine and hot.” The child was missed, searched for, and

found cut into pieces. Many parts, and among them the genitals, could

not be found. A. did not show the slightest trace of emotion, and gave

no explanation of the motive or circumstances of his horrible deed. He

was a psychopathic individual, and occasionally subject to states of

depression with tædium vitæ. His father had had one attack of acute

mania. A near relative suffered from mania with homicidal impulses. A.

was executed.

In such cases it may even happen that appetite for the flesh of the

murdered victim arises, and, in consequence of this perverse coloring of

the idea, parts of the body may be eaten.

Case 19. Leger, vine-dresser, aged 24. From youth moody, silent, shy

of people. He starts out in search of a situation. He wanders about

eight days in the forest, there catches a girl twelve years old,

violates her, mutilates her genitals, tears out her heart, eats of it,

drinks the blood, and buries the remains. Arrested, at first he lied,

but finally confessed his crime with cynical cold-bloodedness. He

listened to his sentence of death with indifference, and was executed.

At the post-mortem examination, Esquirol found morbid adhesions

between the cerebral membranes and the brain (Gorget, “Darstellung der

Prozesse Leger, Feldtmann,” etc., Darmstadt, 1827).

Case 20. Tirsch, hospital beneficiary of Prag, aged 55, always silent,

peculiar, coarse, very irritable, grumbling, revengeful, was sentenced

to twenty years’ imprisonment, on account of violating a girl ten

years old. He had attracted attention on account of outbursts of anger

from insignificant causes, and also on account of tædium vitæ. In

1864, on account of the refusal of an offer of marriage which he made

to a widow, he developed a hatred toward women, and on July 8th he

went about with the intention of killing one of this hated sex.

Vetulam occurentem in silvam allexit, coitum poposcit, renitentem

prostravit, jugulum feminæ compressit “furore captus.” Cadaver virga

betulæ desecta verberare voluit neque tamen id perfecit, quia

conscientia sua hæc fieri vetuit, cultello mammae et genitalia desecta

domi cocta proximis diebus cum globis comedit. On September 12th, when

he was arrested, the remains of this meal were found. He gave as the

motive of this act “inner impulse.” He himself wished to be executed

because he had always been persecuted. In confinement there were great

emotional irritability and occasional outbursts of fury, preceded by

refusal of food, which made isolation, lasting several days,

necessary. It was authoritatively established that the most of his

earlier excesses were coincident with outbreaks of excitement and fury

(Maschka, _Prager Vierteljahrsschrift_, 1866, i, p. 79).

The Whitechapel murderer, who still eludes the vigilance of the police,

probably belongs in this category of psycho-sexual monsters.[51] The

constant absence of uterus, ovaries, and labia, in the victims (ten) of

this modern Bluebeard, allows the presumption that he seeks and finds

still further satisfaction in anthropophagy.

In other cases of lust-murder, for physical and mental reasons (_vide

supra_), violation is omitted, and the sadistic crime alone becomes the

equivalent of coitus. The prototype of such cases is the following one

of Verzeni. The life of his victim hung on the rapid or retarded

occurrence of ejaculation. Since this remarkable case presents all the

peculiarities which modern science knows concerning the relation of lust

to lust-murder with anthropophagy, and especially since it was carefully

studied, it receives detailed description here:—

Case 21. Vincenz Verzeni, born in 1849; since January 11, 1872, in

prison; is accused (1) of an attempt to strangle his nurse Marianne,

four years ago, while she lay sick in bed; (2) of a similar attempt on

a married woman, Arsuffi, aged 27; (3) of an attempt to strangle a

married woman, Gala, by grasping her throat while kneeling on her

body; (4) on suspicion of the following murders:—

In December a fourteen-year-old girl, Johanna Motta, set out for a

neighboring village between seven and eight o’clock in the morning.

Since she did not return, her master set out to find her, and

discovered her body near the village, lying by a path in the fields.

The corpse was frightfully mutilated with numerous wounds. The

intestines and genitals had been torn from the opened body, and were

found near by. The nakedness of the body and erosions on the thighs

made it seem probable that there had been an attempt at rape; the

mouth filled with earth pointed to suffocation. In the neighborhood of

the body, under a pile of straw, were found a portion of flesh torn

from the right calf, and pieces of clothing. The perpetrator of the

deed remained undiscovered.

On August 28, 1871, a married woman, Frigeni, aged 28, set out in the

fields early in the morning. Since she did not return by eight

o’clock, her husband started out to fetch her. He found her a corpse,

lying naked in the field, with the mark of a thong around her neck,

with which she had been strangled, and with numerous wounds. The

abdomen had been slit open, and the intestines were hanging out.

On August 29, at noon, as Maria Previtali, aged 19, went through a

field, she was followed by her cousin, Verzeni. He dragged her into a

field of grain, threw her to the ground, and began to choke her. As he

let go of her for a moment to ascertain whether there were any one

near, the girl got up and, by her supplicating entreaty, induced

Verzeni to let her go, after he had pressed her hands together for

some time.

Verzeni was brought before a court. He is twenty-two years old. His

cranium is of more than average size, but asymmetrical. The right

frontal bone is narrower and lower than the left, the right frontal

prominence being less developed, and the right ear smaller than the

left (by 1 centimetre in length and 3 centimetres in breadth); both

ears are defective in the inferior half of the helix; the right

temporal artery is somewhat atheromatous. Bull-necked; enormous

development of the zygomæ and inferior maxilla; penis greatly

developed, frænum wanting; slight divergent alternating strabismus

(insufficiency of the internal rectus muscle, and myopia). Lombroso

concludes, from these signs of degeneration, that there is a

congenital arrest of development of the right frontal lobe. As seemed

probable, Verzeni has a bad ancestry,—two uncles are cretins; a third,

microcephalic, beardless, one testicle wanting, the other atrophic.

The father shows traces of pellagrous degeneration, and had an attack

of hypochondria pellagrosa. A cousin suffered from cerebral hyperæmia;

another is a confirmed thief.

Verzeni’s family is bigoted and low-minded. He himself has ordinary

intelligence; knows how to defend himself well; seeks to prove an

alibi and cast suspicion on others. There is nothing in his past that

points to mental disease, but his character is peculiar. He is silent

and inclined to be solitary. In prison he is cynical. He masturbates,

and makes every effort to gain sight of women.

Verzeni finally confessed his deeds and their motive. The commission

of them gave him an indescribably pleasant (lustful) feeling, which

was accompanied by erection and ejaculation. As soon as he had grasped

his victim by the neck, sexual sensations were experienced. It was

entirely the same to him, with reference to these sensations, whether

the women were old, young, ugly, or beautiful. Usually, simply choking

them had satisfied him, and he then had allowed his victims to live;

in the two cases mentioned, the sexual satisfaction was delayed, and

he had continued to choke them until they died. His satisfaction in

this garroting was greater than in masturbation. The abrasions of the

skin on Motta’s thighs were produced by his teeth, while sucking her

blood in most intense lustful pleasure. He had torn out a piece of

flesh from her calf and taken it with him to roast at home; but on the

way he hid it under the straw-stack, for fear his mother would suspect

him. He also carried pieces of the clothing and intestines some

distance, because it gave him great pleasure to smell and touch them.

The strength which he possessed in these moments of intense lustful

pleasure, was enormous. He had never been a fool; while committing his

deeds he saw nothing around him (apparently as a result of intense

sexual excitement, annihilation of apperception—instinctive action).

After such acts he was always very happy, enjoying a feeling of great

satisfaction. He had never had pangs of conscience. It had never

occurred to him to touch the genitals of the martyred women, or to

violate his victims. It had satisfied him to throttle them and suck

their blood. These statements of this modern vampire seem to rest on

truth. Normal sexual impulses seem to have remained foreign to him.

Two sweethearts that he had, he was satisfied to look at; it was very

strange to him that he had no inclinations to strangle them or press

their hands; but he had not had the same pleasure with them as with

his victims. There was no trace of moral sense,—remorse and the like.

Verzeni said himself that it would be a good thing if he were to be

kept in prison, because with freedom he could not resist his impulses.

Verzeni was sentenced to imprisonment for life (Lombroso, “Verzeni e

Agnoletti,” Rome, 1873). The confessions which Verzeni made after, his

sentence, are interesting:—

“I had an unspeakable delight in strangling women, experiencing during

the act erections and real sexual pleasure. It was even a pleasure

only to smell female clothing. The feeling of pleasure while

strangling them was much greater than that which I experienced while

masturbating. I took great delight in drinking Motta’s blood. It also

gave me the greatest pleasure to pull the hair-pins out of the hair of

my victims.

“I took the clothing and intestines, because of the pleasure it gave

me to smell and touch them. At last my mother came to suspect me,

because she noticed spots of semen on my shirt after each murder or

attempt at one. I am not crazy, but in the moment of strangling my

victims I saw nothing else. After the commission of the deeds I was

satisfied and felt well. It never occurred to me to touch or look at

the genitals or such things. It satisfied me to seize the women by the

neck and suck their blood. To this very day I am ignorant of how a

woman is formed. During the strangling and after it, I pressed myself

on the entire body without thinking of one part more than another.”

Verzeni arrived at his perverse acts entirely independently, after

having noticed, when he was twelve years old, that he experienced a

peculiar feeling of pleasure while wringing the necks of chickens.

After this he had often killed great numbers of them, and then said

that a weasel had been in the hen-coop (Lombroso, Goltdammer’s

_Archiv_, Bd. xxx, p. 13).

Lombroso mentions an analogous case (Goldtdammer’s _Archiv_) which

occurred in Vittoria (Spain):—

Case 22. A certain Gruyo, aged 41, with a blameless past life, having

been three times married, strangled six women in the course of ten

years. They were almost all public prostitutes and quite old. After

the strangling he tore out their intestines and kidneys per vaginam.

Some of his victims he violated before killing, others, on account of

the occurrence of impotence, he did not. He set about his horrible

deeds with such care that he remained undetected for ten years.

(b) _Mutilation of Corpses._—Following the preceding horrible group of

perversions of the sexual instinct, which arise from hyperæsthesia and

paræsthesia sexualis with retained virility, come naturally the

necrophiles; for in these cases, just as with lustful murderers and

analogous cases, an idea which in itself awakens a feeling of horror,

and before which a healthy person would shudder, is accompanied by

lustful feelings, and thus leads to the impulse to indulge in acts of

necrophilia.

The cases of mutilation of bodies mentioned in literature seem to be

pathological; but, with the exception of the celebrated one of Sergeant

Bertrand (_v. infra_), they come far from being described and observed

with exactness. In certain cases there may be nothing more than the

possibility that unbridled desire sees in the idea of death no obstacle

to its satisfaction. The seventh case mentioned by Moreau is perhaps

such a one:—

A man, aged 23, attempted to rape a woman, aged 53. Struggling, he

killed her and then violated her, threw her in the water, and fished

her out again for renewed violation. The murderer was executed. The

meninges of the anterior lobes were thickened and adherent to the

cortex.

French writers have recorded numerous examples of necrophilia. Two

cases concerned monks, where they were performing the watch for the

dead. In a third case the subject was an idiot, who also suffered from

periodical mania, and after commission of rape was sent to an insane

asylum, and there mutilated female bodies in the mortuary.

In other cases, however, there is undoubtedly direct preference of a

corpse to the living woman. When no other act of cruelty—cutting into

pieces, etc.—is practiced on the cadaver, it is probable that the

lifeless condition itself forms the stimulus for the perverse

individual. It is possible that the corpse—a human form absolutely

without will—satisfies an abnormal desire, in that the object of desire

is seen to be capable of absolute subjugation, without possibility of

resistance.

Brierre de Boismont (_Gazette médicale_, July 21, 1859) relates the

history of a corpse-violator who, after bribing the watchman, had

gained entrance to the corpse of a girl of sixteen, who belonged to a

family of high social position. At night a noise was heard in the

death-chamber, as if a piece of furniture had fallen over. The mother

of the dead girl effected an entrance, and saw a man dressed in his

night-shirt springing from the bed where the body lay. It was at first

thought that the man was a thief, but the real explanation was soon

discovered. It was afterward ascertained that the culprit, a man of

good family, had often violated the bodies of young women. He was

sentenced to imprisonment for life.

The story of a prelate, reported by Taxil (“La prostitution

contemporaine,” p. 171), is of great interest as an example of

necrophilia. From time to time he would visit houses of prostitution in

Paris and order a prostitute, dressed in white like a corpse, to be laid

out on a bed. At the appointed hour he would appear in the room, which,

in the meantime, had been elaborately prepared as a room of mourning;

then he would act as if reading a mass for the soul, and finally throw

himself on the girl, who, during the whole time, was compelled to play

the _rôle_ of a corpse.[52]

The cases in which the perpetrator injures and cuts up the corpse are

clearer. Such cases come next to those of lust-murder, in that, in these

individuals, cruelty, or at least an impulse to attack the female body,

is connected with lust. It is possible that a remnant of moral sense

deters from the cruel act on a living woman, and possibly the fancy

passes beyond lust-murder and rests on its result, the corpse. Here,

also, it is possible that the idea of defenselessness of the body plays

a _rôle_.

Case 23. Sergeant Bertrand, a man of delicate physical constitution

and of peculiar character; from childhood silent and inclined to

solitude.

The details of the health of his family are not satisfactorily known;

but the occurrence of mental diseases in his ancestry is ascertained.

It is said that while he was a child he was affected with destructive

impulses, which he himself could not explain. He would break whatever

was at hand. In early childhood, without teaching, he learned to

masturbate. At nine he began to feel inclinations toward persons of

the opposite sex. At thirteen the impulse to sexual intercourse became

powerfully awakened in him. He now masturbated excessively. When he

did this his fancy always created a room filled with women. He would

imagine that he carried out the sexual act with them, and then killed

them. Immediately thereafter he would think of them as corpses, and of

how he defiled them. Occasionally, in such situations, the thought of

carrying out a similar act with male corpses would come up, but it was

always attended with a feeling of disgust.

In time he felt the impulse to carry out such acts with actual

corpses. For want of human bodies, he obtained those of animals. He

would cut open the abdomen, tear out the entrails, and masturbate

during the act. He declares that in this way he experienced

inexpressible pleasure. In 1846 these bodies no longer satisfied him.

He now killed dogs, and proceeded with them as before. Toward the end

of 1846 he first felt the desire to make use of human bodies. At first

he had a horror of it. In 1847, being by accident in a grave-yard, he

ran across the grave of a newly-buried corpse. Then this impulse, with

headache and palpitation of the heart, became so powerful that,

although there were people near by, and he was in danger of detection,

he dug up the body. In the absence of a convenient instrument for

cutting it up, he satisfied himself by hacking it with a shovel.

In 1847 and 1848, during two weeks, as reported, the impulse,

accompanied by violent headache, to commit brutalities on corpses,

actuated him. Amidst the greatest dangers and difficulties, he

satisfied this impulse some fifteen times. He dug up the bodies with

his hands, in nowise sensible, in his excitement, to the injuries he

thus inflicted on himself. When he had obtained the body, he cut it up

with a sword or pocket-knife, tore out the entrails, and then

masturbated. The sex of the bodies is said to have been a matter of

indifference to him, though it was ascertained that this modern

vampire had dug up more female than male corpses. During these acts he

declares himself to have been in an indescribable state of sexual

excitement. After having cut them up, he had sometimes reinterred the

bodies.

In July, 1848, he accidentally came across the body of a girl of

sixteen. Then, for the first time, he experienced a desire to carry

out coitus on a cadaver. “I covered it with kisses and pressed it

wildly to my heart. All that one could enjoy with a living woman is

nothing in comparison with the pleasure I experienced. After I had

enjoyed it for about a quarter of an hour, I cut the body up, as

usual, and tore out the entrails. Then I buried the cadaver again.”

Only after this, as B. declares, had he felt the impulse to use the

bodies sexually before cutting them up, and thereafter he had done it

in three instances. The actual motive of the exhuming of the bodies,

however, was then, as before, to cut them up; and the enjoyment in so

doing was greater than in using the bodies sexually. The latter act

had always been nothing more than an episode of the principal one, and

had never quieted his desires; therefore, he had always cut up the

body afterward or mutilated another body. The medico-legal examiners

gave an opinion of “monomania.” Court-martial sentence to one year’s

imprisonment. (Michéa, _Union méd._, 1849; Lunier, _Annal.

méd.-psychol._, 1849, p. 153; Tardieu, “Attentats aux moeurs,” 1878,

p. 114; Legrand, “La folie devant les tribun.,” p. 524.)

(c) _Injury of Women_ (_Stabbing, Flagellation, etc._).—Following

lust-murder and violation of corpses, come cases closely allied to the

former, in which injury of the victim of lust and sight of the victim’s

blood are a delight and pleasure for degenerate men. The notorious

Marquis de Sade,[53] after whom the combination of lust and cruelty has

been named, was such a monster. Coitus only excited him when he could

prick the object of his desire until the blood came. His greatest

pleasure was to injure prostitutes and then bind their wounds.

Here also belongs the case of a captain mentioned by Brierre de

Boismont, who always compelled the object of his affection to place

leeches ad pudenda before coitus, which was very frequent. Finally this

woman became very anæmic and, as a result of this, insane.

The following case, borrowed from my own clientele, very clearly shows

the connection between lust and cruelty, with desire to shed and see

blood:—

Case 24. Mr. X., aged 25; father syphilitic, died of paretic dementia;

mother hysterical and neurasthenic. He is a weak individual,

constitutionally neuropathic, and presents several anatomical signs of

degeneration. When a child, hypochondria and imperative conceptions;

later, constant alternation of exaltation and depression. While yet a

child of ten, the patient felt a peculiar lustful desire to see blood

flow from his fingers. Thereafter he often cut or pricked himself in

the fingers, and took great delight in it. Very early, erections were

added to this, and also if he saw the blood of others; for example,

when he saw a servant-girl cut her finger it gave him an intense

lustful feeling. From this time his vita sexualis became more and more

powerful. Without any teaching he began to masturbate, and always

during the act there were memory-pictures of bleeding girls. It now no

longer sufficed him to see his own blood flow; he longed to see the

blood of young females, especially those that were attractive to him.

Often he could scarcely overcome the impulse to injure two cousins and

a certain servant. But also young women that were in themselves not

attractive induced this impulse when they excited him by some

peculiarity of dress or adornment, especially coral jewelry. It was

necessary for him to overcome these desires; but in his imagination

bloody thoughts were constantly present, and induced lustful

excitement. There was an inner relation existing between both thoughts

and feelings. Often there were other cruel fancies. He imagined

himself in the _rôle_ of a tyrant who had the people shot in crowds

with grape-shot. He was compelled to fancy a scene as it would be if

enemies were to take a city and mutilate, torture, kill, and rape the

young women. In times of quiet this patient, who had a mild

disposition and was not morally defective, was shamed and horrified by

such cruel, lustful fancies, and they always became immediately latent

as soon as his sexual excitement had been satisfied by masturbation.

After a few years the patient became neurasthenic. Then simple

imaginary representation of blood and scenes of blood was sufficient

to induce ejaculation. In order to free himself from his vice and his

cruel imagination, he began to indulge in sexual intercourse with

females. Coitus was possible, but only when the patient called up the

idea that the girl’s fingers were bleeding. Without the assistance of

this idea no erection was possible. The cruel thought of cutting was

limited to the woman’s hand. At times of greatest sexual excitement,

simply the sight of the hand of an attractive woman was sufficient to

induce violent erections. Frightened by the popular stories about the

injurious results of onanism, he abstained and fell into a condition

of severe general neurasthenia, with hypochondriacal dysthymia and

tædium vitæ. Careful and watchful medical treatment cured the patient

after a few months. He has remained mentally well three years; but

now, as before, he is very sensual, though it is very seldom that he

is troubled by his earlier bloody ideas. X. has given up masturbation

entirely. He finds satisfaction in natural sexual indulgence, is

virile, and it is no longer necessary for him to call up ideas of

blood.

The following case, reported by Tarnowsky (_op. cit._, p. 61), shows

that such lustful, cruel impulses may be simply episodical, and occur in

certain exceptional states of mind in neurotic individuals:—

Case 25. Z., physician; neuropathic constitution, reacting badly to

alcohol. Under ordinary circumstances capable of normal coitus, as

soon as he has indulged in wine he finds that his increased libido is

no longer satisfied by simple coitus. In this condition he is

compelled to prick the nates puellæ or to make stabs with the lancet,

to see blood, and feel the entrance of the blade into the living body,

in order to have ejaculation and experience complete satiety of his

lust.

The majority of those afflicted with this form of the perversion seem

insensible to the normal stimulus of woman. In the first case (24), the

assistance of the idea of blood was necessary in order to obtain

erection. The following case is that of a man who, by masturbation,

etc., in early youth, had diminished his power of erection so that the

sadistic act took the place of coitus:

Case 26. _The girl-stabber of Bozen_ (reported by Demme, “Buch der

Verbrechen,” Bd. ii, p. 341). In 1829, H., aged 30, soldier, became

the subject of legal investigation. At different times and in

different places, he had wounded girls with bread-knives or

pocket-knives, by stabbing them in the abdomen, probably in the region

of the genitals. He gave, as a motive for these acts, heightened

sexual impulse, increasing to the intensity of fury, which found

satisfaction only in the thought and act of stabbing persons of the

female sex. This impulse would pursue him for days at a time. He would

then pass into a confused mental state, which would clear away only

when the impulse had been satisfied by the deed. In the act of

stabbing he had a satisfaction like that of completed coitus, which

was increased by the sight of the blood that ran from the knife. In

his tenth year the sexual instinct became powerfully manifest. At

first he gave himself up to masturbation, and felt physically and

mentally weakened by it. Before he became a girl-stabber he had

satisfied his sexual lust in violation of immature girls, by causing

them to practice masturbation on him, and by sodomy. Gradually the

thought came to him of how pleasurable it would be to stab a young and

pretty girl in the region of the genitals, and take delight in the

sight of the blood running from the knife.

Among his effects were found copies of objects of art and obscene

pictures, painted by himself, of Mary’s conception, and of the

“congealed thought of God” in the lap of the Virgin. He was considered

a peculiar, very irritable man, shy of people, given to women, moody,

and glum. He was apparently a person[54] that had become impotent

through earlier sexual excesses, and who was thus predisposed, by the

continuance of intense libido sexualis, and heredity, to perversion of

the sexual life.

Case 27. In the “sixties” the inhabitants of Leipzig were frightened

by a man who was accustomed to attack young girls on the street and

stab them in the upper-arm with a dagger. Finally arrested, he was

recognized as a sadist, who, at the instant of stabbing, had an

ejaculation, and with whom the wounding of the girls was an equivalent

for coitus. (Wharton, “A Treatise on Mental Unsoundness,” § 623.

Philadelphia, 1873.)[55]

Impotence exists, likewise, in the next three cases. It may be

psychical, however, in that the principal tone of the vita sexualis lies

in the sadistic inclination, and the normal elements are distorted:—

Case 28. _The girl-cutter of Augsburg_ (reported by Demme, “Buch der

Verbrechen,” vii, p. 281). Bartle, wine-merchant. He was subject to

lively sexual excitement at the age of fourteen, though decidedly

opposed to its satisfaction by coitus, his aversion going so far as

disgust for the female sex. At that time he already had the idea to

cut girls, and thus satisfy his sexual desire. He refrained from it,

however, on account of lack of opportunity and courage. He practiced

masturbation, and now and then had pollutions with erotic dreams of

girls that had been cut. At the age of nineteen he first cut a girl.

During the act he had a seminal emission, and experienced intense

pleasure. From that time the impulse became constantly more powerful.

He chose only young and pretty girls, and, as a rule, asked them

before the deed whether they were still single. The ejaculation or

sexual satisfaction occurred only when he was sure that he had

actually wounded the girls. After such an act he always felt tired and

bad, and was also troubled with qualms of conscience. Until thirty-two

years old he carried on this process of cutting, but always with care

not to wound the girls dangerously. From that time until his

thirty-sixth year he was able to control his impulse. Then he sought

to satisfy himself by simply pressing the girls on the arm or neck;

but this gave rise to erections and not to ejaculation. Then he sought

to attain his object by pricking the girls with a knife in its sheath;

but this did not suffice. Finally, he stabbed with the open knife and

had complete success, for he thought that a girl when stabbed bled

more and had more pain than one that was merely, cut. In his

thirty-seventh year he was detected and arrested. In his dwelling was

found a collection of daggers, sword-canes, and knives. He said that

the mere sight of these weapons, and still more the grasping of them,

gave him an intense feeling of sensual pleasure, with violent

excitement. According to his confession he had injured, in all, fifty

girls. His external appearance was rather pleasing. He lived in very

good circumstances, but was peculiar and shy.

Case 29. J. H., aged 25, in 1883 came for consultation concerning

severe neurasthenia and hypochondria. Patient confesses that he has

practiced onanism since his fourteenth year, infrequently up to his

eighteenth year; but since that time he has been unable to resist the

impulse. Up to that time he had no opportunity to approach females,

for he had been anxiously cared for and never left alone, on account

of his invalidism. He had had no real desire for this unknown

pleasure; but he accidentally learned what it was when one of his

mother’s maids cut her hand severely on a pane of glass she had broken

while washing windows. While helping to stop the blood he could not

keep from sucking up the blood that flowed from the wound, and in the

act he experienced extreme erotic excitement, with complete orgasm and

ejaculation.

From this time, in every possible way, he sought to see, and if

possible to taste, the fresh blood of females. That of young girls was

preferred by him. He spared no pains or expense to obtain this

pleasure. At first he availed himself of a young servant who allowed

her finger to be pricked with a needle or lancet at his request. When

his mother discovered this, she discharged the girl. Then he was

driven to prostitutes as a substitute, with success frequently enough,

though with some difficulty. In the intervals he practiced onanism and

manustupration per feminam, which, however, never afforded him

complete satisfaction, but, on the contrary, caused listlessness and

self-reproach. On account of his nervous difficulties he visited many

sanitariums, and he was twice a voluntary patient in institutions. He

used hydrotherapy, electricity, and strengthening cures, without

particular success. For a time it was possible, by means of cold

sitz-baths, monobromate of camphor, and bromides, to diminish his

sexual excitability and onanistic impulse. However, when the patient

felt himself free again, he would immediately fall into his old

passions and spare no pains or money in order to satisfy his sexual

desire in the abnormal manner described.

Case 30 (communicated by Dr. A. Moll, Berlin). L. T., aged 21;

merchant in a Rhenish city. He belongs to a family in which there are

several nervous and psychopathic members. A sister suffers with

hysteria and melancholia.

The patient was always of quiet disposition and timid. At school he

frequently kept apart from other pupils, particularly when they talked

about girls. In the presence of ladies he thought every expression he

made was an offense against decency. Thus, for example, he thought it

very improper, in the presence of ladies, married or unmarried, to

speak of going to bed, rising, etc. In the elementary classes the

patient learned well. Later he became more indolent and did not make

good progress.

August 17, 1890, the patient visited Dr. Moll on account of abnormal

symptoms of a sexual kind. He did this on the advice of a physician,

X., a relative, in whom he had previously confided. The patient

conveys the impression of being very apprehensive and shy, and in

answer to questions says that he is very timorous, and that

particularly in the presence of others all his self-confidence and

assurance leave him. Dr. X. confirmed this statement.

The beginning of his sexual life the patient was able to refer to his

seventh year. At that age he frequently played with his genitals, and

was often punished for it. In this onanism, in which he said he had

erection, he constantly thought of whipping a woman on the naked nates

with a rod until the skin raised in weals. “It delighted me,” said the

patient, “when I thought that she was a _proud_, beautiful lady, and

that I performed the act in the presence of others, especially women,

particularly with the idea _that she might feel the power I had over

her_. For this reason I early sought reading about punishment, _e.g._,

about the abuse of Roman slaves. However, I had erections only when

the conceived abuse consisted of blows delivered on the back or nates.

At first I thought this kind of excitement would disappear in time,

and said nothing about it to any one.”

Masturbation, early indulged in, the patient continued to practice,

and always with the same thought. After his thirteenth or fourteenth

year he had ejaculation with the act. Decimum septimum annum agens

primum feminam adiit coëundi causa neque coitum perficere potuit

libidine et erectione deficientibus. Mox autem iterum apud alteram

coitum conatus est nullo succesu. Tum feminam per vim verberavit.

Tantopere erat excitatus ut mulierem dolore clamantem atque

lamentantem verberare non desierit. He never thought of any legal

punishment for his acts, and, in fact, escaped it. In this procedure

erection, orgasm, and ejaculation occurred. The patient performed the

act in such a way that he took the woman between his knees, with the

penis in contact with her body, but without emissio penis in vaginam,

which seemed entirely superfluous to him.

But the patient afterward experienced such a feeling of shame about

the beating, and was overcome with such great depression, that he

often contemplated suicide. In the following three years he still

visited women occasionally. But he never again asked one to allow him

to beat her. He sought to obtain erection by thinking of the beating;

but this was without result, and manustupration by the woman did not

induce erection. Finally, after an unsuccessful attempt of this kind,

the patient determined to give his confidence to a physician.

The patient made several other statements concerning his vita

sexualis. His abnormal sexual desire had troubled him by its

intensity. He went to sleep with sexual thoughts; they troubled him

through the night and were still with him when he awoke. He was never

safe for any length of time from the impulsion of the abnormal ideas

that excited him; to which, indeed, he gave himself up willingly, and

from which he could free himself for a short time only by onanism.

In response to my question, the patient stated that any other means of

punishment of women than beating the back, and nates particularly, had

no charm for him. Neither binding them, walking on them, nor striking

them, gives him such pleasure. This is to be emphasized the more,

since the whipping given the woman affords him sexual pleasures

because its effect on her is “humiliating, mortifying,” and because

she should “feel that she is completely in his power.” Too, it would

give the patient no pleasure to beat a woman on any other part of her

body than those mentioned, or to cause her pain in any other way than

by blows. Multum minorem ei affert voluptatem si nates suæ a muliere

verberantur; tamen ea res sæpe ejaculationem seminis effecit, sed hæc

fieri putat erectione deficienti. Inter verbera autem penem in vaginam

immittendo nullam voluptatem se habere ratus qualibet parte corporis

feminæ pene tacte semen ejaculat. _Just as in beating the woman his

pleasure lay in humiliating her, so with the relations reversed he was

sexually excited by the fact that the beating humiliated him and he

felt himself to be completely in the woman’s power._ No other personal

humiliation than a beating on his nates could excite him. To allow

himself to be bound or walked on by a woman is repugnant to him.

The patient’s dreams, as far as they were of an erotic nature, were

directed in the same way as his sexual inclinations while awake;

actual ejaculation also often took place in dreams. Whether the

perverse sexual thoughts first occurred in dreams or the waking state,

the patient is not able to state, owing to the fact that his memory

goes back so far,—to his seventh year. But he thinks that these

thoughts first occurred to him while awake. In his dreams it

frequently seemed to him that he was striking a man, which also caused

ejaculation. In the waking state it excited him but _very little_ to

think of striking a man. The nude form of a man had _no attraction

whatever_ for him, while the nude form of a woman had a decided charm

for him, though his libido found its real satisfaction only when the

acts previously described took place; and, as he states, he feels no

desire for coitus in vaginam.

The treatment of the patient is directed to the attainment of normal

coitus with normal desire, where possible; for it may be assumed that,

with success in making his sexual life normal, the patient’s shyness

and apprehensiveness, which cause him great annoyance, may be much

easier removed. The treatment followed by me (Dr. Moll) during three

months and a half was as follows:—

1. The patient, who had a great desire to be cured, was most strictly

forbidden to give himself up to the perverse thoughts. Of course, I

did not give him the foolish advice not to think of blows at all. The

patient could not follow such advice, since the thoughts come to him

without any act of his own, even when he accidentally reads the word

“blow” (schlagen). I forbade him only ever to voluntarily give himself

to such thoughts. I advised him more particularly to do everything in

order to turn his ideas in another direction.

2. I allowed him, commanded him even, to think of nude women, because

many nude females interested him, even though, as he thought, they did

not excite him sexually.

3. I sought, by means of hypnosis—which was hard to induce—and

suggestion, to fortify the patient in this as far as possible. All

attempts at coitus were forbidden in order to save the patient from a

discouraging result.

Within two months and a half this treatment led to the result that, as

the patient stated, the perverse ideas occurred much less frequently

and were constantly retreating to the background; indeed, according to

the patient’s statement, erections occurred with the thoughts of nude

women, became more frequent, and often induced him to masturbate with

the thought of coitus without the occurrence of any idea of blows.

Erotic dreams occurred but infrequently. These were concerned

sometimes with normal coitus, sometimes with blows.

After two months and a half of the treatment I advised the patient to

attempt coitus. Since then he has tried four times. I advised him to

choose always a woman who pleased him, and sought to increase his

sexual excitement before coitus by means of tincture of cantharides.

The four attempts, the last of which took place on November 29, 1890,

resulted as follows: At the first, prolonged manipulation of the penis

by the woman was necessary in order to induce erection. Then immisio

in vaginam and ejaculation with orgasm took place. During the whole

act there occurred no thought of beating the woman or being beaten,

but the woman in herself excited him sufficiently for the performance

of coitus. At the second attempt the result was better and more

quickly attained; manipulation ad genitalia by the woman was not long

required. In the third attempt coitus was attained only after the

patient had thought of beating for a long time, and had thus induced

erection; but beating was not indulged in. At the fourth attempt

coitus was attained without any thought of beating and without any

manipulation ad genitalia.

Of course, the case described cannot yet be regarded in any way as

cured. Though the patient were able to perform coitus in a normal or

nearly normal way, that does not mean that he will always be able to

do it in the future; moreover, the thought of beating still affords

him great pleasure, even though it occurs much less frequently than

formerly. Yet there is a possibility that the abnormal desire, which

has been weakened, will remain weakened in the future, and perhaps

disappear.

This carefully observed case is, for several reasons, particularly

interesting. It discloses clearly one of the hidden roots of sadism,—the

impulse to complete subjugation of the woman, which here became

consciously entertained. This is the more remarkable since it occurred

in an individual decidedly timid, and in other respects modest and even

apprehensive. The case also shows clearly that powerful libido, which

even impels the individual to overcome all obstacles, may be present,

while at the same time coitus is not desired, because the principal

intensity of feeling is, _ab origine_, connected with the cruel part of

the sadistic (lustful and cruel) circle of ideas. This case also

contains weak elements of masochism (_v. infra_).

Cases are by no means infrequent in which men with perverse inclinations

induce prostitutes, by paying them high prices, to allow themselves to

be whipped and even wounded by them. Works on prostitution contain

reports of them (_vide_ Coffignon, “La Corruption à Paris,” etc.).

(d) _Defilement of Women._—The perverse sadistic impulse, to injure

women and put contempt and humiliation upon them, is also expressed in

the desire to defile them with disgusting or, at least, foul things.

The following case, published by Arndt (_Vierteljahrsschr. f. ger.

Medicin_, N. F. xvii, H. 1), belongs here:—

Case 31. A., medical student at Greifswald, accusatus quod iterum

iterumque puellis honestis parentibus natis in publico genitalia sua e

bracis dependentia plane nudata quæ antia summo amiculo (overcoat)

tecta erant, ostenderat. Nonnunquam puellas fugientes secutus easque

ad se attractas urina oblivit. Hæc luce clara facta sunt; nunquam

aliquid hæc faciens locutus est.

A. is twenty-three years old, powerfully built, neat in dress, and

decent in manners. Indication of cranium progeneum; chronic pneumonia

of the apex of the right lung; emphysema. Pulse, 60; in excitement,

not more than 70 to 80. Genitals normal. Complaints of occasional

disturbances of digestion and hardness of the abdomen, vertigo;

excessive excitement of the sexual desires, which early led to

onanism. The sexual desire has never been directed toward a natural

method of satisfaction. Complaints of occasional attacks of

depression, or thoughts of deprecation of self, and of perverse

impulses, for which he could find no motive; such as laughing at

serious things, throwing his money in the water, and running about in

the pouring rain. The father of the culprit is of a nervous

temperament; his mother is subject to nervous headache. A brother

suffered with epileptic convulsions.

From his youth the culprit presented a nervous temperament, was

inclined to convulsions and attacks of syncope, and when he was

severely scolded would fall into a state of momentary stiffness. In

1869 he studied medicine in Berlin. In 1870 he went to the war as a

hospital-assistant. His letters at this time betray a peculiar

torpidity and weakness. On his return home, in 1871, his emotional

irritability was noticed by those about him. Thereafter frequent

complaints of bodily ailments; unpleasantness resulting from a love

affair. In November, 1871, he pursued his studies diligently in

Greifswald. He was considered very gentlemanly. In confinement he is

quiet, calm, and sometimes self-absorbed. His acts he attributes to

painful sexual excitement, which of late had become excessive. He

declared that he had been fully conscious of his perverse acts, and

had afterward been ashamed of them. He had not experienced actual

sexual satisfaction in their commission. He obtained no correct

insight into his position. He considered himself a kind of

martyr,—fallen a victim to an evil power. Presumption of

irresponsibility, as a result of absence of free will.

The impulse to defile occurs also, paradoxically, in the aged, when

there is a re-appearance of sexual instinct, which, under such

circumstances, is so often expressed in perverse acts. Thus Tarnowsky

reports (p. 76) the following case:—

Case 32. I knew such a patient, who had a woman dressed in a

_décolleté_ ball-dress lie down on a low sofa in a brightly lighted

room. Ipse apud januam alius cubiculi obscurati constitit adspiciendo

aliquantulum feminam, excitatus in eam insiluit excrementa in sinus

ejus deposuit. Hæc faciens ejaculationem quandam se sentire confessus

est.

An officer of Vienna informs me that men, by means of large sums of

money, induce prostitutes to suffer ut illi viri in ora earum spuerent

et fæces et urinas in ora explerent.[56]

The following case by Dr. Pascal (“Igiene dell’amore”) seems also to

belong here:—

Case 33. A man had an inamorata. His relation with her was that he had

her allow him to blacken her hands with coal or soot, and then she had

to sit before a mirror in such a way that he could see her hands in

it. While conversing with her, which was often for a long time, he

looked constantly at her mirrored hands, and finally, after a time, he

would take his leave, fully satisfied.

The following case, communicated by a physician, may be of interest in

relation to this subject:—

An officer was known in a brothel in K. only by the name of “Oil.”

“Oil” induced erection and ejaculation only by having puell. publ.

nudam step into a tub filled with oil, while he rubbed the oil all

over her body.

These acts lead to the presumption that certain cases of injury of

females (_e.g._, sprinkling with sulphuric acid, ink, etc.) depend upon

a perverse sexual impulse; at least, here it is a kind of injury, and

those injured are always females, and the perpetrators males. At least

in the future, in crimes of this kind, pains should be taken to examine

the vita sexualis of the culprits.

The case of Bachmann, given below, throws a clear light on the sexual

nature of such crimes; for, in this case, the sexual motive in the deed

is proven.

(e) _Other Attacks on Females_—_Symbolic Sadism._—The foregoing groups

do not exhaust the forms in which the sadistic impulse toward women is

expressed. If the impulse is not overmastering, or there is yet

sufficient moral resistance, it may happen that the perverse inclination

is satisfied by an act that is apparently quite senseless and silly, but

which has a symbolic meaning for the perpetrator. This seems to be the

meaning of the two following cases:—

Case 34. (Dr. Pascal, “Igiene dell’amore.”) A man was accustomed to

go, on a certain day once a month, to an inamorata and cut her “bang.”

This gave him the greatest pleasure. He made no other demands on the

girl.

Case 35. A man in Vienna regularly visits several prostitutes only to

lather their faces and then to remove the lather with a razor, as if

he were shaving them. He never hurts the girls, but becomes sexually

excited and ejaculates during the procedure.

The significance of the following cases, in which a sadistic comedy is

played, is clearer:—

Case 36. A man always announces to a puella publica his intended

visits. She must stand at the window, awaiting him, with her face done

up, and, on his entrance into the room, complain of severe toothache.

He is sorry for her, asks particularly about the pain, takes the cloth

off and puts it on again; but he never has coitus, and finds his

satisfaction simply in this act.[57]

The following case, which, unfortunately, was not carefully examined

scientifically, is peculiar to itself:—

In an examination before a criminal court in Vienna, the following

facts were brought to light: Count N., accompanied by a young girl,

appeared in the public garden of an hotel, and, by his actions there,

gave public offense. He demanded of his companion that she kneel down

before him and implore him with folded hands. Then she was compelled

to lick his boots. Finally, he demanded of her, publicly, “an

unheard-of thing” (osculum ad nates, or the like), and only desisted

after she had sworn to do it at home.

In this case, the most remarkable thing was the desire of the perverse

individual to humiliate the woman before witnesses (comp. the fancies of

sadists, Case 29); further, that the desire to humiliate the woman came

entirely into the foreground, and acts of a purely symbolic nature were

undertaken. Of course, with these, in this imperfectly-observed case,

acts of cruelty were probable.

(f) _Sadism with Other Objects_—_Whipping of Boys._—Besides the sadistic

acts with females described, others occur with other living, sensitive

objects,—children and animals. There may be a full consciousness that

the impulse is really directed toward women, and that only _faute de

mieux_ the next attainable objects (pupils) are abused. But the

condition of the perpetrator may be such that the impulse to cruel acts

enters consciousness accompanied only by lustful excitement, while its

real object (which alone can explain the lustful coloring of such acts)

remains in the dark.

The first alternative suffices as an explanation of the cases which Dr.

Albert describes (Friedreich’s _Blätter f. ger. Med._, p. 77,

1859),—cases in which lustful teachers whipped their pupils on the naked

nates without cause. We must think of the second alternative, the

sadistic impulse with unconsciousness of its object, when boys are

immediately excited sexually at the sight of punishment of their

companions, and are thus determined in their later vita sexualis, as in

the following cases:—

Case 37. K., aged 37, merchant, applied to me in the fall of 1889 for

advice concerning an anomaly of his vita sexualis, which made him fear

invalidism and impossibility of future happiness in marriage.

Patient came of a nervous family. As a child he was delicate, weak,

and nervous. Healthy except for measles; he later became strong.

At the age of eight, while at school, he saw how the teacher punished

the boys taking their heads between his thighs and spanking them with

a ferule. This sight caused the patient lustful excitement. “Without

any idea of the danger and enormity of onanism,” he satisfied himself

with it, and from that time often masturbated, during which he always

called up the memory-picture of a boy being punished.

Thus it continued until his twentieth year. Then he learned the

significance of onanism, was terribly frightened, and tried to

overcome his impulse to masturbate; but he fell into the practice of

psychical onanism, which he regarded as innocuous and morally

defensible, and for which he made use of the memory-pictures of boys

being whipped, previously mentioned.

Patient now became neurasthenic, suffered with pollutions, and tried

to cure himself by visiting brothels; but he could not induce

erection. Then he sought to obtain normal sexual feelings by means of

social intercourse with ladies; but he recognized that he was entirely

insensible to the charms of the fair sex.

The patient is an intelligent man, normally developed, and of æsthetic

taste. There is no inclination to persons of his own sex. My advice

consisted of means to combat the neurasthenia and pollutions;

interdiction of psychical and manual onanism; avoidance of all sexual

excitants; and, possibly, hypnotic treatment to ultimately induce a

return of the vita sexualis to its normal condition.

Case 38. Abortive sadism. N., student, came under observation in

December, 1890. He had practiced masturbation from early youth.

According to his statements, he became sexually excited when he saw

his father whip the children, and, later, when he saw the teacher whip

his companions. When a spectator of such scenes, he always experienced

lustful feelings. He could not say exactly when this first occurred,

but it may have been at about the age of six. He could not tell

exactly when he began to masturbate, but he stated with certainty that

his sexual instinct was first awakened by the punishment of others,

and thus he unconsciously came to practice onanism. The patient

remembered clearly that from the age of four to the age of eight he

was frequently spanked, and that this caused him pain, never lustful

pleasure.

Since he did not always have opportunity to see others whipped, he

began to _imagine_ how others were punished. This excited his lust,

and he would then masturbate. Whenever he could, he managed to see

others punished at school. Now and then he also felt desire to whip

others. At the age of twelve he induced a comrade to allow him to whip

him. He found great sexual pleasure in it. When, however, his

companion beat him in return, he experienced nothing but pain.

The impulse to beat others was never very strong. The patient

experienced more satisfaction in filling his imagination with scenes

of whipping. He never indulged in any other sadistic acts, and never

had any desire to see blood, etc. Until his fifteenth year his sexual

indulgence consisted of onanism, indulged in after such fancies. After

that (dancing lessons, association with girls), the early fancies

disappeared almost entirely, and were accompanied by but weak lustful

feelings; so that the patient gave them up entirely. In their place

came thoughts of coitus in a natural way, without anything sadistic.

The patient indulged in coitus for the first time “on account of his

health.” He then tried to abstain from onanism, but was not

successful, though he often indulged in coitus, and with more pleasure

than he had in onanism. He wished to be freed from onanism as

something vicious. He had coitus once a month, but masturbated once or

twice every night. He was normal sexually, with the exception of the

onanism. There was no neurasthenia; genitals normal.

Case 39. P., aged 15, of high social position, came of an hysterical

mother, whose brother and father died in an asylum. Two children of

the family died, in early childhood, of convulsions. The patient is

talented, virtuous, and quiet; but at times he is very disobedient,

stubborn, and passionate. He has epilepsy, and practices onanism. One

day it was learned that P., with money, induced a comrade of fourteen,

B., to allow himself to be pinched on the arm, back, and thigh. When

B. cried, P. became excited and struck at B. with his right hand,

while with his left he made manipulations in the left pocket of his

trousers. P. confessed that to maltreat his friend, of whom he was

very fond, gave him peculiar delight; and that ejaculation while

hurting his friend gave him much more pleasure than when he

masturbated alone, (_v._ Gyurkovechky, “Pathol. und Therapie der

männl. Impotenz.,” p. 80, 1889.)

That in all these cases of sadistic abuse of boys there can be no

thought of a combination of sadism and contrary sexual instinct, as

often occurs (_v. infra_) in individuals of contrary sexuality, is

shown—aside from the absence of all positive signs of it—by a study of

the next group, where, in association with the object of

injury,—animals,—the instinct for women is seen to appear repeatedly.

(g) _Sadistic Acts with Animals._—In numerous cases, sadistically

perverse men that are afraid of criminal acts with human beings, or that

care only for the sight of the suffering of a sensitive being, make use

of the sight of dying animals, or torture animals, to stimulate or

excite their lust.

The case of a man in Vienna, which is reported by Hofmann in his

“Text-Book of Legal Medicine,” is noteworthy in relation to this.

According to the evidence of several prostitutes, before the sexual

act he was accustomed to excite himself by torturing chickens and

pigeons and other birds, and, therefore, was called “Hendlmann”

(chicken).

For the elucidation of such cases the observation of Lombroso is of

value, according to whom two men had ejaculation when they killed

chickens or pigeons, or wrung their necks.

The same author, in his “Uomo delinquente,” p. 201, speaks of a poet

of some reputation, who became powerfully excited sexually whenever he

saw calves slaughtered, and also at the sight of bloody flesh.

According to Mantegazza (_op. cit._, p. 114), among degenerate

Chinamen, a horrible sport consists of committing sodomy with geese,

and cutting their necks off _tempoire ejaculationis_!

Mantegazza (“Fisiologia del piacere,” 5th ed., pp. 394, 395) mentions

the case of a man who once saw chickens killed, and from that time had

a desire to wallow in their warm, steaming entrails, because he

experienced a feeling of lust while doing it.

Thus, in these and similar cases, the vita sexualis is so constituted

_ab origine_ that the sight of blood, death, etc., excites lustful

feeling. It is so in the following case:—

Case 40. C. L., aged 42, engineer, married, father of two children;

from a neuropathic family; father irascible, a drinker; mother

hysterical, subject to eclamptic attacks. The patient remembers that

in childhood he took particular pleasure in witnessing the

slaughtering of domestic animals, especially swine. He thus

experienced lustful pleasure and ejaculation. Later he visited

slaughter-houses, in order to delight in the sight of flowing blood

and the death throes of the animals. When he could find opportunity,

he killed the animals himself, which always afforded him a vicarious

feeling of sexual pleasure.

At the time of full maturity he first attained to a knowledge of his

abnormality. The patient was not exactly opposed in inclination to

women, but close contact with them seemed to him repugnant. On the

advice of a physician, at twenty-five he married a woman who pleased

him, in the hope of freeing himself of his abnormal condition.

Although he was very partial to his wife, it was only seldom, and

after great trouble and exertion of his imagination, that he could

perform coitus with her; nevertheless, he begat two children. In 1866

he was in the war in Bohemia. His letters written at that time to his

wife, were composed in an exalted, enthusiastic tone. He was killed in

the battle of Königgrätz.

If, in this case, the capability of normal coitus was much impaired by

the predominance of perverse ideas, in the next it seems to have been

entirely repressed:—

Case 41. (Dr. Pascal, “Igiene dell’ amore.”) A gentleman visited

prostitutes, had them purchase a living fowl or rabbit, and required

them to torture the animal. He had in mind the head and tearing out

the eyes and entrails. If he found a girl who would consent, and go

about it right cruelly, he was delighted, and paid her and went his

way without asking anything more or touching her.

The last two sections show that the suffering of any living being may

become a source of perverse sexual enjoyment to sadistically constituted

persons, and that there may be sadism with almost any [living] object.

However, it would be erroneous and an exaggeration to try to explain by

sadistic perversion all the remarkable and surprising acts of cruelty

that occur; and, in the innumerable cruelties, as they here and there

occur in history or in certain psychological manifestations among the

people at the present time, it would be erroneous to assume sadism as a

motive.

Cruelty arises from various sources, and is natural to primitive man.

Compassion, in contrast with it, is a secondary manifestation, and

acquired late. The instinct to fight and destroy, so important an

endowment in prehistoric conditions, is long afterward operative; and,

in the ideas engendered by civilization, like that of “the criminal,” it

finds new objects, even though its original object—“the enemy”—still

exists. That not simply the death, but also torture, of the conquered is

demanded, is in part explained by the sense of power, which satisfies

itself in this way; and in part by the insatiableness of the impulse of

vengeance. Thus all cruelty and all historical enormities may be

explained without recourse to sadism (which may often have been in

operation, but which cannot be assumed, since it is relatively an

infrequent perversion).

At the same time, there is still another powerful psychical element to

take into consideration, which explains the attraction that is still

exerted by executions, etc.; and that is, the pleasure there is in

intense and unusual impressions and rare sights, in contrast with which,

in coarse and blunted beings, pity is silent.

But undoubtedly there are individuals for whom, in spite of, or even by

reason of, their lively compassion, all that is connected with death and

suffering has a mysterious attraction; who, with inward opposition, and

yet following a dark impulse, occupy themselves with such things, or at

least with pictures and notices of them. Still, this is not sadism, as

long as no sexual element enters into consciousness; and yet it is

possible that, in unconscious life, slender threads connect such

manifestations with the hidden depths of sadism.

(h) _Sadism in Woman._—That sadism—a perversion, as we have seen,

frequent in men—is much less frequent in women, is easily explained. In

the first place, sadism, in which the need of subjugation of the

opposite sex forms a constituent element, in accordance with its nature,

represents a pathological intensification of the masculine sexual

character; in the second place, the obstacles which oppose the

expression of this monstrous impulse are, of course, much greater for a

woman than for a man. Yet sadism occurs in women; and it can only be

explained by the primary constituent element,—the general

hyper-excitation of the motor sphere. Only two cases have thus far been

scientifically studied.

Case 42. A married man presented himself with numerous scars of cuts

on his arms. He told their origin as follows: When he wished to

approach his wife, who was young and somewhat “nervous,” he first had

to make a cut in his arm. Then she would suck the wound, and during

the act become violently excited sexually.

This case recalls the wide-spread legend of the vampires, the origin of

which may perhaps be referred to such sadistic facts.[58]

In a second case of feminine sadism, for which I am indebted to Dr.

Moll, of Berlin, by the side of the perverse impulse, as so frequently

occurs, there is anæsthesia for the normal activities of the sexual

life; and here there are also traces of masochism (_v. infra_).

Case 43. Mrs. H., of H., aged 26, comes of a nervous family, in which

nervous or mental diseases are said not to have occurred; but the

patient herself presents signs of hysteria and neurasthenia. Although

eight years married, and the mother of a child, Mrs. H. never had

desire to perform coitus. Very strictly educated as a young girl,

until her marriage she remained almost innocent of any knowledge of

sexual matters. She has menstruated regularly since her fifteenth

year. There does not seem to be any essential abnormality of the

genitals. To the patient coitus is not only not a pleasure, but even

an unpleasant act; and repugnance to it has constantly increased. The

patient cannot understand how any one can call such an act the

greatest delight of love, which, to her, is something far higher and

unconnected with such a sensual impulse. At the same time, it should

be mentioned that the patient really loves her husband. In kissing

him, too, she experiences a decided pleasure, which she cannot exactly

describe. But she cannot conceive how the genitals can have anything

to do with love. In other respects Mrs. H. is a decidedly intelligent

woman, of feminine character.

Si oscula dat conjugi, magnum voluptatem percipit in mordendo eum.

Gratissimum ei esset conjugem mordere eo modo ut sanguis fluat.

Contenta esset, si loco coitus morderetur a conjuge ipsæque eum

mordere liceret. Tamen eam pœniteret, si morsu magnum dolorem faceret.

(Dr. Moll.)

In other cases of sadism which history and literature afford, we are

compelled to think of a reversal of the feminine sexual character,—a

partial viraginity,—in order to explain the sadistic acts.

In history there are examples of famous women who, to some extent, had

sadistic instincts. These Messalinas are particularly characterized by

their thirst for power, lust, and cruelty. Among them are Valeria

Messalina herself, and Catherine de Medici, the instigator of the

Massacre of St. Bartholomew, whose greatest pleasure was found in having

the ladies of her court whipped before her eyes, etc.

The gifted Henry von Kleist, who was undoubtedly mentally abnormal,

gives a masterly portrayal of complete feminine sadism in his

“Penthesilea.” In scene xxii, Kleist describes his heroine with

Achilles, whom she had been pursuing in the fire of love, betrayed into

her hands, as, overcome with lustful, murderous fury, she tears him in

pieces and sets her dogs on him: “She strikes, tearing the armor from

his body; they set their teeth in his white breast,—she and her dogs,

the rivals, Oxus and Sphynx,—they on the right side, she on the left;

and as I approached blood dripped from her hands and mouth.” And later,

when Penthesilea becomes satiated: “Did I kiss him to death? No. Did I

not kiss him? Torn in pieces? Then it was a mistake; kissing rhymes with

biting, and one who loves with the whole heart might easily mistake the

one for the other.”[59]

2. _The Association of Passively Endured Cruelty and Violence, with

Lust—Masochism._[60]—Masochism is the opposite of sadism. While the

latter is the desire to cause pain and use force, the former is the wish

to suffer pain and be subjected to force.

By masochism I understand a peculiar perversion of the psychical vita

sexualis, in which the individual affected, in sexual feeling and

thought, is controlled by the idea of being completely and

unconditionally subject to the will of a person of the opposite sex; of

being treated by this person as by a master,—humiliated and abused. This

idea is colored by lustful feeling; the individual affected lives in

fancies, in which he creates situations of this kind, and often attempts

to realize them. By this perversion his sexual instinct is not

infrequently made more or less insensible to the normal stimulus of the

opposite sex,—incapable of a normal vita sexualis,—psychically impotent.

But this psychical impotence does not in any way depend upon a _horror

sexus alterius_, but upon the fact that this perverse instinct finds an

adequate satisfaction differing from the normal,—in woman, to be sure,

but not in coitus.

But cases also occur, in which, with the perverse impulse, there is also

sensibility, in a measure, to normal stimuli, and intercourse under

normal conditions takes place. In other cases the impotence is not

purely psychical, but physical, _i.e._, spinal; for this perversion,

like almost all other perversions of the sexual instinct, is developed

only on the basis of a psychopathic and, for the most part, hereditarily

predisposed individuality; and, as a rule, such individuals give

themselves up to excesses, particularly masturbation, to which the

difficulty of attaining what their fancy creates, drives them again and

again.

The number of cases of undoubted masochism thus far observed is very

large. Whether masochism occurs associated with normal sexual instincts,

or exclusively controls the individual; whether, and to what extent, the

individual subject to this perversion strives to realize his peculiar

fancies or not; whether he has thus more or less diminished his virility

or not,—depends upon the degree of intensity of the perversion in the

single case, and upon the strength of the opposing ethical and æsthetic

motives, as well as the relative power of the physical and mental

organization, of the affected individual. The essential thing, from the

psychopathic point of view, and the common element in all these cases,

is _the fact that the sexual instinct is directed to ideas of

subjugation and abuse by the opposite sex_.

What has been said with reference to the impulsive character

(indistinctness of motive) of the resulting acts, and with reference to

the original (congenital) nature of the perversion in sadism, is also

true in masochism.

In masochism there is also a gradation of the acts from the most

repulsive and monstrous to the silliest, in accordance with the degree

of intensity of the perverse instinct, and the power of the remnants of

moral and æsthetic motives that oppose it. The ultimate consequences of

masochism, however, are opposed by the instinct of self-preservation,

and, therefore, murder and serious injury, which may be committed in

sadistic excitement, have here, as far as known, no passive equivalent

in reality; but the perverse desires of masochistic individuals may, in

imagination, attain these extreme consequences (_v. infra_, Case 54).

Moreover, the acts to which masochists give themselves up, are performed

in some cases in connection with coitus, _i.e._, as preparatory

measures; in others, as substitutes for coitus when that is impossible.

Here, too, this depends only upon the condition of sexual power, which

has been diminished for the most part physically and mentally by the

activity of the sexual ideas in the perverse direction, and not upon the

nature of the act itself.

(_a_) _The Desire for Abuse and Humiliation as a Means of Sexual

Satisfaction._—The following detailed autobiography of a masochist,

gives an exhaustive description of a typical case of this remarkable

perversion:—

Case 44. I come of a neuropathic family, in which, with all kinds of

peculiarities of character and manner of life, there are several

abnormalities of a sexual nature. My imagination has always been very

lively, and was very early directed to sexual matters. As far as I can

remember, I was much given to onanism long before puberty. Even at

that time my thoughts were, for hours at a time, directed to

intercourse with females. But the relations in which I placed myself

with the opposite sex were entirely peculiar. I fancied that I was a

prisoner and absolutely in a woman’s power, and that this woman used

her power to hurt and abuse me in every way possible. In this,

whipping and blows played an important part in my fancy, and there

were many other acts and situations which all expressed the condition

of vassalage and subjection. I saw myself constantly kneeling before

my ideal, trod upon, loaded with chains, and imprisoned. Severe

punishments of all kinds were inflicted on me, to test my obedience

and please my mistress. The more severely I was humiliated and abused,

the more I indulged in these thoughts. (At the same time I developed a

great preference for velvet and fur, which I liked to touch and

smooth, and which likewise excited me sexually.)

I remember well that when a child I received many actual whippings at

the hands of females. They never caused me any other feeling than pain

and shame; never have I thought to connect such realities with my

fancies. A threat to punish me severely and correct me agitated me

painfully; but in my fancy I assumed a desire on the part of my

“mistress” to enjoy my suffering and humiliation, which entranced me.

Too, I have never brought into relation with my fancies the acts and

orders of the females that have taken care of me. I was early able to

discover the truth about the relation of the sexes; but this knowledge

made no impression on me. The idea of sensual pleasure remained

connected with the fancies with which it was originally associated. I

also had the desire to touch females, to embrace and kiss them, but I

looked for the greatest delight only in their maltreatment, and in

situations in which they would cause me to feel their power. I soon

came to realize that I differed from other men, and preferred to be

alone and absorbed in my dreams. In my boyhood, real girls and women

had but little interest for me; for I saw no possibility of having

them act in the way I desired. On lonely paths in the forest I whipped

myself with branches that had fallen from the trees, and allowed my

imagination to play in the habitual way. I reveled in the sight of

pictures of commanding women, particularly if, like queens, they wore

furs. I read everything related to my cherished ideas. “Rousseau’s

Confessions,” which then fell into my hands, was a great discovery. I

found a condition described that resembled mine in essentials. I was

still more astonished at the similarity of my ideas to those I read of

in the writings of Sacher-Masoch. I devoured them all with avidity,

though the blood-curdling scenes often far outdid my imagination, and

then excited my aversion. Later, in order to supply new food for my

fancy, I began to write descriptions of erotic scenes to my taste, and

to make drawings of situations which, up to this time, I had painted

only in imagination. In this, reality was entirely an indifferent

matter to me. In the presence of a woman I was devoid of every sensual

feeling; at most, at the sight of a feminine foot, there would come a

fleeting wish to be trod upon by it.

This indifference, however, was only in relation to pure sensuality.

In late boyhood and early youth I was subject to an enthusiastic

partiality for young girls of my acquaintance, with all the

extravagances common to this youthful enthusiasm. But it never

occurred to me to connect the world of my sensual thoughts with these

pure ideals. I never had to overcome such a thought; one never came to

me. This is the more remarkable, since to me my lustful fancies seemed

very strange and unattainable in reality, but in no wise vile or

obnoxious. This, too, was a kind of poetry with me; but it was divided

into two worlds,—on the one hand was my heart, or, rather, my

æsthetically excited fancy; on the other, my sensually inflamed

imagination. While my “elevated” feeling always had a certain young

girl for its object, at other times I saw myself at the feet of a

mature woman, who treated me as previously described. I never placed

any lady of my acquaintance in this rôle. In dreams the two spheres of

my erotic ideas occurred alternately, but never combined. Only the

images of the sensual sphere induced pollutions.

In my nineteenth year I allowed myself, with outward reluctance, but

with inward desire, to be taken by friends to visit prostitutes. But

there I experienced nothing but repugnance and aversion, and left as

soon as possible, without having felt the faintest trace of sensual

excitement. Later, on my own initiative, I repeated the attempt, in

order to convince myself as to whether I was impotent or not; for I

was much troubled by my unexpected failure in the first instance. The

result was always the same,—I felt no excitement at all, and had not

the slightest erection. In the first place, it was not possible for me

to regard a real woman as an object of sensual gratification; and,

furthermore, I could not renounce the conditions and situations which

were the principal things _in sexualibus_ for me, and about which

nothing could induce me to speak a word. Imissio penis—the act to be

undertaken by me—seemed to me absolutely senseless and unclean. Again,

in the second place, there was also my repugnance for common women,

and fear of infection.

In the meantime, in secret, my sexual life went on in the old fashion.

Whenever my old fancies came to mind, violent erection occurred, and I

provoked ejaculations almost daily. I began to suffer with all kinds

of nervous troubles, and now regarded myself as impotent, in spite of

powerful erections and intense desire when I was alone. Nevertheless,

from time to time I continued my experiments with prostitutes. In time

I overcame my timidity, and in part my aversion to contact with common

women; but I remained absolutely cold.

After I had, with advancing years, overcome to some extent my shyness

and my inclination to indulge in dreams, in my sexual thought there

was an approach to the normal, as I began to direct my interest to

real persons. I was even successful in directing sensual thoughts to

women of my acquaintance, without carrying over any of my peculiar

ideas from the other sphere. Thus I had some affairs with respectable

girls. Embracing and kissing occurred; desire was excited, but not the

power,—at least, it was too weak to allow me to think that under

normal circumstances I should be virile. Of course, the attention I

gave to the excitation of my sexual power was not calculated to favor

this. Thus, always greatly ashamed, I broke off the relations.

With this, my old habit continued. I was still a great onanist, even

though with lessened power. But my fancy no longer satisfied me

entirely. I now began to follow both respectable women and others on

the street; in winter, particularly those wearing velvet and furs. I

often followed prostitutes to their homes, and had them perform

manustupration. I always thought I should find more real pleasure in

that than in my fancies; but it was always less. When the woman took

off her garments, my interest followed them. The empty clothing has

never attracted me very strongly, but more than the nude female. The

real object of my interest was the attired woman. In this, velvet and

furs play the most important part; but also all other articles of

attire attracted me, and particularly the form as brought out by

lacing and padding. I had scarcely any other interest in the nude

female form than an æsthetic one. I have always had a very great

interest in the shoes of women, particularly in slippers with high

heels, which is always connected with the thought of being trod upon,

or of submissively kissing the foot.

At last I overcame the last vestige of my shyness, and one day, to

realize my dreams, had myself whipped, trod upon, etc., by a

prostitute. The result was a _great disappointment_. What was done to

me I felt to be rough, repugnant, and silly. The blows caused me

nothing but pain; the situation, repugnance and shame. Nevertheless, I

induced an ejaculation mechanically, with which, with the help of my

imagination, I transformed the real situation into that for which I

longed. This—the really desired situation—differed from the actual

essentially in that I created in imagination a woman who abused me

with the same pleasure that I experienced in her maltreatment of me.

All my sexual fancies were erected on the assumption in the woman of a

tyrannical, cruel disposition, to which I wished to be subject. The

act expressing the relation was a secondary matter to me. After the

first attempt at an impossible realization, it was perfectly clear to

me toward what my longing was directed. To be sure, in my lustful

dreams, I had often passed beyond all ideas of abuse, and conceived a

commanding woman, with an imperious mien, a word of command, a kiss on

the foot, etc; but now I fully realized what it was that attracted me,

and that flagellation was only the strongest means of expressing the

principle, and in itself secondary.

In spite of this disappointment, after the first step, I did not

abandon my efforts to realize my erotic ideas. I was confident that,

when once accustomed to the new reality, my fancy would find food in

it for more intense activity. For my purpose I sought the most

suitable women, and instructed them carefully in a complicated comedy.

In this I occasionally found that the way had been prepared for me by

predecessors of like disposition. The value of these comedies, for the

effect of my fancy on my sensuality, remained problematical. What

these acts and scenes did for me, in the way of intensifying the

subsidiary circumstances of the desired situation, caused a diminution

of the intensity of the principal element, which my unaided fancy,

without the consciousness of planned, coarse deception, could more

easily bring up before me. My physical sensations, under the various

punishments, were changeable. The more perfect the self-deception, the

more perfectly the pain was felt as pleasure.

Or, more correctly, the punishment was then conceived as a symbolic

act. From this arose the illusion of the desired situation, which was

then accompanied by an intense psychical feeling of pleasure. The

lustful feeling then spread out over the whole body in lustful

physical sensations, and thus the perception of the painful quality of

the punishment was overcome. The process in the moral punishments—the

humiliations to which I subjected myself—was similar, but simpler;

because it was confined to the mental sphere. These were also attended

with pleasurable feeling when the self-deception succeeded. It was

seldom, however, that it succeeded well, and never perfectly; there

always remained a disturbing element in consciousness. Therefore, in

the intervals, I returned to solitary onanism. Moreover, in the other

case, the conclusion of the act was usually an ejaculation provoked by

onanism; often an ejaculation without the aid of mechanical means.

Thus I went on for many years, with diminishing power, but with

slightly diminished desire, and with the power of my peculiar sexual

idea over me unchanged. And at present the condition of my vita

sexualis is the same. Coitus, which I have never performed, still

seems to me a strange and unclean act. I learned about it from

descriptions of sexual dissipations. My own sexual ideas seem natural,

and do not in the least offend my sensitive taste. Their realization,

as previously mentioned, for various reasons, leaves me unsatisfied. I

am pleased with pretty girls and women of respectability, but for a

long time I have ceased to approach them. I have never attained, not

even partially, a direct, actual realization of my sexual fancy. As

often as I have come into close relation with females, I have felt the

woman’s will to be beneath mine, never _vice versâ_. I have never met

a woman manifesting a desire of mastery in sexual things. Women who

wish to rule in the household and exercise petticoat sovereignty are

entirely different from my erotic ideals.

My whole personality presents many abnormalities besides the

perversion of my vita sexualis; my neuropathic condition is expressed

in many mental and physical symptoms. Besides, I think I recognize in

myself an original abnormality of character in the nature of a

resemblance to the feminine type; at least, I regard as of this nature

my great weakness of will, and my great lack of courage in the

presence of men and animals, which is in contrast with my coolness in

the face of peril. My external appearance is entirely masculine.

The author of this autobiography also made me the following

communication:—

“I always sought to find out whether the peculiar ideas that ruled me

sexually were entertained by other men. Since the first stories about

it accidentally came to my ears, I have sought everywhere to learn of

it. Since it is really a process of inner consciousness, it is, of

course, not easy to identify it, and it cannot always be done with

certainty; but I assume the existence of masochism where I find

perverse sexual acts that cannot be explained except by this

dominating idea. I look upon this anomaly as wide-spread.

“I have heard numerous stories about it from prostitutes here in

Berlin, and in Vienna; and I thus learned how numerous my

fellow-sufferers are. I am always careful not to describe my own

experiences, or ask whether they know of such; but I allow these

persons to relate their experiences just as they will.

“Simple flagellation is so common that almost every prostitute is

familiar with it; but cases of real masochism are very frequent. The

men subject to this perversion submit themselves to the most refined

cruelties. In this they always act the same farce with the instructed

prostitutes,—humiliating subjection of the man, treading upon him,

commands, threats, and scoldings that have been committed to memory;

then flagellation, blows on various portions of the body, and all

kinds of punishment, pricking with needles, etc. The scenes often end

with coitus, but more frequently with ejaculation without it. Twice

prostitutes have shown me heavy iron chains with handcuffs, which

their patrons had made for them to put on them; and the dried peas, on

which they kneeled; the seat set with needles, on which they sat at

command; and many other similar things. Often the perverted man wishes

the woman to tie his penis so tightly as to cause pain; to prick it

with needles, make cuts in it with a knife, or beat it with a stick.

Even the act of hanging is indulged in, it being cut short at just the

right moment. Others have themselves scratched with a knife or dagger,

but in the act the woman must threaten them with death. In all these

things the symbolism of subjection is the most important factor. The

woman is usually called ‘mistress’; the man, ‘slave.’

“A man of high social standing, dressed as a servant, sat on the box

of a carriage and drove his mistress about. Here there may have been a

conscious imitation of the ‘Venus in Furs.’ It seems to me that the

writings of Sacher-Masoch have done much to develop this perversion in

those predisposed. It is peculiar that the inexplicable enthusiasm for

furs is so frequently combined with this perversion. It, as well as

that for velvet, has been peculiar to me from my earliest youth.

“All these comedies with prostitutes are for masochists only

troublesome substitutes. Whether there is such a thing as a

realization of masochistic dreams in love relations or not, I do not

know. If it occur, it is certainly very infrequent; for this taste in

women (sadism in women, as described by Sacher-Masoch) is very

difficult to find; and, too, the expression of sexual abnormalities

finds greater obstacles in the modesty of women, etc., than in men. I

myself have never noticed the slightest indications of anything of

this kind, and have never been able to attempt an actual realization

of my fancies. Once a man confidingly told me of his masochistic

perversion, and said he had found his ideal.”

The two following cases are similar to the foregoing:—

Case 45. Mr. Z., aged 29, technicist, came for consultation because of

a fear of tabes. Father was nervous and died tabetic. Father’s sister

was insane. Several relatives are very nervous and peculiar. On closer

examination the patient is found to have sexual, spinal, and cerebral

asthenia. He presents no symptoms of tabes dorsalis, nor does he give

a history of them. Questions concerning abuse of the sexual organs

bring out a confession of masturbation practiced since youth. In the

course of the examination the following interesting psycho-sexual

anomalies came out: At the age of five the vita sexualis began with

the impulse to whip himself, as well as with the desire to see others

whipped. In this he never thought of individuals as of one sex or the

other. _Faute de mieux_ he practiced flagellation on himself and, in

time, this induced ejaculation. Long before this he had begun to

satisfy himself with masturbation, and always during the act reveled

in imaginary scenes of whipping. After growing up he twice visited

brothels to have himself flogged by prostitutes. For this purpose he

chose the prettiest girl he could find; but he was disappointed, and

did not even have an erection, to say nothing of ejaculation. He

recognized that the flagellation was subsidiary, and that the idea of

subjection to the woman’s will was the important thing. He realized

this on the second trial. When he had the “thought of subjection,” he

was perfectly successful. In time, by straining his imagination with

masochistic ideas, he performed coitus without flagellation; but he

found little satisfaction in it; so that he performed sexual

intercourse in a masochistic way. He found pleasure in masochistic

scenes, in the sense of his original desire for flagellation, only

when he was flagellated _ad podicem_, or, at least, only when he

called up such a situation in imagination. At times of great

excitability it was even sufficient if a pretty girl told stories of

such scenes. He would thus have an orgasm, and usually ejaculation.

A very effectual fetichistic idea was early associated with this. He

noticed that he was attracted and satisfied only by women wearing high

heels and short jackets (“Hungarian fashion”). He does not know how he

arrived at this fetichistic idea. Boys’ legs with high heels also

pleased him, but this charm was purely æsthetic, without any sensual

coloring; and he said he had never noticed anything homo-sexual in

himself. The patient referred his fetichism to his partiality for

calves (legs). He is charmed by ladies’ calves only when elegant shoes

are on the feet. Nude legs—feminine nudity in general—do not in the

least affect him sexually. A subordinate fetichistic idea for the

patient is the masculine ear. It is a lustful pleasure for him to pet

the ears of handsome men, _i.e._, men having beautiful ears. With men

this pleasure is slight, but with women it gives him great enjoyment.

He also has a weakness for cats. He thinks them simply beautiful; and

their movements are very attractive to him. The sight of a cat can

raise him from a feeling of the deepest depression. Cats seem to him

sacred; he sees something divine in them! He does not know the reason

for this idiosyncrasy.

Of late he has also frequently had sadistic ideas about punishing

boys. In these imaginary flagellations both men and women play a part,

but particularly the latter; and then his enjoyment is much more

intense.

The patient finds that, with that which he recognizes and feels as

masochism, there is something else which he prefers to designate

“pageism.”

While his masochistic fancies and acts are entirely of a coarse,

sensual nature, his “pageism” consists of the idea of being a page to

a beautiful girl. He conceives her as perfectly chaste, but piquant;

his relation to her, that of a slave, but perfectly chaste,—a purely

platonic submission. This reveling in the idea of serving such a

“beautiful creature” as a page, is colored by a pleasurable feeling;

but this is in no way sexual. He experienced in it an exquisite

feeling of moral satisfaction, in contrast with the sensually-colored

masochism; and, therefore, he could but regard it as something of a

different nature.

At first sight there was nothing remarkable in the patient’s

appearance; but his pelvis is abnormally broad, the ilia are flat, and

the pelvis, as a whole, tilted and decidedly feminine. Eyes,

neuropathic. He also mentions that he often has itching and lustful

irritation at the anus, and that there (“erogenous” area), _ope

digiti_, he can satisfy himself.

The patient is troubled about his future. Help would be possible for

him if he could but excite in himself an interest in women, but his

will and imagination were too weak for that.

What the patient designates as “pageism” does not differ in any way from

masochism, as may be seen when it is compared with the following cases

of symbolic masochism, and others; and, further, upon the consideration

that in this perversion coitus is avoided as an inadequate act; and from

the fact that in such cases there is often a fantastic exaltation of the

perverse ideal:—

Case 46. X, writer, aged 28, predisposed. Sexually hyperæsthetic from

childhood. At the age of six he had dreams of being whipped ad nates

by a woman. After them he would awake in intense lustful excitement;

and thus he came to practice onanism. When eight years old he once

asked the cook to whip him. From his tenth year, neurasthenia. Until

his twenty-fifth year he had dreams of flagellation, or similar waking

fancies, and indulged in onanism. Three years ago he had an impulse to

have himself whipped by a puella. The patient was undeceived, for

neither erection nor ejaculation occurred. At twenty-seven, another

effort, with the thought to enforce erection and ejaculation. This was

finally made possible by the following artifice: While coitus was

attempted, the puella had to tell him how she had mercilessly flogged

other impotent men, and threaten him with the same. Besides this, it

was necessary for him to fancy that he was bound, entirely in the

woman’s power, helpless, and most painfully beaten by her.

Occasionally, in order to become potent, it was necessary to have

himself actually bound. Thus coitus was possible. Pollutions were

accompanied by lustful feeling only when he (infrequently) dreamed

that he was abused, or that he looked on while a puella whipped

others. He never had an intense, lustful pleasure in coitus. The only

things in women that interest him are the hands. Powerful women with

big fists are his preference. At the same time, his desire for

flagellation is only ideal; for with his great cutaneous

sensitiveness, at the most, a few strokes are sufficient. Blows from

men were repugnant to him. He wishes to marry. From the impossibility

of asking a decent woman to perform flagellation, and the doubt about

being potent with such a woman, spring his embarrassment and desire to

recover.

In the foregoing three cases, for the most part, passive flagellation

serves the individual subject to this perversion of masochism as an

expression of the desired situation of subjection to the woman. The same

means is needed by a large number of masochists. But passive

flagellation is a process which, as is known, has a tendency to induce

erection reflexly by irritation of the nerves of the nates.[61] This

effect of flagellation is used by weakened debauchees to help their

diminished power; and this perversity—not perversion—is very common. It

is, therefore, necessary to ascertain in what relation the passive

flagellation of the masochists stands to these dissipated individuals

who are not psychically perverse, but physically weakened.

It is not difficult to show that masochism is something essentially

different from flagellation, and more comprehensive; that flagellation

is rather a by-play,—one of the many means used for the purpose of

masochistic gratification in the sense of subjection to the woman. For

the masochist the principal thing is subjection to the woman; the

punishment is only the expression of this relation,—the most intense

effect of it he can bring upon himself. For him the act has only a

symbolic value, and is a means to the end of mental satisfaction of his

peculiar desires. The essential thing is the desire for ill-treatment,

as a sign of this subjection. Besides flagellation, and often without

it, there are many other things which serve to express this subjection;

as is shown by the following series of cases. This fact establishes a

presumption of the existence of an original anomaly of sexual feeling,—a

paræsthesia sexualis. On the other hand, the individual that is weakened

and not a subject of masochism, and who has himself flagellated, desires

only a mechanical irritation of his spinal centre.

Whether, in a given case, it is simple (reflex) flagellation or

masochism, is made clear by the individual’s statements, and often by

the secondary circumstances. The determination depends upon the

following facts:—

In the _first_ place, the impulse to passive flagellation exists _ab

origine_ in the masochist. The desire is felt before there has been any

experience of the reflex effect, often first in dreams; as, for example,

in Case 48. _Secondly_, with the masochist, as a rule, the flagellation

is only one of many and various punishments which come into his mind as

fancies and are often realized. In these other punishments, and the

frequent acts expressing purely symbolic humiliations, which occur by

the side of flagellation, there can, of course, be no thought of a

reflex physical irritative effect. _Thirdly_, it is significant that, in

the masochist, when the desired flagellation is carried out, it need

have no aphrodisiac effect at all. Very often, indeed, there is a more

or less perfect disappointment; in fact, always, if the masochist is not

successful in his desire to create, by means of the pre-arranged

programme, the illusion of the desired situation (to be in the woman’s

power), so that the woman ordered to carry out the act seems to be

nothing more than the executive agent of his own will. If one cannot

tickle one’s self, no more can one feel one’s self subject to a woman

directed by one’s own will. In reference to this important point,

compare the three foregoing cases and Case 50.

Between masochism and simple (reflex) flagellation, there is a relation

somewhat analogous to that existing between contrary sexual instinct and

acquired pederasty. It does not lessen the value of this opinion that,

in the masochist, the flagellation may also have the known reflex

effect; or that a whipping received in childhood may have aroused lust

for the first time, and thus simultaneously excited the latent

masochistically-constituted vita sexualis. In this event, the case must

be characterized by the conditions mentioned above, under the heads of

“_secondly_” and “_thirdly_,” in order to be masochistic. If the details

of the origin of the case are not known, other circumstances, such as

those mentioned above under “_secondly_,” would make it clearly

masochistic. This is illustrated in the two following cases:—

Case 47. A patient of Tarnowsky’s had a person in his confidence rent

a house during his attacks, and instruct its _personnel_ (three

prostitutes) in what was to be done with him. He would come there, and

was there undressed, manustuprated, and flagellated, as ordered. He

pretended to offer resistance, and begged for mercy; then, as ordered,

he was allowed to eat and sleep. But in spite of protest he was kept

there, and beaten if he did not submit. Thus the affair would go on

for some days. When the attack was over, he was dismissed; and he

returned to his wife and children, who had no suspicion of his

disease. The attacks occurred once or twice a year. (Tarnowsky, _op.

cit._)

Case 48. X., aged 34, greatly predisposed, suffers with contrary

sexual instinct. For various reasons he had no opportunity to satisfy

himself with men, in spite of great sexual desire. Occasionally he

dreamed that a woman whipped him, and then had a pollution.

Through this dream he came to have prostitutes beat him as a

substitute for love with men. Occasionally he would obtain a

prostitute, undress himself completely (while she was not to take off

a thing), and have her tread upon him, whip, and beat him. Qua re

summa libidine affectus pedem feminæ lambit quod solum eum libidinosum

facere potest: tum ejaculationem assequitur. Then disgust at the

morally-debasing situation occurred, and he retired as quickly as

possible.

Cases occur, however, in which passive flagellation alone constitutes

the entire content of the masochistic fancies, without other ideas of

humiliation, etc., and without any clear consciousness of the real

nature of this expression of submission. Such cases are difficult to

differentiate from those of simple reflex flagellation. A knowledge of

the primary origin of the desire, before any experience of reflex

stimuli (_v. supra_, under “_first_”), is the only thing that makes the

differential diagnosis certain; taken with the circumstance that genuine

masochists are perverse in their youth, and that the realization of

their desires usually comes late, or undeceives them (_v. supra_, under

“_thirdly_”); for the whole thing, for the most part, belongs to the

sphere of the imagination.

The following case is of this nature:—

Case 49. _Autobiography._—In January, 1891, I received the following

letter from a gentleman in Hungary: “In depression and despair of a

life that shuts me out from all that makes human happiness, I come to

you with the last gleam of hope of rescue from a condition which, if

it continue, can end only tragically.

“I am thirty years old, and come of a mother who suffered with

periodical insanity. As early as my fourteenth year abnormal sexual

tendencies were noticeable in me. It always gave me a certain lustful

pleasure to be whipped by boys of my own age, particularly when I was

taken over the knee and spanked. It particularly delighted me when

this was done by handsome young persons or boys having well formed

legs and closely-fitting trousers. By means of such ideas I also came

to masturbate; and I practiced onanism quite frequently,—almost daily,

and, in fact, in absolute ignorance of the terrible results of the

vice. Thus it continued until my eighteenth year, when, thus far

absolutely unsuspecting, I was made aware of the vicious results of

the practice.

“From this time began the terrible struggle with the desire to give it

up, which I only too often abandoned. The fancies mentioned did not

leave me; I longed to be whipped by handsome young persons aged from

twenty to twenty-two years, wearing tight trousers. My fancy was

filled especially with young soldiers and hussars. At times I was able

to repress my imagination and avoid onanism; but I then had pollutions

with dreams of the same nature.

“After my twentieth year, to my astonishment, the sexual inclination

toward women, which I had noticed in comrades of my own age, and the

occurrence of which I expected in myself, did not appear. I was cold

toward women, and embarrassed in their presence. At the same time,

feminine nudity was not unpleasant; on the contrary, there was

something attractive about it, but my sensuality was not excited.

“I twice attempted coitus; I was not troubled about being in bed with

the girl, but rather kissed and embraced her with pleasure, and even

had traces of erection, but that was all. Since then I have had no

hope, and occasionally returned to onanism, which I had avoided for

some months previously. Nevertheless, I cultivated social intercourse

with ladies, and particularly young girls; and I was esteemed in

society, and liked for my graceful dancing. I was always hoping that

in this way my unhappy tendency would be overcome successfully, but in

vain; it grew constantly stronger. Thus I have lived hours of

wretchedness; and the ghost of suicide has passed before me. I once

confided in a physician in Pesth, but he had only the usual remedies

for persons suffering with sexual weakness,—cold baths, quieting

medicines, intercourse with women, etc.

“I tried everything in vain, until by accident a book on contrary

sexual instinct fell into my hands, and gave me the last ray of hope.

I have a respected position as a merchant, and appreciate thoroughly

the joys of family life; and I have an opportunity to marry, under the

most favorable circumstances, a young girl whom I love, and who loves

me. But I feel the cruel impossibility of this step. I suffer terribly

in thinking about these repulsive abnormalities. My only hope lies in

a cure by means of hypnosis. May it not be in vain!”

Pity and a scientific interest induced me to invite the writer of the

preceding lines to come to see me. Early in February Mr. D. came. He

was distinguished, pleasing, and masculine in appearance. Examination

of the case showed it to be one of masochism. He distinctly remembered

that, when he once saw fellow-pupils whipped by the teacher, it gave

him a feeling of lustful pleasure. He cannot remember that he was ever

whipped by a teacher. His masochism had been an _absolutely primary

manifestation_, and incomprehensible to him. Only gradually and _faute

de mieux_ had he come to practice onanism, during which ideas of

flagellation, in which he played the passive _rôle_, filled his mind.

He had never had desire to be whipped by the teacher; he always wished

to be flogged by fellow-pupils and well-grown young persons. Since

maturity he had never been able to induce himself to satisfy his

masochistic inclinations.

In intercourse with puellis he had repeatedly had the thought to have

himself whipped by them; but since this was not accompanied by sensual

feeling, it was not carried out. The patient declares that his

inclinations toward persons of his own sex are purely masochistic. In

other respects he finds nothing interesting in men. Until his

eighteenth year the patient had also sadistic tendencies. He was

enthusiastic about the position of the pedagogue and wanted to be a

teacher in order to be able to flog boys. _This ideal sadism later

disappeared entirely._ The patient complains that he feels alone in

the world, like a pariah, and that he is different from other men. But

his libido toward women had much diminished, possibly as a result of

his masturbation. He had no erection at the sight of feminine charms,

but the sight of a riding-whip or a cane excited him powerfully

sexually. When he attempted coitus, no masochistic ideas occurred.

Such ideas arose, however, whenever he saw attractive young men. He

believed that if he were freed from his ideas of flagellation, he

would be helped; for his sensuality would then direct itself in a

normal path.

The patient has neuropathic eyes, but is free from all degenerative

signs. In the direction of hereditary taint, it is noteworthy that his

maternal grandfather was peculiar, and shot himself while in a

psychopathic condition. The patient feels well, save for slight

neurasthenic troubles. Patellar reflex increased. The genitals are

perfectly normal. His dreams with pollutions are exclusively about

flagellation by young persons, particularly soldiers with tight

trousers.

The principles of treatment laid down were: 1. Removal of the symptoms

of neurasthenia. 2. Suggestive treatment looking to (_a_) avoidance of

onanism; (_b_) indifference toward his own sex and the disappearance

of thoughts of flagellation, both while awake and asleep; (_c_) libido

exclusively toward persons of the opposite sex, the occurrence of

erections at sight of beautiful women, complete power with women, and

dreams of women exclusively. At the first sitting, by means of

Bernheim’s method, the patient passed quickly into a state of deep

lethargy. At the second sitting (February 5) a cataleptic condition of

the muscles was induced. Sittings almost daily. It was seen that

stroking the brow induced deeper hypnosis with catalepsy, which,

however, did not go beyond deep lethargy. Suggestion was begun in the

third sitting.

February 10. The patient says that he has no longer any interest in

men, but a growing interest in women. He begins to dream of women.

February 13. He feels himself free from masochism during the day, and

canes and whipping do not interest him any more. At night he still has

“weak” dreams of flagellation concerning men, but without lustful

feeling or pollution. A short time ago he had had a dream that was

entirely strange, and without erotic coloring, to the effect that he

whipped himself.

February 19. The patient attempted coitus with a puella pleasing to

him. Erection was incomplete, and ejaculation did not occur; so he

gave up the attempt. The patient finds that his libido toward women is

still very slight. He was not discouraged by his failure, and expected

ultimate success; for he felt free from his abnormal tendencies, and

like another man. On February 20, unfortunately, the patient had to

discontinue treatment, being called home by duties there.

The fact that traces of sadism (_v. infra_), were simultaneously

present, lends certainty to the diagnosis of this rudimentary case as

one of masochism. The purely psychical character of this latter

perversion is unquestionable. At the same time, the case is combined

with incompletely developed contrary sexual instinct, an association not

infrequent in masochists and sadists.

In contrast with this case of rudimentary masochism, in which there is

some difficulty of diagnosis, follows a typical case of masochism, in

which the whole circle of ideas peculiar to this perversion appears

completely developed. This case, in which there is a detailed personal

description of the whole psychical state, is different from Case 44 only

in that here there is no thought of a realization of the perverse

fancies; and that, notwithstanding the perversion of the vita sexualis,

normal stimuli are so far effectual that sexual intercourse is possible

under normal conditions.

Case 50. I am thirty-five years old, mentally and physically normal.

Among all my relatives, in the direct as well as in the lateral line,

I know of no case of mental disease. My father, who, at my birth, was

thirty years old, as far as I know, had a preference for voluptuous,

large women.

Even in my early childhood I loved to revel in ideas about the

absolute mastery of one man over others. The thought of slavery had

something exciting in it for me, and alike whether from the

stand-point of master or servant. That one man could possess, sell, or

whip another, caused me intense excitement; and in reading “Uncle

Tom’s Cabin” (which I read at about the beginning of puberty), I had

erections. Particularly exciting for me was the thought of a man’s

being hitched up before a wagon in which another man sat with a whip,

driving and whipping him. Until my twentieth year these ideas were

purely objective and sexless,—_i.e._, the one in subjugation in my

fancy was another (not myself), and the master was not necessarily a

woman. These ideas were, therefore, without effect on my sexual

instinct,—_i.e._, on the way in which it was expressed. Though these

ideas caused erections, yet I have never masturbated in my life; and

from my nineteenth year I had coitus without the help of these ideas

and without any relation to them. I always had a great preference for

elderly, voluptuous, large women, though I did not scorn younger ones.

After my twenty-first year my ideas became objective, and it became an

essential thing that the “mistress” should be a woman over forty years

old, tall, and powerful. _From this time I was always, in my fancies,

the subject_; the “mistress” was a rough woman, who made use of me in

every way, also sexually; who harnessed me before a carriage, and made

me take her for a drive; whom I must follow like a dog; at whose feet

I must lie naked, and be punished—_i.e._, whipped—by her. This was the

constant element in my ideas, around which all others were grouped. In

these fancies I always found endless pleasure, which caused erection,

but never ejaculation. As a result of the induced sexual excitement, I

would immediately seek a woman, preferably one corresponding

exteriorly with my ideal, and have coitus with her without any actual

imitation of my fancies, and sometimes also without any thought of

them during the act. At the same time, I also had inclination toward

women of a different kind, and had coitus with them without being

impelled to it by my fancy.

Notwithstanding all this, my life was not exceedingly abnormal

sexually; yet these ideas were certain to occur periodically, and they

have remained essentially unchanged. With growing sexual desire, the

intervals constantly grew shorter. At the present time the ideas come

every two or three weeks. If I have had coitus, the occurrence of the

fancies is perhaps postponed. I have never attempted to realize my

very definite and characteristic ideas,—_i.e._, to connect them with

the objective world,—but I have contented myself with reveling in the

thoughts; because I was convinced that my ideal would not allow even

an approach to realization. The thought of a comedy with paid

prostitutes always seemed to me silly and purposeless; for a person

hired by me could never take the place in my imagination of a “cruel

mistress.” I doubt whether there are sadistically constituted women

like Sacher-Masoch’s heroines. But, if there were such women, and I

had the fortune (!) to find one, still, in a world of reality,

intercourse with her would always seem only like a farce to me.

Indeed, I can say that, were I to become the slave of a Messalina, I

believe that, owing to the other necessary renunciations, my desired

manner of life would soon pall on me, and in my lucid intervals I

should try to obtain my freedom at all hazards.

Yet I have found a way in which to induce, in a certain sense, a

realization. After my sexual desire has been intensely excited by

reveling in my fancy, I go to a prostitute and there call up before my

mind’s eye, with great intensity, some scene of the kind mentioned, in

which I play the principal _rôle_. After thinking of such a situation

for about half an hour, with a constantly resulting erection, I

perform coitus with increased lustful pleasure and strong ejaculation.

After the latter, the vision fades away. Ashamed, I depart as quickly

as possible, and try not to think of the affair. Then, for about two

weeks, I have no more such ideas; indeed, after a particularly

satisfactory coitus, it may happen that, until the next attack, I have

no sympathy whatever with masochistic ideas. But the next attack is

sure to come sooner or later. I must, however, state that I also have

coitus without being prepared by such ideas, especially, too, with

women that are acquainted with me and my position, and in whose

presence I abhor such fancies. _Under the latter circumstances,

however, I am not always potent, while, with masochistic ideas, my

virility is perfect._ It does not seem superfluous to add that

otherwise, in my thought and feeling, I am very æsthetic, and despise

anything like maltreatment of a human being. Finally, I will not leave

unmentioned the fact that the form of address is of importance. In my

fancies it is essential that the “mistress” address me in the second

person (_Du_), while I must address her in the third (_Sie_). This

circumstance of being thus familiarly addressed (_Du_) by a person so

inclined, as the expression of absolute mastery, has, from my youth,

given me lustful pleasure, and does to-day.

I had the fortune to find a wife who is in everything, but especially

sexually, attractive to me; though, as I scarcely need say, she in no

way resembles my masochistic ideal. She is gentle, but proud; for

without the latter characteristic I cannot conceive such a thing as

sexual charm. The first few months of married life were normal

sexually; the masochistic attacks did not occur, and I had almost lost

all thought of masochism. Then came the first confinement and the

necessary abstinence. Punctually, then, with the occurrence of libido,

came the masochistic fancies again, which, in spite of my great love

for my wife, necessitated coitus with another, with the accompaniment

of masochistic ideas. It is here worthy of note that _coitus

maritalis_, which was later resumed, did not prove sufficient to

banish the masochistic ideas, as masochistic coitus always does. As

for the essential element in masochism, I am of the opinion that the

ideas,—_i.e._, the mental element,—are the end and aim.

If the realization of the masochistic ideas (_i.e._, passive

flagellation, etc.) be the desired end, then it is in opposition with

the fact that the majority of masochists never attempt realization;

or, when this is attempted, great disappointment occurs, or at least

the desired satisfaction is not obtained.

Thus the reveling in imagination is the principal thing; and, in fact,

this gives an unspeakable delight that takes its subject beyond

external things, beyond all troubles and cares.

It is an astonishing fact that there is an author, who, instead of

keeping them to himself, as others do, discloses his imaginary ideals

to the world in novels and romances. In “Venus in Furs,” we find those

that are like us in feeling,—word for word, line for line, are

expressed the ideas so familiar to us, which we believe to be our own

exclusive discovery.

Until then I did not think it possible that there could be, in any

other brain than mine, the lustful thought of being harnessed to a

plow and made to work like a draught-horse.

And the ill-temper of the mistress to be served at the toilet and

bath; the imprisonment,—ah, how familiar such ideas are to us from

childhood!

Therefore, perhaps by reason of this open disclosure of things that

should be secret, the reading of this book shocks masochists,

undeceives them, and exerts a curative influence.

Finally, I should mention that, according to my experience, the number

of masochists, especially in large cities, seems to be quite large.

The only sources of such information are—since men do not reveal these

things—words of prostitutes; and, since they agree on the essential

points, it may be concluded that certain facts are proved.

Thus there is the fact that every experienced prostitute is accustomed

to keep some suitable instrument (usually a whip) for flagellation;

but it must be remembered that there are men who have themselves

whipped simply to increase their sexual pleasure; who, in contrast

with masochists, regard flagellation as a means to an end.

On the other hand, almost all prostitutes agree that there are many

men who like to play “slave,”—_i.e._, like to be so called, and have

themselves scolded and trod upon and beaten. As has been said, the

number of masochists is larger than has yet been dreamed.

As you can imagine, reading the “New Investigations”[62] made a great

impression on me. I should like to have faith in a cure, in a logical

cure, so to speak, in accordance with the motto: “Tout comprendre

c’est tout guérir.” (To understand all is to cure all.)

Of course the word _cure_ is to be taken with some limitation, and

there must be a distinction made between general feelings and concrete

ideas. The former can never be overcome; they come like a stroke of

lightning, are there, and one does not know whence or how.

But this practice of masochism in imagination, by means of concrete,

associated ideas, can be avoided, or at least restricted.

Now the thing is changed. I say to myself: What! you busy your mind

with things which not only the æsthetic sense of others, but also your

own, disapproves? You regard that as beautiful and desirable which, in

your own judgment, is at once ugly, coarse, silly, and impossible? You

long for a situation which in reality you can never obtain? This

opposing idea has an immediate inhibitory and undeceiving effect, and

takes the edge off the fancy. Too, since reading the “New

Investigations” (early this year), I have actually not reveled in my

fancy once, though the masochistic tendency has occurred with

regularity.

I must also confess that, in spite of its marked pathological

character, masochism is not only incapable of destroying my pleasure

in life, but it does not in the least affect my outward life. When not

in a masochistic state, as far as feeling and action are concerned, I

am a perfectly normal man. During the activity of the masochistic

tendencies there is, of course, a great revolution in my feeling, but

my outward manner of life suffers no change; I have a calling that

makes it necessary for me to move much in public, and I pursue it in

the masochistic condition as well as ever.

The author of the foregoing lines also sends me the following notes:—

1. Masochism, according to my experience, is, under all circumstances,

congenital, and never acquired by the individual. I know positively

that I was never spanked; that my masochistic ideas were manifested

from my earliest youth; and that, as long as I have been capable of

thinking, I have had such thoughts. If the origin of them had been the

result of a particular event, especially of a beating, I should

certainly not have forgotten it. It is characteristic that the ideas

were present before there was any libido. At that time the ideas were

absolutely sexless. I remember that, when a boy, it affected (not to

say excited) me intensely when an older boy addressed me in the second

person (_Du_), while I spoke to him in the third (_Sie_). I would keep

up a conversation with him, and have the exchange of address take

place as often as possible. Later, when I had become more mature

sexually, such things affected me only when they occurred with a

married woman, and one relatively old.

2. Physically and mentally I am in all respects masculine. I have a

superabundant growth of beard, and my whole body is very hairy. In my

relations to the female sex that are not masochistic, the dominating

position of the man is an indispensable condition, and any attempt to

change it would meet with my energetic opposition. I am energetic, if

not over-courageous; but the want of courage is not manifest when my

pride is injured. I am not sensitive to events in nature

(thunder-storms, storms at sea, etc.).[63]

Too, my masochistic tendencies have nothing feminine or effeminate

about them (?). To be sure, in these the inclination to be sought and

desired by the woman is dominant; but the general relation desired

with her is not that in which a woman stands to a man, but that of the

slave to the master, the domestic animal to its owner. If one regards

the ultimate aim of masochism without prejudice, it must be

acknowledged that its ideal is the position of a dog or horse. Both

are owned by masters, and punished by them; and the masters are

responsible to no one. Just this unlimited power of life and death, as

exercised over slaves and domestic animals, is the end and aim of all

masochistic ideas.

3. The foundation of all masochistic ideas is libido; and as this ebbs

and flows, so do the masochistic fancies. On the other hand, as soon

as the ideas are present, they greatly intensify the libido. I am by

no means excessively sensual naturally. However, when the masochistic

ideas occur, I am impelled to coitus at any cost (for the most part I

am driven to the lowest women); and if these impulses are not soon

obeyed, libido soon becomes almost satyriasis. One is almost justified

in looking upon this as a _circulus vitiosus_.

Libido occurs either in the course of time, or as the result of

especial excitement (also of a kind that is not masochistic,—_e.g._,

kissing). In spite of its manner of origin, this libido, by virtue of

the masochistic ideas it engenders, is soon transformed into a

masochistic and impure libido.

Moreover, there is no doubt that external, accidental impressions,

particularly loitering in the streets of a large city, greatly

intensify the desire. The sight of beautiful and imposing female

forms, _in nature_ as well as in art, is exciting. For those subject

to masochism,—at least during the attacks,—the whole external world

becomes masochistic. The box on the ear administered by the teacher to

the pupil and the crack of the driver’s whip make deep impressions on

the masochist, while they leave him indifferent or annoy him when he

is not in the masochistic state.

4. An example of masochistic ideas follows: “She” is a peasant

woman,—a rough, tall, large-boned woman of forty or fifty years. She

is the possessor of a small, remote farm, which she works with the

help of her slave alone. The work begins before sunrise. At four

o’clock in the morning she opens the shed where she has kept me shut

up over night, and wakens me, as I lie on the ground, with a kick;

then she leads me out and harnesses me to a milk-cart bound for town.

She leads me by a halter, and urges me along. On the road she gets on

the heavily-loaded wagon, and sleeps until the destination is reached.

There, in the open market-place of the town, still harnessed to the

wagon, I lie down on the bare ground to rest. Those passing knock

against me or step on me, without giving me any attention. After the

stock is sold, we start homeward. After a short rest the work begins

again, always under the direction of the mistress, who holds me by the

halter and urges me on. At seven or eight o’clock at night I am put up

to rest, and sleep until the next morning, when the same thing begins

again. Work and blows, blows and work; no pleasure, no recreation, day

in and day out!

Another time I fancy myself in the _rôle_ of a paid lover of an

elderly female _roué_, who makes use of me, sexually, in the most

reckless manner; and in this direction makes the most shameful demands

on me. If I do not submit to these willingly, I am beaten and

punished; and, at the same time, she despises me unspeakably; gives me

the lowest housework to do; and on every occasion shows me how low an

opinion she has of my manhood.

I cannot clothe the character of masochism in any better formula than

the following: A real masochist, without reflection, prefers the kick

of a low woman to the embrace of a Venus.

5. In reading Sacher-Masoch, it struck me that in masochists, now and

then, there was also an undercurrent of sadistic feeling. Too, I have

now and then discovered in myself sporadic feelings of sadism. I must

remark, however, that the sadistic feelings are not so marked as the

masochistic; and that, aside from the fact that they are infrequently

accessory, the sadistic fancies never leave the sphere of abstract

feeling, and, above all, never take the form of concrete, connected

ideas (like those above mentioned). The effect on libido, however, is

the same with both.

If this case is remarkable on account of the complete development of the

psychical state that constitutes masochism, the following one is

noteworthy because of the great extravagance of the acts resulting from

the perversion. The case is also particularly suited to make clear the

reason for the subjection and humiliation at the hands of the woman, and

the peculiar sexual coloring of the resulting situations:—

Case 51. _Masochism._—Mr. Z., official, aged 50; tall, muscular,

healthy. He is said to come of healthy parentage, but his father was

thirty years older than his mother. A sister, two years older than Z.,

suffers with delusions of persecution. There is nothing remarkable in

Z.’s external appearance. Skeleton entirely masculine; abundant beard,

but no hair on trunk. He characterizes himself as a man of sanguine

temperament, whom no one can depress; though irascible and

quick-tempered, he is quick to regret outbursts.

Z. says he has never masturbated. From his youth there have been

nightly pollutions, in which girls play a part; but the sexual act,

never. For example, he dreams that a pleasing woman lies heavily on

him, or that, as he lies sleeping on the grass, she playfully walks up

his back. Z. had always been averse to coitus with a woman. This act

seemed animal to him. Nevertheless, he was drawn to women. It was only

in the society of beautiful women and girls that he felt well and in

his place. He was very gallant without being forward.

A voluptuous woman of beautiful form, and particularly with a pretty

foot, when seated, had the power to throw him into intense excitement.

He was impelled to offer himself as a chair, in order “to offer so

much devotion.” A kick, a box on the ear from her, would be heaven to

him. He had a horror at the thought of coitus with her. He felt the

need to serve the woman. He thought how ladies liked to ride. He

reveled in the thought of how fine it would be to be wearied by the

burden of a beautiful woman, in order to give her pleasure. He painted

the situation in all colors; thought of the beautiful foot armed with

spurs, the beautiful legs, and the soft, full thighs. Every beautiful

mature woman, every pretty female foot, always excited his

imagination; but he never betrayed the peculiar feelings that seemed

to him abnormal, and was able to control himself. But he felt no need

to fight against them; on the contrary, it would have hurt him had he

been compelled to give up the feelings that had become so dear to him.

At the age of thirty-two Z. happened to make the acquaintance of an

attractive woman, aged twenty-seven, who had been separated from her

husband, and whom he found in need. He took her, and worked for her,

without any selfish motive, for months. One evening she impatiently

demanded sexual satisfaction from him, and almost used violence.

Coitus was successful. Z. took the woman, lived with her, and indulged

in coitus moderately; but coitus was more a burden than a pleasure;

erections became weak, and he could no longer satisfy the woman. She

finally declared that she would not have intercourse with him, because

he only excited without satisfying her. Though he loved the woman very

much, he could not give up his peculiar fancies. After this he lived

with her only in friendly relations, and deeply regretted that he

could not serve her in the way she desired.

Fear of how she would receive his propositions, and a feeling of

shame, kept him from confessing. He found a substitute in his dreams.

Thus, for example, he dreamed that he was a proud, fiery steed, ridden

by a beautiful lady. He, felt her weight, the bit he had to obey, the

pressure of the thighs on his flanks; he heard her beautiful, joyous

voice. The exertion threw him into a perspiration; the touch of the

spurs did the rest, and always induced pollution with great lustful

pleasure. At other times be dreamed that he was a small, weak horse.

Then a large, heavy woman came and mounted the horse, and set off on a

long journey in the mountains. Recklessly, and without mercy, she

allowed the poor animal to feel her weight; she made herself

comfortable on his back; while he threatened to give out under her,

she had the greatest enjoyment, and with calm mind enjoyed the

beautiful scenery. Under the influence of such dreams, seven years ago

Z. overcame his reluctance, in order to experience such things in

reality. He was successful in creating suitable opportunity. He speaks

of it as follows: “I knew how to arrange it so that on an occasion she

would, of her own will, seat herself on my back. Then I endeavored to

make this situation as pleasant as possible, and easily made it so

that on the next occasion she said, spontaneously: ‘Come, give me a

little ride!’ Swelling with pride, and with both hands braced on a

chair, I made my back horizontal, and she mounted astride, after the

manner of a man. I then did the best I could to imitate the movements

of a horse, and loved to have her treat me like a horse, without any

thought of _me_. She could beat, prick, scold, or caress me, just as

she felt inclined. I could carry on my back persons weighing from

sixty to eighty kilos, for half or three-quarters of an hour, without

interruption. At the end of this time I usually asked for a rest.

During this the intercourse between the mistress and me was perfectly

harmless and without any relation to what had preceded. After about a

quarter of an hour I was always rested, and placed myself at the

disposal of the mistress again. When time and circumstances allowed

it, I did this three or four times in succession. It sometimes

happened that I practiced it both in the morning and afternoon. After

it I never felt weary or had any uncomfortable feeling; but on such

days I had very little appetite. When possible, I liked best to bare

my trunk, that I might feel the rider more perfectly. The mistress had

to be decent. I liked her best in pretty shoes and stockings, with

short, closed drawers, reaching to the knee; with the upper portion of

her person completely dressed, and with hat and gloves.”

Mr. Z. further says that he has not performed coitus in seven years;

but he thinks he is potent. The riding was a perfect substitute for

that “animal act,” even when ejaculation was not induced.

For eight months Z. had determined to give up his masochistic play,

and had kept his determination. But he thought that if a woman only

half-way pretty were to address him directly, and say, “Come, I want

to ride you,” he would not be strong enough to withstand the

temptation. Z. wishes to know whether his abnormality is curable;

whether he is unworthy as a vicious man, or an invalid deserving pity.

The following case seems very similar:—

Case 52. A man finds satisfaction in the following manner:

Occasionally he goes to a puella publica. Here he has a porcelain

ring, like those used in hanging curtains, put on his penis. Two cords

are attached to the ring and drawn backward between his legs and

attached to the bedstead. Then he tells the woman to beat him

mercilessly with a whip and cry “whoa” to him constantly, and treat

and abuse him as if he were an unruly horse. The more the woman spurs

him on to pull, with shouts and blows, the greater his sexual

excitement becomes. Erection occurs (probably mechanically favored by

compression of the dorsal vein of the penis, which, when the cords are

strained, must be closed by the pressure of the hard ring). With

increasing erection, the whole member is compressed by the ring, and

finally ejaculation occurs, with lustful feeling.

Even in the foregoing series of cases, with other things, the act of

being walked upon has played a _rôle_ as a means of expressing the

masochistic situations of humiliation and pain. The exclusive and most

extensive use of this means for perverse excitation and satisfaction is

shown in the following classical case of masochism, which Hammond

reports (_op. cit._, p. 28) from an observation by Dr. Cox,[64] of

Colorado:—

Case 53. X., a model husband, very moral, the father of several

children, has times—_i.e._, attacks—in which he visits brothels,

chooses two or three of the largest girls, and shuts himself up with

them. He bares the upper portion of his body, lies down on the floor,

crosses his hands on his abdomen, closes his eyes, and then has the

girls walk over his naked breast, neck, and face, urging them at every

step to press hard on his flesh with the heels of their shoes.

Sometimes he wants a heavier girl, or some other act still more cruel

than this procedure. After two or three hours he has enough. He pays

the girls with wine and money, rubs his blue bruises, dresses himself,

pays his bill, and goes back to his business, only to give himself the

same strange pleasure again after a few weeks.

Occasionally it happens that he has one of the girls stand on his

breast; and the others then turn her around until his skin is torn and

bleeding from the turning of the heels of her shoes. Frequently one of

the girls has to stand on him in such a way that one shoe is over the

eyes, with its heel pressing on one eye, while the other rests across

his neck. In this position he endures the pressure of a person

weighing about one hundred and fifty pounds for four or five minutes.

_The author speaks of dozens of similar cases that are known to him._

Hammond presumes, with reason, that this man had become impotent for

intercourse with women; that, in this strange procedure, he found an

equivalent for coitus; and that, when the heels drew blood, he had

pleasant sexual feelings, accompanied by ejaculation.

The ten cases of masochism thus far described, and the numerous

analogous cases mentioned by those who report them, form a counterpart

to the previously described group “_c_” of sadism. Just as in sadism men

excite and satisfy themselves by maltreating women, so in masochism the

same effect is sought in the passive reception of similar abuse. But

group “_a_” of the sadists,—that of lust-murder,—strange as it may seem,

is not without its counterpart in masochism. In its extreme

consequences, masochism must lead to the desire to be killed by a person

of the opposite sex, in the same way that sadism has its acme in active

lust-murder. But the instinct of self-preservation opposes such a

result; so that the extreme is not actually carried out. When, however,

the whole structure of masochistic ideas is purely psychical, in the

imagination of such individuals, even the extreme may be reached; as the

following case shows:—

Case 54. A middle-aged man, married and the father of a family, who

has always led a normal vita sexualis, but who says he comes of a very

nervous family, makes the following communication: In his early youth

he was powerfully excited sexually at the sight of a woman

slaughtering an animal with a knife. From that time, for many years,

he had reveled in the lustfully-colored idea of being stabbed and cut

and even killed by women with knives. Later, after the beginning of

normal sexual intercourse, these ideas lost completely their perverse

stimulus for him.

This case should be compared with the statements made under Case 44,

according to which men find sexual pleasure in being lightly pricked

with knives in the hands of women, who, at the same time, threaten them

with death.

Such fancies, perhaps, give the key to an understanding of the following

strange case, for which I am indebted to a communication from Dr.

Körber, of Rankau:—

Case 55. A lady makes me the following communication: While still a

young and innocent girl, she was married to a man of about thirty

years. On their wedding-night he forced a towel and soap into her

hands, and, without any other expression of love, wanted her to lather

his chin and neck (as if for shaving). The inexperienced young wife

did it, and was not a little astonished, during the first weeks of

married life, to learn its secrets in absolutely no other form. Her

husband always told her that it gave him the greatest delight to have

his face lathered by her. Later, after she had sought the advice of

friends, she induced her husband to perform coitus, and had three

children in the course of time (by him, she states with every

assurance). The husband is industrious and reliable, but a moody man,

with little perseverance; by occupation a merchant.

It may be inferred that this man conceived the act of being shaved

(_i.e._, the lathering as a preparatory measure) as a rudimentary,

symbolic realization of ideas of injury or death, or of fancies about

knives; like those the man previously mentioned had had in his youth,

and by means of which he had been sexually excited and satisfied. The

perfect sadistic counterpart to this case, looked upon in this light, is

offered by Case 35, which is a case of symbolic sadism.

At any rate, there is a whole group of masochists who satisfy themselves

with the symbolic representations of situations corresponding with their

perversion; a group that corresponds with group “_e_” of “symbolic”

sadists, just as the previously mentioned cases of masochism correspond

with the groups “_c_” and “_a_” of sadism. Thus, just as the perverse

longings of the masochist may, on the one hand, advance to “passive

lust-murder” (to be sure, only in imagination); so, on the other hand,

they may be satisfied with simple symbolic representations of the

desired situations, which otherwise are expressed in acts of cruelty

(this, of course, taken objectively, goes much further than the idea of

being murdered, but in fact not so far, owing to the determining

subjective conditions).

With Case 55, other similar cases should be here described, in which the

acts desired and planned by the masochist have a purely symbolic

character, and, to a certain extent, serve to indicate the desired

situation.

Case 56. (Pascal, “Igiene dell’ amore.”) Every three months a man of

about forty-five years would visit a certain prostitute, and pay her

ten francs for the following act. The puella had to undress him, tie

his hands and feet, bandage his eyes, and draw the curtains of the

windows. Then she would have her guest sit down on a sofa, and had to

leave him there alone. After half an hour she had to come back and

unbind him. Then the man would pay her and leave perfectly satisfied,

to repeat his visit in about three months.

In the dark this man seems to have extended this situation, of being

helpless in the hands of a woman, further in imagination. The following

case, in which again a complicated comedy, in the sense of masochistic

desires, is played, is still more peculiar:—

Case 57. (Dr. Pascal, _ibid._) A gentleman in Paris was accustomed to

call on certain evenings at a house where a woman, the owner, acceded

to his peculiar desire. He entered the _salon_ in full-dress, and she,

likewise in evening _toilette_, had to receive him with a very haughty

manner. He addressed her as “Marquise,” and she had to call him “dear

Count.” Then he spoke of his good fortune in finding her alone, of his

love for her, and of a lover’s rendezvous. At this the lady had to

feel insulted. The pseudo-count grew bolder and bolder, and asked the

pseudo-marquise for a kiss on her shoulder. There is an angry scene;

the bell is rung; a servant, prepared for the occasion, appears, and

throws the count out of the house. He departs well satisfied, and pays

the actors in the farce handsomely.

In connection with this case of symbolic masochism, two more are here

given, in which the psychical perversion was entirely confined to the

sphere of thought and imagination, and no realization was attempted. The

first is that of an individual, mentally and physically predisposed,

bearing degenerative signs, in whom mental and physical impotence

occurred early:—

Case 58. Mr. Z., aged 22, single, was brought to me by his father for

medical advice, because he was very nervous and apparently abnormal

sexually. Mother and maternal grandmother were insane. His father

begat him at a time when he was suffering severely nervously.

Patient is said to have been a very lively and talented child. At the

age of seven he was noticed to practice masturbation. After his ninth

year he became inattentive, forgetful, and did not progress in his

studies, constantly requiring help and protection. With difficulty he

got through the Gymnasium, and during his time of freedom had

attracted attention by his indolence, absent-mindedness, and various

foolish acts.

Consultation was occasioned by an occurrence on the street, in which

Z. had forced himself on a young girl in a very impetuous manner, and

in great excitement had tried to have a conversation with her.

The patient gave as a reason, that, by conversing with a respectable

girl, he wished to excite himself so that he could be potent in coitus

with a prostitute!

His father characterizes him as a man of perfectly good disposition,

moral, but lazy, and dissatisfied with himself; as one often in

despair about his want of success in life; as indolent, and interested

in nothing but music, for which he possesses great talent.

The patient’s exterior—his plagiocephalic head; his large, prominent

ears; the deficient innervation of the right facialis about the mouth;

the neuropathic expression of the eyes—indicates a degenerate,

neuropathic individual.

Z. is tall, of powerful frame, and, in all respects, of masculine

appearance. Pelvis masculine; testicles well developed; penis

remarkably large; mons veneris with abundant hair. The right testicle

hangs much lower than the left; the cremasteric reflex is weak on both

sides. The patient is below the average intellectually. He feels his

deficiency, complains of his indolence, and asks to have his will

strengthened. His awkward, embarrassed manner, timid glances, and

relaxed attitude, point to masturbation. The patient confesses that

from his seventh year, until a year and a half ago, he practiced it,

years at a time, from eight to ten times daily. Until a few years ago,

when he became neurasthenic (cephalic pressure, loss of mental power,

spinal irritation, etc.), he says he always found great sensual

pleasure in it. Since then this had been lost, and the desire to

masturbate had disappeared. He had constantly grown more bashful and

indolent, less energetic, and more cowardly and apprehensive. He had

lost interest in everything, and did his business only from a sense of

duty, feeling very low-spirited. He had never thought of coitus, and,

from his stand-point as an onanist, he could not understand how others

could find pleasure in it.

Investigations in the direction of contrary sexual instinct gave a

negative result. He says he never was drawn toward persons of his own

sex; he rather thinks that he has now and then had a weak inclination

for females. He asserts that he came to masturbate independently. In

his thirteenth year he first noticed ejaculations as a result of

masturbatic manipulations.

It was only after long persuasion that Z. consented to entirely unveil

his vita sexualis. As his statements, which follow, show, he may be

classified as a case of ideal masochism, with rudimentary sadism. The

patient distinctly remembers that, at the age of six, without any

cause, he had “ideas of violence.” He was compelled to imagine that a

servant-girl spread his legs apart and showed his genitals to another;

that she tried to throw him into cold or hot water, in order to cause

him pain. These “ideas of violence” were attended with lustful

feeling, and became the cause of masturbatic manipulations. Later the

patient called them up voluntarily, in order to incite himself to

masturbation. They also played a part in his dreams; but they never

induced pollution, apparently because the patient masturbated

excessively during the day.

In time, to these masochistic “ideas of violence,” others of a

sadistic nature were added. At first they were scenes in which boys

forcibly practiced onanism on one another, or cut off the genitals. He

often imagined himself such a boy, now in an active, now in a passive,

_rôle_. Later he busied himself with mental pictures of girls and

women that exhibited themselves to one another. He reveled in the

thought, for example, of a servant-girl spreading another girl’s legs

apart and pulling the genital hair; or in the thought of boys treating

girls cruelly, and pricking and pinching their genitals.

Such ideas also always induced sexual excitement, but he never

experienced any impulse to carry them out actively or to have them

performed on himself passive. It satisfied him to use them for

masturbation. Since a year and a half ago, with diminishing sexual

imagination and libido, these ideas and impulses had become

infrequent, but their content remained unchanged. The masochistic

“ideas of violence” predominated over the sadistic. Now, when he sees

a lady, he has the thought that she has sexual ideas like his own. In

this way, in part, he explains his embarrassment in social

intercourse. Owing to the fact that he had heard that he would get rid

of his burdensome sexual ideas, if he were to accustom himself to

natural sexual indulgence, during the last year and a half he has

twice attempted coitus though he only experienced repugnance, and was

not confident of success. On both occasions the attempt was a fiasco.

The second time he made the attempt, he felt such aversion that he

pushed the girl away and fled.

The second case is the following one, placed at my disposal by a

colleague. Even though it be aphoristic, it seems particularly suited to

throw a clear light on the distinctive element of masochism,—the

consciousness of subjection, in its peculiar psycho-sexual effect:—

Case 59. _Masochism._—Z., aged 27, artist. He is powerfully built, of

pleasing appearance, and is said to be free from hereditary taint.

Healthy in youth, since his twenty-third year he has been nervous and

inclined to be hypochondriacal. Though inclined to indulgence

sexually, he is not very virile. In spite of associations with

females, his relations with them are limited to innocent attentions.

At the same time, his desire to devote himself to women that are cold

toward him is remarkable. Since his twenty-fifth year he has noticed

that females, no matter how ugly, always excite him sexually, whenever

he discovers anything domineering in their character. An angry word

from the lips of such a woman is sufficient to give him the most

violent erections. Thus, one day, he sat in a _café_ and heard the

(ugly) female cashier scold the waiters in a loud voice. This threw

him into the most intense sexual excitement, which soon induced

ejaculation. Z. requires the women, with whom he is to have sexual

intercourse, to repulse and annoy him in various ways. He thinks that

only a woman like the heroines of Sacher-Masoch’s romances could charm

him.

Cases like this, in which the whole perversion of the vita sexualis is

confined to the sphere of imagination,—to the inner world of thought and

instinct,—and only accidentally comes to the knowledge of others, do not

seem to be infrequent. Their _practical_ significance, like that of

masochism in general (which has not the great forensic importance of

sadism), is confined to the psychical impotence to which such

individuals, as a rule, become subject; and to the intense impulse to

solitary indulgence, with adequate imaginary ideas, and its results.

That masochism is a perversion of uncommonly frequent occurrence is

sufficiently shown by the relatively large number of cases that have

thus far been studied scientifically, as well as by the agreement of the

various statements reported.

The works concerning prostitution in large cities also contain numerous

statements concerning this matter.

Léo Taxil (_op. cit._, p. 228) describes masochistic scenes in Parisian

brothels. The man affected with this perversion is there also called

“slave.”

Coffignon (“La corruption à Paris”) has a chapter in his book entitled

“Les Passionels,” which contains contributions to this subject.

It is interesting and worthy of mention, that one of the most celebrated

of men was subject to this perversion, and describes it in his

autobiography (though somewhat erroneously). From “Jean Jacques

Rousseau’s Confessions” it is evident that he was affected with

masochism.

Rousseau, with reference to whose life and malady Möbius (“J. J.

Rousseau’s Krankengeschichte,” Leipzig, 1889) and Chatelain (“La folie

de J. J. Rousseau,” Neuchatel, 1890) may be consulted, tells, in his

“Confessions” (part i, book i), how Miss Lambercier, aged thirty,

greatly impressed him when he was eight years old and lived with her

brother as his pupil. Her solicitude, when he could not immediately

answer a question, and her threats to punish him if he did not learn

well, made the deepest impression on him. When, one day, he had blows

at her hands, with the feeling of pain and shame, he also experienced

sensual pleasure that incited a great desire to be whipped by her

again. It was only for fear of disturbing the lady, that Rousseau

failed to make other opportunities to experience this lustful, sensual

feeling. One day, however, he unintentionally gave cause for a

whipping at Miss Lambercier’s hands. This was the last; for Miss

Lambercier must have noticed something of the peculiar effect of the

punishment; and from this time on she did not allow the eight-year-old

boy to sleep in her room. From this time Rousseau felt a desire to

have himself punished by ladies pleasing to him, a la Lambercier; but

he asserts that until his youth he knew nothing of the relation of the

sexes to each other. As is known, Rousseau was first introduced to the

real mysteries of love in his thirtieth year, and lost his innocence

through Madame de Warrens. Until that time he had had only feelings

and impulses attracting him to woman, in the nature of passive

flagellation and other masochistic ideas.

Rousseau describes, _in extenso_, how he suffered, with his great sexual

desires, by reason of his peculiar sensuality, which had undoubtedly

been awakened by his whippings; for he reveled in desire, and could not

disclose his longings. It would be erroneous, however, to suppose that

Rousseau was concerned merely with flagellation. Flagellation only

awakened ideas of a masochistic nature. At least, in these ideas lies

the psychological nucleus of his interesting study of self. The

essential element with Rousseau was the feeling of subjection to the

woman. This is clearly shown by the “Confessions,” in which he expressly

emphasizes that “_Etre aux genoux d’une maitresse impérieuse, obéir à

ses ordres, avoir des pardons à lui demander,—etaient pour moi de très

douces jouissances._”[65]

This passage proves that the consciousness of subjection and humiliation

before the woman was the most important element.

To be sure, Rousseau was himself in error in supposing that this impulse

to be humiliated before a woman had arisen by association of ideas from

the idea of flagellation:—

“N’osant jamais déclarer mon goût, je l’amusais du moins par des

rapports qui m’en conservaient l’idée.”[66]

It is only in connection with the numerous cases of masochism, the

existence of which has now been established, and among which there are

so many that are in nowise connected with flagellation, showing the

primary and pure psychical character of this instinct of subjection,—it

is only in connection with these cases that a complete insight into

Rousseau’s case is obtained, and the error detected into which he

necessarily fell in the analysis of his own condition.

Binet (_Revue Anthropologique_, xxiv, p. 256), who analyzes Rousseau’s

case in detail, also justly calls attention to its masochistic

significance, when he says: “Ce qu’aime Rousseau dans les femmes, ce

n’est pas seulement le sourcil froncé, la main levée, le regard sévère,

l’attitude impérieuse, c’est aussi l’état émotionnel, dont ces faits

sont la traduction extérieure; il aime la femme fière, dédaigneuse,

l’écrasant à ses pieds du poids de sa royale colère.”[67]

The solution of this enigmatical psychological fact Binet finds in his

assumption that it is an instance of fetichism, only with the difference

that the object of the fetichism—i.e., the object of individual

attraction (fetich)—is not a portion of the body, like a hand or foot,

but a mental peculiarity. This enthusiasm he calls “_amour

spiritualiste_,” in contrast with “_amour plastique_,” as manifested in

ordinary fetichism.

This deduction is acute, but it gives only a word with which to

designate a fact, not a solution of it. Whether an explanation is

possible will later occupy our attention.

There were also elements of masochism (and sadism) in the celebrated, or

notorious, French writer, C. P. Baudelaire, who died insane.

Baudelaire came of an insane and eccentric family. From his youth he

was mentally abnormal. His vita sexualis was decidedly abnormal. He

had love-affairs with ugly, repulsive women,—negresses, dwarfs,

giantesses. About a very beautiful woman, he expressed the wish to see

her hung up by her hands, and to kiss her feet. This enthusiasm for

the naked foot also appears in one of his glowing poems as the

equivalent of sexual indulgence. He said women were animals who had to

be shut up, beaten, and fed well. The man displaying these masochistic

and sadistic inclinations died of paretic dementia. (Lombroso, “The

Man of Genius.”)

In scientific literature, the conditions that constitute masochism have

not received attention until recently. All there is to mention is that

Tarnowsky (“die Krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinns,” Berlin,

1886) relates that he has known happily married, intellectual men, who

from time to time felt an irresistible impulse to subject themselves to

the coarsest, cynical treatment,—to scoldings or blows from passive or

active pederasts, or prostitutes. It is worthy of remark that, in

Tarnowsky’s observation, in certain cases blows, even when they draw

blood, do not bring the result desired (virility, or at least

ejaculation during flagellation) by those given to passive flagellation.

“The individual must then be undressed by force, his hands tied,

fastened to a bench, etc., during which he fancies that he makes

opposition, scolds, and pretends to resist. Only under such

circumstances do the blows induce excitement that leads to ejaculation.”

O. Zimmermann’s work, “Die Wonne des Leids,” Leipzig, 1885, also

contributes much to this subject,[68] taken from the history and

literature.

Of late the subject has been given much attention.

A. Moll, in his work, “Die Conträre Sexualempfindung,” pp. 133 and 141

_et seq._, Berlin, 1891, gives a number of cases of complete masochism

in individuals of contrary sexuality, and among them the case of a man

suffering with contrary sexual instinct, who sent written instructions,

containing twenty paragraphs, to a man engaged for his purpose, who was

to treat and abuse him like a slave.

In June, 1891, Mr. Dimitri von Stefanowsky, Deputy Government Attorney

in Jaroslaw, Russia, informed me that, about three years before, he had

given his attention to the perversion of the vita sexualis, designated

“masochism” by me, and called “passivism” by him; that a year and a half

previously he had prepared a paper on the subject for Professor von

Kowalewsky for the Russian _Archives of Psychiatry_; and that in

November, 1888, he had read a paper on this subject, considered in its

legal and psychological aspects, before the Legal Society of Moscow

(printed in the _Juridischen Boten_, the organ of the society, in

numbers 6 to 8).

In later fiction the psycho-sexual perversion which forms the subject of

this study has been treated by Sacher-Masoch, whose writings, already

frequently alluded to, afford typical pictures of the perverse mental

life of men of this kind. Many affected with this perversion refer

directly to the writings of Sacher-Masoch, as is seen from the foregoing

cases, as typical descriptions of their own psychical condition.

In “Nana,” Zola has a masochistic scene, and likewise in “Eugène

Rougon.” The latest “decadent” literature of France and Germany is also

largely concerned with the themes of sadism and masochism. According to

von Stefanowsky’s statement, the modern Russian novel frequently treats

the subject; but the statements of the writer of travels, Johann Georg

Forster (1754–1794), show that this subject also played a _rôle_ in

Russian folk-songs.

(b) _Foot-and Shoe-Fetichists—Larvated Masochism._—Following the

above-mentioned group of “symbolic” masochists, who do not exactly

desire abuse by women as the means of expression of subjection, but all

kinds of silly acts that can be understood only through an acquaintance

with the masochistic circle of ideas, comes the very numerous class of

foot- and shoe-fetichists.

By fetichists (_v. infra_, 3) I understand individuals whose sexual

interest is confined exclusively to parts of the female body, or to

certain portions of female attire. One of the most frequent forms of

this fetichism is that in which the female foot or shoe is the fetich,

and becomes the exclusive object of sexual feeling and desire. It is

highly probable, and shown by a correct classification of the observed

cases, that the majority—and perhaps all—of the cases of shoe-fetichism

rest upon a basis of more or less conscious masochistic desire for

self-humiliation.

In Hammond’s case (Case 53) the satisfaction of a masochist was found in

being trod upon. In Cases 44 and 48, they also had themselves trod upon;

in Case 51, _equus eroticus_, the person loved a woman’s foot, etc. In

the majority of cases of masochism, the act of being trod upon with feet

plays a part[69] as an easily accessible means of expressing the

relation of subjection.

Of the numerous established cases of shoe-fetichism, the following one,

reported by Dr. A. Moll, of Berlin, which corresponds in many respects

with Hammond’s case, but which is described in more detail and more

carefully observed, seems especially suited to show the connection

between masochism and shoe-fetichism:—

Case 60. O. L., aged 31, book-keeper in a city of Wurtemburg; comes of

a tainted family.

The patient is a large, powerful man, of ruddy appearance. In general

he is of a quiet temperament, but may become very violent on occasion;

he says himself that he is quarrelsome and inclined to assert himself.

L. is of a kindly disposition and generous; easily made to weep. At

school he passed for a talented pupil, with good powers of

comprehension. The patient at times has congestion of the head, but is

otherwise healthy, except that he is much depressed and melancholic as

a result of his sexual perversion, here to be described.

But little can be learned of any hereditary taint.

The following facts concerning the development of his sexual life are

gathered from the patient’s own statements:—

In very early youth—in fact, when he was eight or nine years old—L.

had the desire to lick his teacher’s boots like a dog. L. thinks it

possible that this thought was excited in him by his once seeing a dog

actually do this, but he cannot state this with certainty; and it

seems much more certain to the patient that the first ideas of this

kind came in a waking state, not in dreams.

From his tenth to his fourteenth year he constantly sought to touch

the shoes of his fellow-pupils, and also those of little girls; but

for this purpose he always chose boys who had wealthy and prominent

parents. One of these, the son of a rich landed proprietor, had

riding-boots; in the boy’s absence L. took these in his hands, struck

himself with them, and pressed them against his face. L. did the same

thing with the elegant boots of an officer of dragoons.

After the beginning of puberty the desire was transferred exclusively

to the boots of females. Thus, while skating, the patient’s attention

was entirely occupied with putting on and taking off skates for

ladies; but he always chose only such women as were rich and prominent

socially, wearing elegant boots. In the street and everywhere L.

constantly looked for elegant boots. His love for them went so far

that he often put in his purse, and even in his mouth, the sand and

mud that bore their imprints. As a boy of fourteen L. visited

brothels; and he often visited a _café chantant_ solely to excite

himself with the sight of elegant boots (low shoes were less

attractive). In his school-books and on the walls of closets, L. drew

boots. In the theatre he saw nothing but the shoes of the ladies. For

hours at a time, in the street and on board steam-boats, L. would run

after ladies wearing elegant boots; and he thought with delight of how

he might get a chance to touch the boots. This peculiar love for boots

remains unchanged. _The thought to have himself trod upon by ladies in

their boots, or to kiss the boots, gives L. the most intense sensual

delight._ Before shoe-stores he will stand and stand, merely to look

at the boots. He is particularly excited by their elegance.

The patient prefers high-buttoned or laced boots with high heels; but

less elegant boots, even with low heels, also excite him, if their

wearer is a wealthy, distinguished, and proud lady.

At the age of twenty L. attempted coitus; but, “in spite of the

greatest efforts,” as he believes, he was not successful. During the

attempt the patient had no thought of shoes; on the contrary, he had

first sought to excite himself sexually with shoes, and he asserts

that too great excitement was to blame for his want of success in

coitus. Up to this time, being thirty-one years old, he has attempted

coitus only four or five times, and always in vain.

On one occasion the patient, already much to be pitied on account of

his disease, had the misfortune to contract syphilis. In reply to the

question as to what he regarded as the most lustful act, the patient

said: “_It is my greatest delight to lie naked on the floor and have

myself trod upon by girls wearing elegant boots_; but, of course, this

is possible only in brothels.” Moreover, according to the patient’s

statements, these sexual perversions of men are well known in many

houses of prostitution,—a proof that these are not so very infrequent.

The prostitutes call these men “boot-lovers.” But the patient has only

very infrequently had the lustful act actually performed,

notwithstanding the fact that it is most beautiful and pleasant to

him. The patient has no thoughts that impel to intercourse; at least,

not in the sense of immissio penis in vagina,—an act that affords him

no pleasure whatever. Indeed, he has gradually developed a fear of

coitus, which may be sufficiently explained by his numerous

unsuccessful attempts; for the patient says himself that his inability

to complete coitus embarrassed him exceedingly. The patient has never

practiced real onanism. With the exception of a few occasions on which

the patient satisfied his sexual desire by onanism with boots or in a

similar way, he is innocent of such satisfaction; for, in the

excitement with boots, there is scarcely ever anything more than

erection; at most, only a slight discharge of fluid takes place

slowly, which the patient takes to be semen.

Simply a shoe, worn by no one, excites him when he sees it, but not

nearly as intensely as when it is worn by a woman. New shoes that have

not been worn excite him much less than those that have been used; but

they must be free from wear and look as new as possible. Shoes of this

kind excite him the most. As has been said, ladies’ boots excite him

when they are not on the feet. Under such circumstances, in fancy, L.

creates a lady for them; he presses them to his lips and on his penis.

He would “die with delight” if a proud, respectable lady were to tread

upon him with her shoes.

Aside from the previously mentioned characteristics of the women

(pride, wealth, social prominence), which, in connection with the

elegance of the boots, constitute an especial stimulus, the patient is

by no means indifferent to the physical charms of the female sex. He

is enthusiastic about beautiful women without thinking of boots, but

this love is not directed to sexual satisfaction. The bodily charms

play a part even in connection with the boots; a homely old woman,

even wearing the most elegant boots, cannot affect the patient. The

rest of the attire and other circumstances also play an essential

_rôle_, as is shown by the fact that elegant boots worn by proud,

distinguished women especially excite the patient. A common

servant-girl, in her working-dress, even in the most elegant shoes,

would not excite him. Men’s shoes and boots no longer affect the

patient; and he never in the slightest degree feels himself attracted

to men sexually.

Yet the patient has erections very easily. When he takes a child in

his lap, when he pats a dog or horse for some time, when he travels on

the cars, or when he rides,—erections occur. In the latter case he

thinks it is due to the shaking. He has erections every morning; and

he can induce erection in a very short time by thinking of the act

with boots that is so pleasing to him. Pollutions formerly occurred

frequently at night—about every three or four weeks; now they are more

infrequent, occurring once about every three months.

In his erotic dreams the patient is almost always sexually excited by

the same thoughts that excite him in the waking state. For some time

he thinks he has felt ejaculation during erection; but he draws this

conclusion only from feeling a little moisture at the end of the

penis. Books touching the sphere of the patient’s sexual ideas

especially excite him. Thus, in reading “Venus in Furs,”[70] by

Sacher-Masoch, he is so excited “that the semen just _runs_ away from

him.” Moreover, with L., this kind of ejaculation, while reading, is a

decided satisfaction of his sexual desire. My question, whether blows

received from a woman’s hand would also excite him, the patient thinks

he would have to answer in the affirmative. The patient has never made

any such trial, but playful taps had, at any rate, always been very

pleasing to him.

It would afford the patient a particularly intense pleasure if he were

to be kicked by a woman, even without shoes, and with bare feet. He

does not think that the blows, as such, would cause the excitement,

but rather the thought of being maltreated by a woman; and this might

follow scolding as well as actual blows. Besides, blows and cross

words had an exciting effect only when they came from a proud and

distinguished lady. In general it is the _feeling of humiliation and

slavish subjection_ that gives the patient lustful pleasure. “Were a

lady,” the patient tells me, “to command me to wait on her, even with

distant coldness, I should, nevertheless, feel sensual pleasure.”

To the question, whether with boots the feeling of humiliation came

over him, the patient answers: “I think that this general passion for

self-humiliation has been concentrated especially on ladies’ boots;

for it is symbolic of one’s being ‘unworthy to loosen the latchet of

another’s shoe’; and, besides, a subject kneels.”

Women’s stockings also have an exciting effect on the patient, but

only to a slight extent, and perhaps only through awakening an idea of

boots. The patient’s passion for ladies’ boots had constantly

increased, but of late years he thought he had noticed a diminution of

it. He seldom visits public women, and is also more capable of

self-restraint. Yet this passion still rules him absolutely, and every

other pleasure is spoiled by it. A pretty female boot could attract

his glance from the most beautiful landscape. At the present time he

often goes about at night in the corridors of hotels,[71] seeking

elegant ladies’ shoes, which he kisses and presses against his face

and neck, but principally against his penis.

The patient, who is very well-to-do, a short time ago went voluntarily

to Italy, only with the thought of becoming the servant of a rich and

distinguished lady unacquainted with him; but the plan failed. The

patient, who came only for consultation, has not yet been treated

medically.

The foregoing history reaches almost to the present time, and in the

interval he has made me communications by letter concerning his

condition. It does not require an extensive commentary. It seems to me

to be one of the best cases to illustrate the relationship between

shoe-fetichism and masochism, as set forth by von Krafft-Ebing.[72]

The principal charm for the patient, as he, without leading questions,

always emphasizes, is his subjection to a woman, who, in pride and

position, must be as far above him as possible.

Such cases, in which, within a fully-developed circle of masochistic

ideas, the foot and the shoe or boot of a woman, conceived as a means of

humiliation, have become the objects of especial sexual interest, are

numerous. Through numerous degrees that are easily discriminated, they

form the demonstrable transition to other cases in which the masochistic

inclinations retreat more and more to the background, and little by

little pass beyond the threshold of consciousness; while the interest in

women’s shoes, apparently absolutely inexplicable, alone remains in

consciousness. The latter are the numerous cases of shoe-fetichism.

These very frequent cases of shoe-lovers, which, like all cases of

fetichism, possess forensic interest (theft of shoes), occupy a position

midway between masochism and fetichism. The majority or all may be

looked upon as instances of larvated masochism (the motive remaining

unconscious) in which _the female foot or shoe, as the masochist’s

fetich_, has acquired an independent significance.

Next come two cases in which the female shoe possesses a subordinate

interest, but in which unmistakable masochistic desires play an

important part (comp. Case 44):—

Case 61. Mr. X. aged 25, parents healthy, never sick before, places

the following autobiography at my disposal: “I began to practice

onanism at the age of ten, without ever having any lustful thoughts

during the act. Yet at that time—I am sure of this—the sight and touch

of girls’ elegant boots had a peculiar charm for me; my greatest

desire was also to wear such shoes,—a wish that was occasionally

fulfilled at masquerades. But I was also troubled by a very different

thought: _My ideal was to see myself in a position of humiliation; I

would gladly have been a slave_, and whipped; in short, I wished to

receive the treatment that one finds described in many stories of

slavery. I do not know whether the reading of such stories gave rise

to my wish, or whether it arose spontaneously.

“Puberty began at the age of thirteen; with the occurrence of

ejaculation lustful pleasure increased, and I masturbated more

frequently, often two or three times a day. From my twelfth to my

sixteenth year, during the act of onanism, I always had the idea that

I was forced to wear girls’ boots. The sight of an elegant boot, on

the foot of a girl at all pretty, intoxicated me; I inhaled the odor

of the leather with avidity. In order to smell leather during the act

of onanism, I bought a pair of leathern cuffs, which I smelled while I

masturbated. My enthusiasm for ladies’ leathern shoes remains the same

to-day; only, since my seventeenth year, it has been coupled with the

_wish to become a servant, to blacken shoes for distinguished ladies,

to put on and take off their shoes for them, etc._

“My dreams at night are made up of shoe-scenes: either I stand before

the show-window of a shoe-store regarding the elegant ladies’

shoes,—particularly buttoned shoes,—or I lie at a lady’s feet and

smell and lick her shoes. For about a year I have given up onanism and

go ad puellas; coitus takes place through intense thought of ladies’

buttoned shoes; or, if necessary, I take the shoe of the puella to bed

with me. I have never suffered from my former onanism. I learn easily,

have a good memory, and have never had headache in my life. This much

concerning myself.

“A few words about my brother: I am thoroughly convinced that he is

also a shoe-fetichist. Of the many facts that demonstrate this to me,

it is only necessary to mention that it is a great pleasure for him to

have a certain cousin (a very beautiful girl) tread upon him. As for

the rest, I might undertake to tell whether a man who stands before a

shoe-store, and regards the shoes on exhibition, is a “foot-lover” or

not. This anomaly is uncommonly frequent. When in the circle of my

acquaintance I turn the conversation to the question of what woman’s

charm is, I very frequently hear it said that it is much more in

attire than in nudity; but every one is careful not to reveal his

especial fetich. I think an uncle of mine is also a shoe-fetichist.”

Case. 62. Reported by Mantegazza in his “Anthropological Studies,”

1886, p 110. X., American, of good family, mentally and morally well

constituted; from the beginning of puberty capable of being excited

sexually only by a woman’s shoe. Her body and naked or stockinged foot

made no impression on him; but the foot, when covered with the shoe,

or a shoe alone, induced erection and even ejaculation. Sight alone

was sufficient for him in the case of elegant shoes,—_i.e._, shoes of

black leather, buttoning up the side, and having very high heels. His

sexual desire was powerfully excited by touching, kissing, or drawing

on such shoes. His enjoyment was increased by driving nails through

the soles so that their points would penetrate his feet while walking.

This caused him terrible pain, but he had real lustful feeling at the

same time. His greatest enjoyment was to kneel down before the

elegantly-clad feet of ladies and have them step on him. If the wearer

were an ugly woman, the shoes would not affect him, and his fancy

would cool. If the patient had shoes alone at his disposal, his fancy

would create a beautiful woman wearing them, and ejaculation would

result. His nightly dreams were of the shoes of beautiful women. He

considered the exposure of ladies’ shoes in show-windows immoral;

while talk about the nature of woman seemed to him harmless, but in

bad taste. X. attempted coitus several times without success;

ejaculation never occurred.

In the following case the masochistic element is also plain enough, as

is also the sadistic (comp. “Torture of Animals,” under “Sadism”):—

Case 63. A young, powerful man, aged 26. Nothing in the opposite sex

excites his sensual feeling except elegant shoes on the feet of a

handsome woman, especially when they are made of black leather and

have high heels. The shoes without the wearer are sufficient. It gives

him the greatest pleasure to see, touch, and kiss them. The feminine

foot, when bare or covered with a stocking, has no effect on him.

Since childhood he has had a weakness for ladies’ fine shoes.

X. is potent; during the sexual act the female must be elegantly

dressed and, above all, have on pretty shoes. At the height of sensual

excitement cruel thoughts about the shoes arise. He is forced to think

with delight of the death-agonies of the animal from which the leather

was taken. Sometimes he is impelled to take chickens and other animals

with him to Phryne, in order to have her tread on them with her pretty

shoes for his pleasure. He calls this “sacrificing to the feet of

Venus.” At other times he has the woman walk on him with her shoes on,

the harder the better.

Until the last year it was sufficient—since he did not take the

slightest sensual pleasure in women—to caress ladies’ shoes that

pleased him, thus attaining ejaculation and complete satisfaction.

(Lombroso, _Archiv di Psichiatria_, ix, fascic. iii.)

The following case reminds one of the third of this series, on account

of the interest in the nails of the shoes (as capable of inflicting

pain); and of the fourth, on account of the slight accompanying sadistic

element:—

Case 64. X., aged 34, married; of neuropathic parentage; suffered

severely from convulsions as a child; remarkably precocious, but

one-sided in development (could read at age of three); nervous from

childhood. At the age of seven he manifested an inclination to handle

shoes, especially the nails of women’s shoes. The mere sight, but

still more the touching, of the shoe-nails and counting them, gave him

indescribable pleasure.

At night he gave himself up to imagining how his cousins had their

measures taken for shoes; how he nailed horse-shoes on to one of them

or cut her feet off. In time the shoe-scenes came upon him during the

day, and involuntarily induced erection and ejaculation. Frequently he

took the shoes of female occupants of the house; and if he touched

them with his penis he had an ejaculation. For a long time, when a

student, it was possible for him to control his ideas and

inclinations; but there came a time when he was compelled to listen to

female footsteps on the pavements, which, like the sight of the

nail-marks in ladies’ shoes, or the sight of shoes in the windows of

the shoe-shops, always gave him a feeling of lustful pleasure. He

married, and during the first months of his married life was free from

these desires.

Gradually he became hysteropathic and neurasthenic. At this stage he

began to have hysterical attacks when the shoemaker spoke to him of

nails in ladies’ shoes or of driving nails in the same. The reaction

was still greater if he chanced to see a pretty lady with shoes well

beset with nails. In order to induce ejaculation it was only necessary

for him to cut soles out of pasteboard and beset them with nails; or

he would buy ladies’ shoes, have them beset with nails in the store,

and at home scrape them on the ground, and finally touch the end of

his penis with them. Moreover, lustful shoe-visions occurred

spontaneously, in which he satisfied himself by masturbation.

X. is otherwise intelligent, skillful in his calling, but powerless in

combating his perverse inclinations. He presents phimosis; penis

short, expanded at the root, and incapable of complete erection. One

day the patient allowed himself to masturbate when excited by the

sight of ladies’ shoes beset with nails in the window of a shoe-shop,

and thus became a criminal. (Blanche, _Archiv. de Neurologie_, 1882,

Nr. 22.)

Reference may be made here to a case of contrary sexuality, to be

described later, in which the principal sexual interest was in the boots

of male servants. The desire was to be trod upon by them.

Case 65. (Dr. Pascal, “Igiene dell’ amore.”) X., merchant, from time

to time (but particularly in bad weather) had the following desire: He

would accost some prostitute and ask her to go to a shoe-shop with

him, where he would buy her the handsomest pair of shoes of patent

leather, under the condition that she would put them on immediately.

After this took place, she had to go about in the street, walking in

manure and mud as much as possible, in order to soil the shoes. After

this, X. would lead the person to an hotel, and, almost before they

had reached a room, he would cast himself on her feet, feeling an

extraordinary pleasure in applying his lips to them. When he had

cleansed the shoes in this manner, he paid her and went his way.

From these cases it may be plainly seen that the shoe is the fetich of

the masochist, and apparently because of the relation of the dressed

female foot to the idea of being trod upon and other acts of

humiliation. When, therefore, in other cases of shoe-fetichism, the

female shoe appears alone as the excitant of sexual desire, one is

justified in presuming that masochistic motives have remained latent.

The idea of being trod upon, etc., remains in the depths of unconscious

life, and the idea of the shoe alone, the means for such acts, rises

into consciousness. Cases that are otherwise wholly inexplicable are

thus sufficiently explained. Here one has to do with larvated masochism;

and this may always be assumed as the unconscious motive, when, as

occurs not exceptionally, the origin of the fetichism, from an

association of ideas on the occasion of some particular event, can be

proved, as in Cases 87 and 88.

Such cases of desire for ladies’ shoes, without conscious motive and

without demonstrable origin, are really innumerable.[73] Three cases are

here given as examples:—

Case 66. Minister, aged 50. From time to time he goes to houses of

prostitution and asks to rent a room. He enters it with a girl. Then

he lustfully regards her shoes, takes one off and kisses and bites it.

Finally, he puts it ad genitalia and ejaculat semen semineque

ejaculato axillas pectusque terit; then he comes out of his sensual

ecstasy. He begs the woman to allow him to keep the shoe for a few

days, and always, at the appointed time, returns it with thanks

(Cantarano, _La Psichiatria_, v, p. 205).

Case 67. Student, Z., aged 23; comes of a tainted family. Sister was

insane; brother suffered with hysteria virilis. The patient, peculiar

from childhood, has frequent attacks of hypochondriacal depression,

tædium vitæ, and feels that he is persecuted. In a consultation on

account of mental trouble, I find him a very perverse, hereditarily

predisposed man, with neurasthenic and hypochondriacal symptoms. A

suspicion of masturbation is confirmed. Patient makes interesting

disclosures concerning his vita sexualis. At the age of ten he was

powerfully attracted by the foot of one of his comrades. At twelve he

became an enthusiast for ladies’ feet. It gave him a delightful

sensation to revel in the sight of them. At fourteen he began to

masturbate, thinking, at the same time, of the beautiful foot of a

lady. From this time on he was taken with the feet of his

three-year-old sister. The feet of other females that attracted him

induced sexual excitement. Only women’s feet—no other part of

them—interested him. The thought of sexual intercourse with women

excited his disgust. He had never attempted coitus. After his twelfth

year he had no interest in the feet of male individuals. The style of

covering of the female foot is indifferent to him; it is only

necessary that the person seem to be sympathetic. The thought of

enjoying the feet of prostitutes was disgusting to him. For years he

had been in love with his sister’s feet. If he could but obtain her

shoes, the sight of them powerfully excited his sensuality. Kissing or

embracing his sister did not have this effect. His greatest delight

was to embrace and kiss the foot of a sympathetic woman, when

ejaculation would result with a lively pleasurable sensation. Often he

was impelled to touch his genitals with one of his sister’s shoes; but

he had been able, thus far, to master this impulse, especially for the

reason that for two years (owing to progressive irritable weakness of

the genitals) the simple sight of the foot had induced ejaculation.

From his relatives it is ascertained that the patient has a silly

admiration for the feet of his sister; so that she avoids him and

seeks to hide her feet from him. The patient looks upon his perverse

sexual impulse as pathological, and is painfully affected by the fact

that his vile fancy has for its object his sister’s foot. He avoided

opportunity as much as he could, and sought to help the matter by

masturbation when, as in dreams accompanied by pollution, ladies’ feet

filled his imagination. However, when the impulse became too powerful

he could not avoid gaining a partial sight of his sister’s foot.

Immediately after ejaculation he would become angry with himself at

having been weak again. His partiality for his sister’s foot had cost

him many a sleepless night. He often wondered that he could still love

his sister. Although it seemed right to him that she should conceal

her feet from him, yet he was often irritated because the concealment

caused him to have pollutions. The patient gives assurances of being

moral in other respects, which are confirmed by his relatives.

Case 68. S., New York, is accused of being a street-thief. Numerous

cases of insanity in his ancestry; father, brother, and sister

mentally abnormal. At seven years, violent cerebral concussion twice.

At thirteen, struck with a beam. At fourteen S. had violent attacks of

headache. Accompanying these attacks, or immediately after them,

peculiar impulse to take the shoes of female members of the family—as

a rule, those belonging to one member—and hide them in some

out-of-the-way corner. Taken to task, he would lie, or declare that he

had no memory of the affair. The passion for shoes was unconquerable,

and made its appearance every three or four months. On one occasion he

attempted to take the shoe from the foot of one of the servants, and

on another he stole his sister’s shoe from her sleeping-apartment. In

the spring two ladies had their shoes torn from their feet in the open

street. In August S. left his home early in the morning to go to his

work as a printer. A moment afterward he tore the shoe from a girl’s

foot in the open street, fled to his place of work, and there was

arrested as a street-thief. He declared that he did not know much of

his act; that it had come upon him like a stroke of lightning, at the

sight of a shoe, that he must possess himself of it, but for what

purpose he did not know. He had acted while in a state of

unconsciousness. The shoe, as he correctly indicated, was found in his

coat. In confinement he was so much excited mentally that an outbreak

of insanity was feared. Discharged, he stole his wife’s shoes while

she slept. His moral character and habits of life were blameless. He

was an intelligent workman; but irregularity of employment, that soon

followed, made him confused and incapable of work. Pardoned. (Nichols,

_Am. Journal of Insanity_, 1859; Beck, “Med. Jurisprudence,” vol. i,

p. 732, 1860.)

Dr. Pascal (_op. cit._) has some similar cases, and many others have

been mentioned to me by colleagues and patients.

(c) _Disgusting Acts for the Purpose of Self-Humiliation and Sexual

Gratification_—_Larvated Masochism._—There are numerous established

cases in which perverted men are thrown into sexual excitement by the

secretions, or even the excretions, of women, and try to see and touch

them. Probably in these cases there is almost always an unconscious

masochistic impulse,—pleasure in the most extreme humiliation of self,

and desire to experience it.

This connection is made perfectly clear by the confessions of those

affected with this repugnant perversion. Case 88 of the sixth

edition—that of an individual affected with contrary sexuality, which is

later described—is here instructive. The subject of this case not only

revels in the thought of being the slave of the beloved man, and refers

on this point to Sacher-Masoch’s “Venus in Furs,” sed etiam sibi fingit

amatum poscere ut crepidas sudore diffluentes olfaciat ejusque stercore

vescatur. Deinde narrat, quia non habeat, quæ confingat et exoptet,

eorum loco suas crepidas sudore infectas olfacere suoque stercore vesci,

inter quæ facta pene errecto se voluptate perturbari semenque ejaculari.

The masochistic significance of a disgusting act in the following case,

communicated by a professional friend, is clear:—

Case 69. H. v. G., landed proprietor; major; died in his sixtieth

year; came of a family in which irresponsibility, tendency to run in

debt, and defect of morals are hereditary. In his youth he was given

to most reckless dissipation (he was known as the leader of “naked

balls”). He was always of a cynical and brutal nature, though

punctilious and exact in his military service, which, on account of a

disreputable affair that was not made known, he had to leave, and he

lived in private life seventeen years. Untrammeled by the necessity to

earn his living, he led everywhere the life of a man-of-the-town, and

was everywhere avoided on account of his lascivious nature. His

ostracism by the best society, which, in spite of his independence, he

noticed, caused him to prefer the ordinary society of fakirs,

artisans, and loafers. It cannot be ascertained that he had sexual

intercourse with men, but it is certain that in his later years he

arranged symposiums with mixed company and was known as a _roué_. In

the last few years of his life he was accustomed to hang about new

buildings in the evening, and of the women working there he would ask

the dirtiest to accompany him. It is certain that he had the woman

undress, and then he would suck her toes, his libido being excited and

satisfied by the act.

Cantarano also reports a case in _La Psichiatria_, v year, p. 207, in

which, preceding the act, apparently from a similar cause, there was

biting and sucking of a woman’s toes in as filthy a state as possible.

Several cases have come to my knowledge in which, with other masochistic

acts (maltreatment, humiliation), such disgusting desires were

entertained; and the confessions of the individuals left no doubt of

their significance.

Such cases prepare the way to an understanding of others which are

absolutely incomprehensible without the connection with the

masochistic desire for humiliation.[74] It is probable, however, that

this impulse, in its actual significance, remains unknown to the

perverted individual, and only the desire for disgusting things rises

into consciousness,—again larvated masochism.

Other cases of Cantarano’s (_loc. cit._) belong here: mictio even

defæcatio puellæ ad linguam viri ante actum; consumption of confects

smelling like fæces, in order to become potent; and also the following

case, likewise communicated to me by a physician:—

Case 70. A Russian prince, who was very decrepit, was accustomed to

have his mistress turn her back to him and defecate on his breast;

this being the only way in which he could excite the remnant of

libido.

Another supported a mistress in unusually brilliant style, with the

condition that she eat marchpane exclusively. Ut libidinosus fiat et

ejaculare possit excrementa feminæ ore excipit. A Brazilian physician

tells me of several cases of defæcatio feminæ in os viri that have

come to his knowledge. Such cases occur everywhere, and are not at all

infrequent. All kinds of secretions—saliva, nasal mucus, and even

aural cerumen—are used in this way and swallowed with pleasure; and

oscula ad nates and even ad anum are indulged in. Dr. Moll (_op.

cit._, p. 135) reports the same thing of a man affected with contrary

sexuality. The perverse desire to practice cunnilingus, which is very

wide-spread, probably frequently has its root in masochistic impulses.

Palanda (_Archivio di Psichiatria._ x, fascicolo 3, 4) relates the

following case:—

Case 71. W., aged 45, predisposed, was given to masturbation at the

age of eight. A decimo sexto anno libidines suas bibendo recentem

feminarum urinam satiavit. Tanta erat voluptas urinam bibentis ut nec

aliquid olfaceret nec saperet, hæc faciens. After drinking he always

experienced disgust and ill-feeling, and made firm resolutions to do

it no more in the future. Once he had the same pleasure in drinking

the urine of a nine-year-old boy, with whom he once practiced

fellatio. The patient suffers with epileptic insanity.

The cases described in this group form the complete counterpart to group

“_d_” of the sadists.

Still other older cases belong here, which Tardieu (“Étude

médico-légale sur les attentats aux mœurs,” p. 206) observed in senile

individuals. He describes as “Renifleurs” persons “qui in secretos

locos nimirum theatrorum pasticos convenientes quo complures feminæ ad

micturiendum festinant, per nares urinali odore excitati, illico se

invicem polluunt.” The “Stercoraires” that Taxil (“La prostitution

contemporaine”) mentions are, in relation to this subject, unique.

Finally, space is here given to the following case, reported to me by a

physician:—

Case 72. A notary, known from his youth to those about him as peculiar

and misanthropic. During his school-days he was given to masturbation.

According to his own story, he excited his sexual desire by spreading

out on the cover of his bed pieces of toilet-paper that he had used,

induced erection by regarding and smelling them, and then practiced

masturbation. After his death, by the side of his bed, there was found

a large basket of such papers, with the dates marked on them. Here

there were probably fancies of the nature of the above-mentioned acts.

(d) _Masochism in Women._—In woman voluntary subjection to the opposite

sex is a physiological phenomenon. Owing to her passive _rôle_ in

procreation and long-existent social conditions, ideas of subjection

are, in woman, normally connected with the idea of sexual relations. So

to speak, they form the harmonics which determine the tone-quality of

feminine feeling.

Any one conversant with the history of civilization knows in what a

state of absolute subjection woman was always kept until a relatively

high degree of civilization was reached;[75] and an attentive observer

of life may still easily recognize how the custom of unnumbered

generations, in connection with the passive _rôle_ with which woman has

been endowed by Nature, has given her an instinctive inclination to

voluntary subordination to man; he will notice that exaggeration of

customary gallantry is very distasteful to women, and that a deviation

from it in the direction of masterful behavior, though loudly

reprehended, is often accepted with secret satisfaction.[76] Under the

veneer of polite society the instinct of feminine servitude is

everywhere discernible.

Thus it is easy to regard masochism in general as a pathological growth

of specific feminine mental elements,—as an abnormal intensification of

certain features of the psycho-sexual character of woman,—and to seek

its primary origin in that sex (_v. infra_, p. 145). It may, however, be

held to be established that, in woman, an inclination to subordination

to man (which may be regarded as an acquired, purposeful arrangement, a

phenomenon of adaptation to social requirements) is to a certain extent

a normal manifestation.

The reason that, under such circumstances, the “poetry” of the symbolic

act of subjection is not reached, lies partly in the fact that man has

not the vanity of that weakling who would use blows to display his power

(as the love-serving knights did with the ladies of the Middle Ages),

but prefers to demonstrate his real advantages. The barbarian has his

wife plow for him, and the civilized lover speculates about her dowry;

she willingly endures both.

Cases of pathological increase of this instinct of subjection, in the

sense of feminine masochism, are probably frequent enough, but custom

represses their manifestation. Many young women like nothing better than

to kneel before their husbands or lovers. Among all Slavs of the lower

classes it is said that the wives feel hurt if they are not beaten by

their husbands. A Hungarian officer informs me that peasant women of the

Somogy’er Comitates do not think they are loved by their husbands until

they have received the first box on the ear as a sign of love.

It would probably be difficult for the physician to find cases of

feminine masochism. Subjective and objective restraints—modesty and

custom—naturally constitute, in women, insurmountable obstacles to the

expression of perverse sexual instinct. Thus it happens that, up to the

present time, but one case of masochism in a woman has been

scientifically established; and this is accompanied by circumstances

that obscure it.

Case 73. Miss v. X., Russian, aged 35; of greatly predisposed family.

For some years she has been in the initial stage of paranoia

persecutoria. This sprang from cerebro-spinal neurasthenia, the origin

of which is found to be sexual hyper-excitation. Since her

twenty-fourth year she has been given to masturbation. As a result of

disappointment in an engagement and intense sexual excitement, she

began to practice masturbation and psychical onanism. _Inclination

toward persons of her own sex never occurred._ The patient says: “At

the age of six or eight I conceived a desire to be whipped. Since I

had never been whipped, and had never been present when others were

thus punished, I cannot understand how I came to have this strange

desire. I can only think that it is congenital. With these ideas of

being whipped I had a feeling of actual delight, and pictured in my

fancy how fine it would be to be whipped by one of my female friends.

I never had any thought of being whipped by a man. I reveled in the

idea, and never attempted any actual realization of my fancies. These

disappeared after my tenth year. Only when I read “Rousseau’s

Confessions,” at the age of thirty-four, did I understand what my

longing for whippings meant, and that my abnormal ideas were like

those of Rousseau. Since my tenth year I have never had any more such

fancies.”

On account of its original character and the reference to Rousseau, this

case may with certainty be called a case of masochism. The fact that it

is a female friend that is conceived in imagination as whipping her, is

explained by the circumstance that the masochistic desire was here

present in the mind of a child before the psychical vita sexualis had

developed and the instinct for the male had been awakened. Contrary

sexual instinct is here expressly excluded.

AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN MASOCHISM.

The facts of masochism are certainly among the most interesting in the

domain of psychopathology. An attempt to explain them must first seek to

distinguish in them the essential from the unessential. The

distinguishing characteristic in masochism is certainly the unlimited

subjection to the will of a person of the opposite sex (in sadism, on

the contrary, the unlimited mastery of this person), with the awakening

and accompaniment of lustful sexual feelings to the degree of orgasm.

From all that has preceded it is clear that the particular manner in

which this relation of subjection or domination is expressed (_v.

supra_), whether in simply symbolic acts, or whether there is also a

desire to suffer pain at the hands of a person of the opposite sex, is a

subordinate matter.

While sadism may be looked upon as a pathological intensification of the

masculine sexual character in its psychical peculiarities, masochism

rather represents a pathological degeneration of the distinctive

psychical peculiarities of woman. But masculine masochism is undoubtedly

frequent; and it is this that most frequently comes under observation

and almost exclusively makes up the series of observed cases. The reason

for this has been previously stated (p. 139).

Two sources of masochism can be distinguished in the sphere of normal

phenomena. The first is, that in the state of lustful excitement every

impression made by the person giving rise to the sexual stimulus,

independently of the nature of its action, is pleasing to the individual

excited.

It is entirely physiological that playful taps and light blows should be

taken for caresses,

“Like the lover’s pinch which hurts and is desired.”[77]

From here the step is not long to a state where the wish to experience a

very intense impression at the hands of the consort leads to a desire

for blows, etc., in cases of pathological intensification of lust; for

pain is always a ready means for producing an intense bodily impression.

Just as in sadism the sexual emotion leads to a state of exaltation in

which the excessive motor excitement implicates neighboring nervous

tracts; so in masochism an ecstatic state arises, in which the rising

flood of a single emotion ravenously devours and covers with lust every

impression coming from the beloved person.

The second and, indeed, the most important source of masochism is to be

sought in a wide-spread phenomenon, which, though it is extraordinary

and abnormal, by no means lies within the domain of sexual perversion.

I here refer to the very prevalent fact that in innumerable instances,

which occur in all varieties, one individual becomes dependent on

another of the opposite sex, in a very extraordinary and remarkable

manner,—even to the loss of all independent will; a dependence which

forces the party in subjection to acts and suffering which greatly

prejudice personal interest, and often enough to offense against both

morality and law.

This dependence, however, differs from the manifestations of normal life

only in the intensity of the sexual feeling that here comes in play, and

in the slight degree of will-power necessary for the maintenance of its

equilibrium. The difference is one of intensity, not of quality, as in

masochistic manifestations.

This dependence of one person upon another of the opposite sex, that is

abnormal but not perverse,—a phenomena possessing great interest when

regarded from a forensic stand-point,—I designate “_sexual

bondage_;”[78] for the relations and circumstances attending it have in

all respects the character of bondage. The will of the ruling individual

dominates that of the person in subjection, just as a master’s does his

bondsman’s.[79]

This “sexual bondage,” as has been said, is certainly an abnormal

phenomenon. It begins with the first deviation from the normal. The

degree of dependence of one person upon another, or of two upon each

other, resulting from individual peculiarity in the intensity of motives

that in themselves are normal, constitutes the normal standard

established by law and custom. Sexual bondage is not a perverse

manifestation, however; the instinctive activities at work here are the

same as those that set in motion—even though it be with less

violence—the psychical vita sexualis which moves entirely within normal

limits.

Fear of losing the companion and the desire to keep him always

satisfied, amiable, and inclined to sexual intercourse, are here the

motives of the individual in subjection. An extraordinary degree of

love—which, particularly in woman, does not always indicate an unusual

degree of sensuality—and a weak character are the simple elements of

this extraordinary process.[80]

The motive of the dominant individual is egoism, which finds unlimited

room for action.

The manifestations of sexual bondage are various in form, and the cases

are very numerous.[81] At every step in life we find men that have

fallen into sexual bondage. Among married men, hen-pecked husbands

belong to this category, particularly elderly men who marry young wives

and try to overcome the disparity of years and physical defects by

unconditional submission to the wife’s every whim; and unmarried men of

ripe maturity, who seek to better their last chance of love by unlimited

sacrifice, are also to be enumerated here. Here belong, also, men of any

age, who, seized by hot passion for a woman, meet coldness and

calculation, and have to capitulate on hard conditions; men of loving

natures who allow themselves to be persuaded to marriage by notorious

prostitutes; men who, to run after adventuresses, leave everything and

jeopardise their future; husbands and fathers who leave wife and child,

to lay the income of a family at the feet of a harlot.

But, numerous as the examples of masculine “bondage” are, every observer

of life, who is at all unprejudiced, must allow that they are far from

equalling, in number and importance, the cases of feminine “bondage.”

This is easily explained. For a man, love is almost always only an

episode, and he has many other and important interests; for a woman, on

the other hand, love is the principal thing in life, and, until the

birth of children, always her first interest. After this it is still

often her first thought, but always, at least, takes the second place.

But, what is still more important, the man ruled by this impulse easily

satisfies it in embraces for which he finds unlimited opportunities. A

woman in the upper classes of society, if she have a husband, is bound

to him alone; and even in the lower classes there are still great

obstacles to polyandry. Therefore, _a woman’s husband means for her the

whole sex_, and his importance to her becomes very great. It must also

be considered that the normal relation established by law and custom

between husband and wife is far from being one of equality. In itself it

expresses a sufficient predominance of woman’s dependence. The

concessions she makes to her lover, to retain the love which it would be

almost impossible for her to replace, only plunge her deeper in bondage;

and this increases the insatiable demands of husbands resolved to use

their advantage and traffic in woman’s readiness to sacrifice herself.

Here may be placed the fortune-hunter, who for money allows himself to

be enveloped in the easily created illusions of a maiden; the seducer,

and the man who compromises wives, calculating on blackmail; the gilded

army officer and the musician with the lion’s mane, who know so well how

to stammer “Thee or death!” as a means to pay debts and provide a life

of ease. Here, too, belong the kitchen-soldier, whose love the cook

returns with love plus means to satisfy a different appetite; the

drinker, who consumes the savings of the mistress he marries; and the

man who with blows compels the prostitute on whom he lives to earn a

certain sum for him daily. These are only a few of the innumerable forms

of bondage into which woman is forced by her greater need of love and

the difficulties of her position.

The subject of “sexual bondage” must here receive brief consideration;

for in it may be clearly seen the soil from which the main root of

masochism springs. The relationship of these two phenomena of psychical

sexual life is immediately apparent. Bondage and masochism both consist

of the unconditional subjection of the individual affected with the

abnormality to a person of the opposite sex, and of domination of the

former by the latter.[82] The two phenomena, however, must be strictly

differentiated; they are not different in degree, but in quality.

Sexual bondage is not a perversion and not pathological; the elements

from which it arises—love and weakness of will—are not perverse; it is

only their simultaneous activity that produces the abnormal result which

is so opposed to self-interest, and often to custom and law. The motive,

in obedience to which the subordinated individual acts and endures

tyranny, is the normal instinct toward woman (or man); the satisfaction

of which is the price of bondage. The acts of the person in subjection,

by means of which the bondage is expressed, are performed at the command

of the ruling individual, to satisfy selfishness, etc. For the

subordinated individual they have no independent purpose; they are only

the means to an end,—to obtain or retain possession of the ruling

individual. Finally, bondage is a result of love for a particular

person; it first appears when this love is awakened.

In masochism, which is decidedly abnormal and a perversion, this is all

very different. The motive of the acts and suffering of the person in

subjection is here the charm afforded by the tyranny in itself. There

may, at the same time, be a desire for coitus with the dominant person;

but the impulse is directed to the acts which serve to express the

tyranny, as the immediate objects of gratification. These acts in which

masochism is expressed are, for the individual in subjection, not means

to an end, as in bondage, but the end in themselves. Finally, in

masochism the longing for subjection occurs _a priori_, before the

occurrence of an inclination to any particular object of love.

The connection between bondage and masochism may be assumed by reason of

the correspondence of the two phenomena in the objective condition of

dependence, notwithstanding the difference in their motives; and the

transformation of the abnormality into the perversion probably takes

place in the following manner: Any one living for a long time in sexual

bondage becomes disposed to acquire a slight degree of masochism. Love

that willingly bears the tyranny of the loved one then becomes an

immediate love of tyranny. _When the idea of being tyrannized over is

long closely associated with the lustful thought of the beloved person,

the lustful emotion is finally connected with the tyranny itself, and

the transformation to perversion is completed._ This is the manner in

which masochism may be acquired by cultivation.[83]

Thus a mild degree of masochism may arise from “bondage,”—become

acquired; but genuine, complete, deep-rooted masochism, with its

feverish longing for subjection from the time of earliest youth, is

congenital.

The explanation of the origin of the infrequent perversion of fully

developed masochism is most probably to be found in the assumption that

it arises from the very frequent abnormality of “sexual bondage”; in

that now and then _this abnormality is hereditarily transferred to a

psychopathic individual in such a way that it becomes transformed into a

perversion_. It has been previously shown how a slight displacement of

the psychical element under consideration may effect this transition.

This transformation of the abnormality into the perversion, through

hereditary transference, would take place very easily where the

psychopathic constitution of the descendant presented the other factor

of masochism,—_i.e._, what has been previously called its main root,—the

tendency of sexually hyperæsthetic natures to assimilate all impressions

coming from the beloved person with the sexual impression.

From these two elements,—from “sexual bondage” on the one hand, and from

the above-mentioned disposition to sexual ecstasy, which apperceives

even maltreatment with lustful emotion, on the other,—the roots of which

may be traced back to the field of physiological facts, masochism arises

on the basis of psychopathic predisposition; in that its sexual

hyperæsthesia intensifies first all the physiological accessories of the

vita sexualis and, finally, only its abnormal accompaniments, to the

pathological degree of perversion.[84]

At any rate, masochism, as a congenital sexual perversion, constitutes a

functional sign of degeneration in (almost exclusively) hereditary

taint; and this clinical deduction is confirmed in my cases of masochism

and sadism. It is easy to demonstrate that the peculiar,

psychically-anomalous direction of the vita sexualis which masochism

represents, is an original abnormality, and not, so to speak, cultivated

in a predisposed individual by passive flagellation, through association

of ideas, as Rousseau and Binet suppose. This is shown by the numerous

cases of masochism—in fact, the majority—in which flagellation never

appears; in which the perverse impulse is directed exclusively to purely

symbolic acts expressing subjection without any actual infliction of

pain. This is demonstrated by the whole series of cases, from Case 53,

given here.

The same result—namely, that passive flagellation is not the nucleus

around which all the rest is gathered—is reached when closer study is

given to the cases in which passive flagellation plays a _rôle_, as in

Case 44 and Case 50. Case 51 is particularly instructive in relation to

this; for in this instance there can be no thought of a

sexually-stimulating effect of punishment received in youth. Moreover,

in this case, connection with an early experience is not possible; for

the situation constituting the object of principal sexual interest is

absolutely incapable of being carried out by a child.

Finally, the origin of masochism in purely psychical elements, on

confronting it with sadism (_v. infra_), is convincingly demonstrated.

That passive flagellation occurs so frequently in masochism is explained

simply by the fact that it is the most extreme means of expressing the

relation of subjection.

I repeat that the decisive points, in the differentiation of simple

passive flagellation from flagellation dependent upon masochistic

desire, are that, in the former, the act is a means to make coitus, or

at least ejaculation, possible; and that, in the latter, it is a means

of gratification of masochistic desires.

As we have already seen, masochists subject themselves to all other

kinds of maltreatment and suffering in which there can be no question of

reflex excitation of lust. Since such cases are numerous, in such acts

(and in flagellation in masochists, having like significance) we must

seek to ascertain in what relation pain and lust stand to each other.

From the statement of a masochist it is as follows:—

The relation is not of such a nature that that which causes physical

pain is here simply perceived as physical pleasure; but the person in a

state of masochistic ecstasy feels no pain; either because, by reason of

his emotional state (like that of the soldier in battle), the physical

effect on his cutaneous nerves is not apperceived; or because (as with

religious martyrs and enthusiasts), with the preoccupation of

consciousness with lustful emotion, the idea of maltreatment remains

merely a symbol, without its quality of pain.

To a certain extent there is over-compensation of physical pain in

psychical pleasure; and only the excess remains in consciousness as

psychical lust. This also undergoes an increase; since, either through

reflex spinal influence or through a peculiar coloring in the sensorium

of sensory impressions, a kind of hallucination of bodily pleasure takes

place, with a vague localization of the objectively projected sensation.

In the self-torture of religious enthusiasts (fakirs, howling dervishes,

religious flagellants) there is an analogous state, only with a

difference in the quality of pleasurable feeling. Here the conception of

martyrdom is also apperceived without its pain; for consciousness is

filled with the pleasurably colored idea of serving God, atoning for

sins, deserving heaven, etc., through martyrdom.

MASOCHISM AND SADISM.

The perfect counterpart of masochism is sadism. While in the former

there is a desire to suffer and be subjected to violence, in the latter

the wish is to inflict pain and use violence.

The parallelism is perfect. All the acts and situations used by the

sadist in the active _rôle_ become the object of the desire of the

masochist in the passive _rôle_. In both perversions these acts advance

from purely symbolic acts to severe maltreatment. Even murder, in which

sadism reaches its acme, finds, as is shown by Case 54,—of course, only

in fancy,—its passive counterpart. Under favoring conditions, both

perversions may occur with a normal vita sexualis; in both, the acts in

which they express themselves are preparatory for coitus or substitutes

for it.[85]

But the analogy does not exist simply in external manifestation; it also

extends to the subjective character of both perversions. Both are to be

regarded as original psychopathies in mentally abnormal individuals,

who, in particular, are affected with psychical hyperæsthesia sexualis,

and, as a rule, also with other abnormalities; and for each of these

perversions two constituent elements may be demonstrated, which have

their roots in psychical facts lying within physiological limits. For

masochism, as shown above, these elements lie in the fact (1) that in

the state of sexual emotion every impression produced by the consort,

independently of the manner of its production, is, _per se_, attended

with lustful pleasure, which, where there is hyperæsthesia sexualis, may

go so far as to over-compensate all painful sensation; and in the fact

(2) that “sexual bondage,” dependent on mental factors that are in

themselves not perverse, may, under pathological conditions, become a

perverse, pleasurable desire for subjection to the opposite sex,

which—even if it be quite unnecessary to assume its inheritance from the

female side—represents a pathological degeneration of the character

belonging to woman,—of the instinct of subordination, physiological in

woman.

In harmony with this, there are, likewise, two constituent elements

explanatory of sadism, the origin of which may also be traced back

within physiological limits. These are: the fact (1) that in sexual

emotion, to a certain extent, as an accompanying psychical excitation,

an impulse may arise to influence the object of desire in every possible

way and with the greatest possible intensity, which, in individuals

sexually hyperæsthetic, may become an impulse to inflict pain; and the

fact (2) that, under pathological conditions, the man’s active _rôle_ of

winning woman may become an unlimited desire for subjugation.

Thus masochism and sadism represent perfect counterparts. It is also in

harmony with this that the individuals affected with these perversions

regard the opposite perversion in the other sex as their ideal, as shown

by Case 44 and Case 50, and also by “Rousseau’s Confessions.”

But the contrast of masochism and sadism may also be used to invalidate

the assumption that the former has its origin in the reflex effect of

passive flagellation; and that all the rest is the product of

associations of related ideas, as Binet, in explanation of Rousseau’s

case, thinks, and as Rousseau himself believed.

In the active maltreatment forming the object of the sadist’s sexual

desire there is, in fact, no irritation of his own sensory nerves by the

act of maltreatment; so that there can be no doubt of the purely

psychical character of the origin of this perversion. Sadism and

masochism, however, are so related to each other, and so correspond in

all points with each other, that the one allows, by analogy, a

conclusion for the other; and this is alone sufficient to establish the

purely psychical character of masochism.

According to the above-detailed contrast of all the elements and

phenomena of masochism and sadism, and as a _résumé_ of all observed

cases, lust in the infliction of pain and lust in inflicted pain appear

but as two different sides of the same psychical process, of which the

primary and essential thing is the consciousness of active or passive

subjection, in which the combination of cruelty and lustful pleasure has

only a secondary psychological significance. Acts of cruelty serve to

express this subjection; first, because they are the most extreme means

for the expression of this relation; and, again, because they represent

the most intense effect that one person, either with or without coitus,

can exert on another.

The cases in which sadism and masochism occur simultaneously in one

individual are interesting, but they present some difficulties of

explanation. Cases 49, 50, 58, etc., are of this kind, and also

particularly Case 30. From the latter it is evident that it is

especially the idea of subjection that, both actively and passively,

forms the nucleus of the perverse desires. Traces of the same thing are

also to be observed, with more or less clearness, in many other cases.

At any rate, one of the two perversions is always markedly predominant.

Owing to this marked predominance of one perversion, and the later

appearance of the other, in such cases it may well be assumed that the

predominating perversion is _original_, and that the other has been

_acquired_ in the course of time. The ideas of subjection and

maltreatment, colored with lustful pleasure, either in an active or

passive sense, have become deeply impressed in such an individual.

Occasionally the imagination is tempted to try the same ideas in an

inverted _rôle_. There may even be realization of this inversion. Such

attempts in imagination and in acts, however, are usually soon abandoned

as inadequate for the original inclination.

Masochism and sadism also occur in combination with contrary sexual

instinct, and, too, in association with all forms and degrees of this

perversion. The individual of contrary sexuality may be a sadist as well

as masochist (comp. Cases 48 and 49 and numerous cases in the following

series of cases of contrary sexual instinct).

Wherever a sexual perversion has developed on the basis of a neuropathic

individuality, sexual hyperæsthesia, which may always be assumed to be

present, may induce the phenomena of masochism and sadism—now of the

one, now of both combined, one arising from the other. Thus masochism

and sadism appear as the fundamental forms of psycho-sexual perversion,

which may make their appearance at any point in the domain of sexual

aberration.[86]

3. _The Association of Lust with the Idea of Certain Portions of the

Female Person, or with Certain Articles of Female Attire—Fetichism._—In

the considerations concerning the psychology of the normal sexual life

in the introduction to this work (_vide_ p. 17), it was shown that,

within physiological limits, the pronounced preference for a certain

portion of the body of persons of the opposite sex, particularly for a

certain form of this part, may attain great psycho-sexual importance.

Indeed, the especial power of attraction possessed by certain forms and

peculiarities for many men—in fact, the majority—may be regarded as the

real principle of individualization in love.

This preference for certain particular physical characteristics in

persons of the opposite sex,—by the side of which, likewise, a marked

preference for certain psychical characteristics may be

demonstrated,—following Binet (“du Fetischisme dans l’amour,” _Revue

philosophique_, 1887) and Lombroso (Introduction to the Italian edition

of the second edition of this work), I have called “fetichism”; because

this enthusiasm for certain portions of the body (or even articles of

attire) and the worship of them, in obedience to sexual impulses,

frequently call to mind the reverence for relics, holy objects, etc., in

religious cults. This physiological fetichism has already been described

in detail on page 17 _et seq._

By the side of this physiological fetichism, however, there is, in the

psycho-sexual sphere, an undoubted pathological, erotic fetichism, of

which there is already a numerous series of cases presenting phenomena

having great clinical and psychiatric interest, and, under certain

circumstances, forensic importance. This pathological fetichism does not

confine itself to certain parts of the body alone, but it is even

extended to inanimate objects, which, however, are almost always

articles of female wearing-apparel, and thus stand in close relation

with the female person.

This pathological fetichism is connected, through gradual transitions,

with physiological fetichism; so that (at least in body-fetichism) it is

almost impossible to sharply define the beginning of the perversion.

Moreover, the whole field of body-fetichism does not really extend

beyond the limits of things which normally stimulate the sexual

instinct. Here the abnormality consists only in the fact that the whole

sexual interest is concentrated on the impression made by a part of the

person of the opposite sex, so that all other impressions fade and

become more or less indifferent. Therefore, the body-fetichist is not to

be regarded as a _monstrum per excessum_, like the sadist or masochist,

but rather as a _monstrum per defectum_. What stimulates him is not

abnormal, but rather what does not affect him,—the limitation of sexual

interest that has taken place in him. Of course, this limited sexual

interest, within its narrower limits, is usually expressed with a

correspondingly greater and abnormal intensity.

It would seem reasonable to assume, as the distinguishing mark of

pathological fetichism, the necessity for the presence of the fetich as

a _conditio sine qua non_ for the possibility of performance of coitus.

But when the facts are more carefully studied, it is seen that this

limitation is really only indefinite. There are numerous cases in which,

even in the absence of the fetich, coitus is possible, but it is

incomplete and forced (often with the help of fancies relating to the

fetich), and particularly unsatisfying and exhausting; and, too, closer

study of the distinctive subjective psychical conditions in these cases

shows that there are transitional states, passing, on the one hand, to

mere physiological preferences, and, on the other, to psychical

impotence in the absence of the fetich. It is therefore better, perhaps,

to seek the pathological criterion of body-fetichism in purely

subjective psychical states. The concentration of the sexual interest on

a certain portion of the body that has no direct relation to sex (as

have the mammæ and external genitals)—a peculiarity to be

emphasized—often leads body-fetichists to such a condition that they do

not regard coitus as the real means of sexual gratification, but rather

some form of manipulation of that portion of the body that is effectual

as a fetich. This perverse instinct of body-fetichists may be taken as

the pathological criterion, no matter whether actual coitus is also

possible or not.

Fetichism of inanimate objects or articles of dress, however, in all

cases, may well be regarded as a pathological phenomenon; since its

objects fall without the circle of normal sexual stimuli. But even here,

in the phenomena, there is a certain outward correspondence with

processes of the normal psychical vita sexualis; the inner connection

and meaning of pathological fetichism, however, are entirely different.

In the ecstatic love of a man mentally normal, a handkerchief or shoe, a

glove or letter, the flower “she gave,” or a lock of hair, etc., may

become the object of worship, but only because they represent a mnemonic

symbol of the beloved person—absent or dead—whose whole personality is

reproduced by them. The pathological fetichist has no such relations.

The fetich constitutes the entire content of his idea. When he is

possessed by it, sexual excitement occurs, and the fetich makes itself

felt.[87]

According to all observations thus far made, pathological fetichism

seems to arise only on the basis of a psychopathic constitution that is

for the most part hereditary, or on the basis of existent mental

disease.

Thus it happens that it not infrequently appears combined with the other

(original) sexual perversions that arise on the same basis. Not

infrequently fetichism occurs in the most various forms in combination

with contrary sexuality, sadism, and masochism. Indeed, certain forms of

body-fetichism (hand- and foot-fetichism) probably have a more or less

distinct connection with the latter two perversions (_v. infra_).

But if fetichism also rests upon a congenital general psychopathic

disposition, yet this perversion is not, like those previously

considered, essentially of an original nature; it is not congenitally

perfect, as we may well assume sadism and masochism to be. While in the

sexual perversions thus far described we have met only cases of a

congenital nature, here we meet only _acquired_ cases. Aside from the

fact that in fetichism the causative circumstance of its acquirement is

often demonstrable, here the physiological conditions are wanting, which

in sadism and masochism, by means of sexual hyperæsthesia, are

intensified to perversions, and justify the assumption of congenital

origin. In fetichism, every case requires an event which affords the

subject of perversion. As has been said, it is, of course, physiological

in sexual life to be partial to one or another of woman’s peculiarities,

and to be enthusiastic about it; but concentration of the entire sexual

interest on such partial impressions is here the essential thing; and

for this concentration there must be a particular reason in every

individual affected. Therefore, we may accept Binet’s conclusion that

_in the life of every fetichist there may be assumed to have been some

event which determined the association of lustful feeling with the

single impression_. This event is to be referred to the time of early

youth, and, as a rule, occurs in connection with the first awakening of

the vita sexualis. This first awakening is associated with some partial

sexual impression (since it is always something standing in some

relation to woman), and stamps it for life as the principal object of

sexual interest. The circumstances under which the association arises

are usually forgotten. It is only the result of the association that is

retained. The general predisposition to psychopathic states and the

sexual hyperæsthesia of such individuals are all that is original

here.[88]

Like the other perversions thus far considered, erotic (pathological)

fetichism may also express itself in strange, unnatural, and even

criminal acts: gratification with the female person _loco indebito_,

theft and robbery of objects of fetichism, pollution of such objects,

etc. Here, too, it only depends upon the intensity of the perverse

impulse and the relative power of opposing ethical motives, whether and

to what extent such acts are performed. These perverse acts of

fetichists, like those of other sexually perverse individuals, may

either alone constitute the entire external vita sexualis, or occur

together with the normal sexual act. This depends upon the condition of

physical and psychical sexual power, and the degree of excitability to

normal stimuli that has been retained. Where excitability is diminished,

not infrequently the sight or touch of the fetich serves as a necessary

preparatory act.

The great practical importance which attaches to the facts of fetichism,

in accordance with what has been said, lies in two factors. First,

pathological fetichism is not infrequently a cause of _psychical

impotence_.[89] Since the object upon which the sexual interest of the

fetichist is concentrated stands, in itself, in no immediate relation to

the normal sexual act, it often happens that the fetichist diminishes

his excitability to normal stimuli by his perversion, or, at least is

capable of coitus only by means of concentration of his fancy upon his

fetich. In this perversion, and in the difficulty of its adequate

satisfaction, just as in the other perversions of the sexual instinct,

lie conditions favoring psychical and physical onanism, which again

reacts deleteriously on the constitution and sexual power. This is

especially true in the case of youthful individuals, and particularly in

the case of those who, on account of opposing ethical and æsthetic

motives, shrink from the realization of their perverse desires.

Secondly, fetichism is of great forensic importance. Just as sadism may

extend to murder and the infliction of bodily injury, fetichism may lead

to theft and even to robbery for the possession of the desired articles.

Erotic fetichism has for its object either a certain portion of the body

of a person of the opposite sex, or a certain article or material of

wearing-apparel of the opposite sex. (Only cases of pathological

fetichism in men have thus far been observed, and therefore only

portions of the female person and attire are spoken of here.) In

accordance with this, fetichists fall into three groups.

(a) _The Fetich is a Part of the Female Body._—Just as, in physiological

fetichism, the eyes, the hand, the foot, and the hair of woman very

frequently become fetiches, so, in the pathological domain, the same

portions of the body become the sole objects of sexual interest. This

exclusive concentration of interest on these parts, by the side of which

everything else feminine fades, and all other sexual value of woman may

sink to _nil_, so that, instead of coitus, strange manipulations of the

fetich become the object of desire,—this it is that makes these cases

pathological.

Case 74. (Binet, _op. cit._) X., aged 34, teacher in a Gymnasium. In

childhood he suffered with convulsions. At the age of ten he began to

masturbate, with lustful feelings, which were connected with very

strange ideas. He was particularly partial to women’s eyes; but since

he wished to imagine some form of coitus, and was absolutely innocent

in sexual matters, to avoid too great a separation from the eyes, he

evolved the idea of making the nostrils the seat of the female sexual

organs. Then his lively sexual desires were connected with this idea.

He sketched drawings representing correct Greek profiles of female

heads, but the nostrils were so large that immissio penis would have

been possible.

One day, in an omnibus, he saw a girl in whom he thought he recognized

his ideal. He followed her to her home and immediately proposed to

her. Shown the door, he returned again and again, until arrested. X.

never had sexual intercourse.

Hand-fetichists are very numerous. The following case is not really

pathological. It is given here as a transitional case:—

Case 75. B., of neuropathic family, very sensual, mentally intact. At

the sight of the hand of a beautiful young lady he is always charmed

and feels sexual excitement to the extent of ejaculation. It is his

delight to kiss and press such hands. As long as they are covered with

gloves he feels unhappy. By pretexts he tries to get hold of such

hands. He is indifferent to the foot. If the beautiful hands are

ornamented with rings, his lust is increased. Only the living hand,

not its image, causes him this lustful excitement. It is only when he

is exhausted sexually by frequent coitus that the hand loses its

sexual charm. At first the memory-picture of female hands disturbed

him even while at work. (Binet, _op. cit._)

Binet states that such cases of enthusiasm for the female hand are

numerous. Here it may be recalled that, according to Case 24, a man may

be partial to the female hand as a result of sadistic impulses; and

that, according to Case 46, the same thing may be due to masochistic

desires. Thus such cases have more than one meaning. But this is by no

means to say that all, or even a majority, of the cases of

hand-fetichism allow or require a sadistic or masochistic explanation.

The following interesting case, that has been studied in detail, shows

that, in spite of the fact that at first a sadistic or masochistic

element seems to have exercised an influence, at the time of the

individual’s maturity and the complete development of the perversion,

the latter contained nothing of these elements. Of course, it is

possible that, in the course of time, these disappeared; but here the

assumption of the origin of the fetichism in an accidental association

meets every requirement:—

Case 76. A case of _hand-fetichism_, communicated by Albert Moll. P.

L., aged 28, a merchant of Westphalia. Aside from the fact that the

patient’s father was remarkably moody and somewhat quick-tempered,

nothing of an hereditary nature could be proved in the family. At

school the patient was not very diligent; he was never able to

concentrate his attention on any one subject for any length of time;

on the other hand, from childhood he had a great inclination for

music. His temperament was always nervous.

In August, 1890, he came to me complaining of headache and abdominal

pain, which in every way gave the impression of being neurasthenic.

The patient also said he was destitute of energy. Only after

accurately directed questions did the patient make the following

statements concerning his sexual life. As far as he could remember,

the beginnings of sexual excitement occurred in his seventh year.

Whenever he saw a boy of his own age urinate and caught sight of his

genitals, he became lustfully excited. L. states with certainty that

this excitement was associated with very evident erections. Led astray

by another boy, L. learned to masturbate at the age of seven or eight.

“Being of a very excitable nature,” said L., “I practiced masturbation

very frequently until my eighteenth year, without gaining any clear

idea of the evil results or the meaning of the practice.” He was

particularly fond of practicing mutual onanism with some of his

school-friends, but it was by no means an indifferent matter who the

other boy was; on the contrary, only a few of his companions could

satisfy him in this respect. To the question as to what particularly

caused him to prefer this or that boy, L. replied that a _white,

beautifully-formed hand_ in his school-fellows impelled him to

practice mutual onanism with them. L. further remembered that

frequently, at the beginning of the gymnastic lesson, he would

exercise by himself on a bar standing apart. He did this for the

purpose of exciting himself as much as possible; and he was so

successful that, without using his hand and without ejaculation,—L.

was still too young,—he had lustful pleasure. Another early event

which L. remembers is interesting. One day his favorite companion, N.,

who practiced mutual onanism with him, proposed that L. should try to

get hold of his (N.’s) penis, and he would do all he could to prevent

it. L. acquiesced. In this way the onanism way directly combined with

a struggle between both parties, in which N. was always overcome. The

struggle always finally ended in N.’s being compelled to allow L. to

practice onanism on him. L. assured me that this kind of masturbation

had given him, as well as N., especial pleasure.[90] In this way L.

continued to practice masturbation very frequently until his

eighteenth year. Warned by a friend, he then began to struggle with

all his might against his evil habit. He became more and more

successful, and finally, after the first performance of coitus, he

stopped the practice of onanism entirely. But this was only

accomplished in his twenty-second year. It now seems incomprehensible

to the patient—and he says he is filled with disgust at the thought of

it—how he could ever have found pleasure in performing masturbation

with other boys. Now, nothing could induce him to touch another man’s

genitals, the sight of which is even unpleasant to him. He has lost

all inclination for men, and feels attracted by women exclusively.

It must be mentioned, however, that, though L. has a decided

inclination for the female sex, he presents an abnormal phenomenon.

The essential thing in woman that excites him is the sight of her

beautiful hands; L. is by far more impressed when he touches a

beautiful female hand than he would be were he to see its possessor in

a state of complete nudity. The extent to which L.’s preference for

beautiful female hands goes is shown by the following incident:—

L. knew a beautiful young lady possessed of every charm, but her hands

were quite large and not beautifully formed, and often they were not

as clean as L. could wish. For this reason it was not only impossible

for L. to conceive a deeper interest in the lady, but he was not able

even to touch her. L. believes that there is nothing more disgusting

to him than dirty finger-nails; this alone would make it impossible

for him to touch a woman who in all other respects was most beautiful.

L. formerly, as a substitute for coitus, had the puella perform

genital manipulation with her hand until ejaculation took place.

To the question as to what there was about a woman’s hand that

attracted him in particular, whether he saw in it a symbol of power,

and whether it gave him pleasure to be directly humiliated by a woman,

the patient answered that only the _beautiful form_ of the hand

charmed him; that it afforded him no gratification to be humiliated by

a woman; and that he had never had any thought to regard the hand as

the symbol or instrument of a woman’s power. The preference for the

hand is still so great that the patient has greater pleasure when his

genitals are touched by it than when he performs coitus in vaginam.

Yet, the patient prefers to perform the latter, because it seems to

him to be natural, while the former seems abnormal. The touch of a

beautiful female hand on his body immediately causes him to have

erection; he thinks that kissing and other contacts do not exert

nearly so strong an influence. It is only of late years that the

patient has performed coitus frequently, but it has always been very

difficult for him to determine to do it. Too, in coitus, he did not

find the complete satisfaction he sought. However, when he finds

himself near a woman whom he would like to possess, sometimes, at mere

sight of her, his sexual excitement becomes so intense that

ejaculation results. L. says expressly that during this he does not

intentionally touch or press his genitals; ejaculation under such

circumstances affords him much more pleasure than he experiences in

actual coitus.[91]

To go back, the patient’s dreams were never about coitus. When he had

pollutions at night, they were almost always associated with other

thoughts than those that occur in the normal man. The patient’s dreams

are of events of his school-days. During his school-days, besides the

mutual onanism described, he had ejaculations whenever he became

anxiously excited. When, for example, the teacher dictated an

extemporaneous exercise, and L. was unable to follow in translation,

ejaculation often occurred.[92] The pollutions that now occur

occasionally, at night, are only accompanied by dreams that have the

same or a similar subject,—the events at school just mentioned. On

account of his unnatural feeling and sensibility, the patient thinks

he is incapable of loving a woman long.

Treatment of the patient’s perversion has not yet been possible.

This case of hand-fetichism certainly does not depend on masochism or

sadism, but is to be explained simply by early indulgence in mutual

onanism. There is here, also, quite as little of contrary sexual

instinct. Before the sexual appetite was clearly conscious of its

object, the hands of school-fellows were used. As soon as the instinct

for the opposite sex became evident, the interest for the hand was

transferred to woman.

In hand-fetichists, who, according to Binet, are so numerous, it is

possible that other associations lead to the same result.

Next to the hand-fetichists, naturally come the foot-fetichists. While

glove-fetichism, which belongs to the next group of object-fetichism,

seldom takes the place of hand-fetichism, we find shoe- and

boot-fetichism, of which there are innumerable cases occurring

everywhere, taking the place of enthusiasm for the naked female foot.

There are only here and there traces of the latter enthusiasm, and these

are scarcely pathological. It is easy to see the reason for this. The

female hand is usually seen uncovered; the foot, covered. Thus the early

associations which determine the direction of the vita sexualis are

naturally connected with the naked hand, but with the covered foot.

Shoe-fetichism also finds its place in the following group of

dress-fetichism; however, on account of its demonstrable masochistic

character in the majority of cases, it has been, for the most part,

described already (p. 123 _et seq._).

Besides the eyes, hand, and foot, the mouth and ears often play the

_rôle_ of a fetich. Among others, Moll (_op. cit._) mentions such cases.

(Comp. also Belot’s romance, “La Bouche de Madame X.,” which, B. states,

rests upon actual observation.)

The following remarkable case came under my personal observation:—

Case 77. A gentleman of very bad heredity consulted me concerning

impotence that was driving him almost to despair. While he was young,

his fetich was women of plump form. He married such a lady, and was

happy and potent with her. After a few months the lady fell very ill,

and lost much flesh. When, one day, he tried to resume his marital

duty, he was absolutely impotent, and remained so. If, however, he

attempted coitus with plump women, he was perfectly potent.

Even bodily defects may become fetiches.

Descartes, who himself (“Traité des Passions,” cxxxvi) expresses some

opinions concerning the origin of peculiar affections in associations

of ideas, was always partial to cross-eyed women, because the object

of his first love had such a defect. (Binet, _op. cit._)

Lydston (“A Lecture on Sexual Perversion,” Chicago, 1890[93]) reports

the case of a man who had a love-affair with a woman whose right lower

extremity had been amputated. After separation from her, he searched

for other women with a like defect.[94]—A negative fetich.

When the part of the female body forming the fetich is capable of

removal, like the hair, the most extravagant acts may be

performed. Therefore, hair-fetichists form an interesting and

forensically-important category. While such admirers of female hair are

probably not infrequent within physiological limits, and possibly

various senses (sight, smell, and hearing, through crepitant sounds,—and

certainly touch, just as with velvet- and silk-fetichists, _v. infra_)

are thus excited with an accompaniment of lustful feeling; yet, a series

of similar pathological cases has also been observed, in which the

hair-fetichism had become an overpowering impulse, and driven the

individuals to commit crimes.[95],[96] These form the group of

hair-despoilers.

Case 78. _A hair-despoiler._ P., aged 40, artistic locksmith, single.

His father was temporarily insane, and his mother was very nervous. He

developed well, and was intelligent; but he was early affected with

_tics_ and imperative ideas. He had never masturbated. He loved

platonically, and often busied himself with matrimonial plans. He had

coitus infrequently with prostitutes, but never felt satisfied with

such intercourse—rather, disgusted. Three years ago he was overtaken

by misfortune (financial ruin), and, besides, he had a febrile

disease, with delirium. These things had a very bad effect on his

hereditarily-predisposed nervous system. On August 28, 1889, P. was

arrested at the Trocadero, in Paris, _in flagranti_, as he forcibly

cut off a young girl’s hair. He was arrested with the hair in his hand

and a pair of shears in his pocket. He excused himself on the ground

of momentary mental confusion and an unfortunate, irresistible

passion; he confessed that he had ten times cut off hair, which he

took great delight in keeping at home. On searching his home,

sixty-five switches and tresses of hair were found, assorted in

packets. P. had already been once arrested, on December 15, 1886,

under similar circumstances, but was released for lack of evidence.

P. states that, for the last three years, when he is alone in his room

at night, he feels ill, anxious, excited, and dizzy, and then is

troubled by the impulse to touch female hair. When it happened that he

could actually take a young girl’s hair in his hand, he felt intensely

excited sexually, and had erection and ejaculation without touching

the girl in any other way. On reaching home, he would feel ashamed of

what had taken place; but the wish to possess hair, always accompanied

by great sensual pleasure, became more and more powerful in him. He

wondered that previously, even in the most intimate intercourse with

women, he had experienced no such feeling. One evening he could not

resist the impulse to cut off a girl’s hair. With the hair in his

hand, at home, the sensual process was repeated. He was forced to rub

his body with the hair and envelop his genitals in it. Finally, quite

exhausted, he grew ashamed, and could not trust himself to go out for

several days. After months of rest he was again impelled to possess

himself of female hair, indifferent as to whose it might be. If he

attained his end, he felt himself possessed by a supernatural power

and unable to give up his booty. If he could not attain the object of

his desire, he became greatly depressed, hurried home, and there

reveled in his collection of hair. He combed and fondled it, and thus

had intense orgasm, satisfying himself by masturbation. Hair exposed

in the cases of hair-dressers made no impression on him; it required

hair hanging down from a female head.

At the height of his act, he states, he is in such a state of

excitement that he has only imperfect apperception and subsequent

memory of what he does. When he touches the hair with the shears he

has erection, and, at the instant of cutting it off, ejaculation.

Since his misfortune, about three years ago, he states that he has had

weakness of memory, is easily exhausted mentally, and has been

troubled by sleeplessness and night-terrors. P. deeply regrets his

crime.

Not only hair, but a number of hair-pins, ribbons, and other articles

of the feminine toilet, were found in his possession, which he had had

presented to him. He had always had an actual mania for collecting

such things, as well as newspapers, pieces of wood, and other

worthless trash, which he would never give up. He also had a strange

and, to him, inexplicable fear of passing a certain street; if he ever

tried it, it made him ill.

The opinion (medico-legal) showed him to be hereditarily predisposed,

and proved the imperative, impulsive, and decidedly involuntary

character of the criminal acts, which had the significance of an

imperative act, induced by an imperative idea, with an accompaniment

of overpowering abnormal sexual feeling. Pardon; asylum for insane.

(Voisin, Socquet, Motet, _Annales d’hygiène_, April, 1890.)

Following this case, is a similar one which also deserves attention; for

it has been well studied, and may be called almost classical; and, too,

it places the fetich, as well as the original associative awakening of

the idea, in a clear light:—

Case 79. _A hair-despoiler._ E., aged 25. Maternal aunt, epileptic;

brother had convulsions. E. says he was fairly healthy as a child, and

learned quite easily. At the age of fifteen he had a sensual feeling

of pleasure, with erection, at the sight of one of the village

beauties combing her hair. Until that time persons of the opposite sex

had made no impression on him. Two months later, in Paris, the sight

of young girls with their hair flowing down over their shoulders

always excited him intensely. One day he could not resist an

opportunity to twist a young girl’s hair in his fingers. For this he

was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for three months. After

that he served five years as a soldier. During this time hair was not

dangerous for him, though also not very accessible; but he dreamed

sometimes of female heads with the hair braided or flowing. Occasional

coitus with women, but without having their hair effective as a

fetich. Once more in Paris, he again dreamed as before, and became

greatly excited by female hair. He never dreamed about the whole form

of a woman, only of heads with braids of hair. His sexual excitement

due to this fetich had become so intense of late that he had resorted

to masturbation. The idea of touching female hair, or, better, of

possessing it to masturbate while handling it, grew more and more

powerful. Of late, when he had female hair in his fingers, ejaculation

was induced. One day he succeeded in cutting hair, about 25

centimetres long, from three little girls in the street, and keeping

it in his possession, when he was arrested in a fourth attempt. Deep

regret and shame. He was not sentenced. Since spending some time in

the asylum, he has so far improved that female hair no longer excites

him. Set at liberty, he thought of going to his native place, where

the women wear their hair done up. (Magnan, _Archiv. de l’anthropol.

criminelle_, v, Nr. 28.)

A third case is the following, which is likewise suited to illustrate

the psychopathic nature of such phenomena; and the remarkable means

which induced a cure are worthy of note:—

Case 80. _Hair-fetichism._ Mr. X., between thirty and forty years old;

from the higher class of society; single. He says that he comes of a

healthy family, but from childhood has been nervous, vacillating, and

peculiar; that since his eighth year he has been powerfully attracted

by female hair. This was particularly true in the case of young girls.

When he was nine years old, a girl of thirteen seduced him. He did not

understand it, and was not at all excited. A twelve-year-old sister of

this girl also courted, kissed, and hugged him. He allowed this

quietly, because this girl’s hair pleased him so well. When about ten

years old, he began to have sensual feelings at the sight of female

hair that pleased him. Gradually these feelings occurred

spontaneously, and memory-pictures of girls’ hair were always

immediately associated with them. At the age of eleven he was taught

to masturbate by school-mates. The associative connection of sexual

feelings and a fetichistic idea was already established, and always

appeared when the patient indulged in evil practices with his

companions. With advancing years, the fetich grew more and more

powerful. Even false hair began to excite him, but he always preferred

natural hair. When he could touch or kiss it, he was perfectly happy.

He wrote essays and poems on the beauty of female hair; he sketched

heads of hair and masturbated. After his fourteenth year he became so

powerfully excited by his fetich that he had violent erections. In

contrast with his early taste while a boy, he was now charmed only by

luxuriant, thick black hair. He experienced intense desire to kiss

such hair, particularly to suck it. To touch such hair afforded him

but little satisfaction; he obtained much more pleasure in looking at

it, but particularly in kissing and sucking it. If this were

impossible, he would become unhappy, even to the extent of tædium

vitæ. Then he would attempt to relieve himself, imagining fantastic

“hair-adventures” and masturbating. Not infrequently, in the street

and in crowds, he could not keep from imprinting a kiss on ladies’

heads. He would then hurry home to masturbate. Sometimes he could

resist this impulse; but it was then necessary for him, filled with

feelings of fear, to run away as quickly as possible, in order to

escape the domination of his fetich. He was only once impelled to cut

off a girl’s hair in a crowd. In the act he was seized with fear, and

was not successful with his pocket-knife; and, by flight, he narrowly

escaped detection.

When he became mature, he attempted to satisfy himself in coitus with

puellis. He induced powerful erection by kissing the hair, but could

not induce ejaculation. Therefore, he was unsatisfied by coitus. At

the same time, his favorite idea was coitus with kissing of hair; but

even this did not satisfy him, because it did not induce ejaculation.

_Faute de mieux_, he once stole the combings of a lady’s hair, put it

in his mouth, and masturbated while calling its owner up in

imagination. In the dark a woman could not interest him, because he

could not then see her hair. Flowing hair also had no charm for him;

nor did the hair about the genitals. His erotic dreams were all about

hair. Of late the patient had become so excited that he had a kind of

satyriasis. He was incapable of business, and felt so unhappy that he

sought to drown his sorrow in alcohol. He drank large quantities, had

alcoholic delirium, an attack of alcoholic epilepsy, and required

hospital treatment. After the intoxication had passed away, under

appropriate treatment, the sexual excitement soon disappeared; and

when the patient was discharged, he was freed from his fetichistic

idea, save for its occasional occurrence in dreams. The physical

examination showed normal genitals and no degenerative signs whatever.

Such cases of hair-fetichism, which lead to attacks on female hair, seem

to occur everywhere, from time to time. In November, 1890, according to

reports in American newspapers, several cities in the United States were

troubled by such hair-despoilers.

(b) _The Fetich is an Article of Female Attire._—The great importance of

adornment, ornament, and dress, in the normal vita sexualis of man, is

very generally recognized. Culture and fashion[97] have, to a certain

extent, endowed woman with artificial sexual characteristics, the

removal of which, when woman is seen unattired, in spite of the normal

sensual effect of this sight, may exert an opposite influence.[98] It

should not be overlooked that female dress often shows a tendency to

emphasize and exaggerate certain sexual peculiarities,—secondary sexual

characteristics (bosom, waist, hips). In most individuals the sexual

instinct awakes long before there is any possibility or opportunity of

intimate intercourse, and the early desires of youth are concerned with

the ordinary appearance of the attired female form. Thus it happens that

not infrequently, at the beginning of the vita sexualis, ideas of the

persons exerting sexual charms and ideas of their attire become

associated. This association may be lasting—the attired woman may be

always preferred—if the individuals dominated by this perversion do not

in other respects attain to a normal vita sexualis, and find

gratification in natural charms.

In psychopathic individuals, sexually hyperæsthetic, as a result of

this, it actually happens that the dressed woman is always preferred to

the nude female form. It may be recalled that in Case 48 the woman was

not to take off a garment, and that in Case 51, _equus eroticus_, the

woman was preferred dressed. In Case 89, of the sixth edition,—that of a

man manifesting contrary sexuality,—the same preference is expressed.

Dr. Moll (_op. cit._) mentions a patient who could not perform coitus

with puella nuda; the woman had to have on a chemise, at least. The same

author (_op. cit._, p. 129) mentions a man affected with contrary

sexuality, who was subject to the same dress-fetichism.

The reason for this phenomenon is apparently to be found in the mental

onanism of such individuals. In seeing innumerable clothed forms, they

have cultivated desires before seeing nudity.[99]

A more marked form of dress-fetichism is that in which, instead of the

dressed woman, a certain kind of attire becomes a fetich. One can

understand how, with an intense and early sexual impression, combined

with the idea of a particular garment on the woman, in hyperæsthetic

individuals, a very intense interest in this garment might be developed.

Hammond (_op. cit._) reports the following case, taken from Roubaud

(“Traité de l’impuissance,” Paris):—

Case 81. X., son of a general. He was raised in the country. At the

age of fourteen he was initiated into the joys of love by a young

lady. This lady was a blonde, and wore her hair in ringlets; and, in

order to avoid detection in sexual intercourse with her young lover,

she always wore her usual clothing,—gaiters, a corset, and a silk

dress.

When his studies were completed, and he was sent to a garrison where

he could enjoy freedom, he found that his sexual desire could be

excited only under certain conditions. A brunette could not excite him

in the least, and a woman in night-clothes could stifle every bit of

love in him. In order to awaken his desire, a woman had to be a

blonde, and wear gaiters, a corset, and a silk dress,—in short, she

had to be dressed like the lady who had first awakened his sexual

desire. He was always compelled to give up thoughts of matrimony,

because he knew he would be unable to fulfill his marital duty with a

woman in night-clothes.

Hammond reports another case where coitus maritalis could be performed

only by the help of a certain costume; and Dr. Moll mentions several

similar cases in individuals of hetero- and homo-sexuality. The cause

may often be shown to be an early association, and such may always be

assumed. It is only in this way that one can explain why a certain

costume cannot be resisted by such individuals, no matter what person

wears the fetich. Thus one can understand why, as Coffignon (_op.

cit._) relates, men at brothels demand that the women with whom they

are concerned put on certain costumes, such as that of a

ballet-dancer, or nun, etc.; and why these houses are furnished with a

complete wardrobe for such purposes.

Binet (_op. cit._) relates the case of a judge who was exclusively in

love with Italian girls who came to Paris as artists’ models, and

their peculiar costume. The cause was here demonstrably an impression

made at the time of the awakening of the sexual instinct.

A third form of dress-fetichism, having a much higher degree of

pathological significance, is by far the most frequent. In this form it

is no longer the woman herself, dressed, or even dressed in a particular

fashion, that constitutes the principal sexual stimulus, but the sexual

interest is so concentrated on some certain article of female attire

that the lustful idea of this object is entirely separated from the idea

of woman, and thus obtains an independent value. This is the real domain

of dress-fetichism, where an inanimate object—an isolated article of

wearing-apparel—is alone used for the excitation and satisfaction of the

sexual instinct. This third form of dress-fetichism is also the one that

is important forensically.

In a large number of these cases the fetiches are articles of female

underwear, which, owing to their private use, are suited to occasion

such associations.

Case 82. K., aged 45, shoemaker, is reported to be without hereditary

taint. He is peculiar, and has small mental endowment. He is of

masculine habitus and without signs of degeneration. Previously

blameless in conduct, on the evening of July 5, 1876, he was detected

taking stolen female under-garments from a place of concealment. There

were found with him about three hundred articles of the female toilet,

among them, besides chemises and drawers, night-caps, garters, and a

female doll. When arrested he was wearing a chemise. Since his

thirteenth year he had been a slave to an impulse to steal women’s

linen; but, after his first punishment for it, he had become very

careful, and stolen with refinement and success. When this longing

came over him, he would grow anxious, and his head would become heavy.

Then he could not resist the impulse, cost what it might. He was

indifferent to the source of the articles. At night, on going to bed,

he would put on the stolen clothing and create beautiful women in

imagination, thus inducing pleasurable feeling and ejaculation. This

was apparently the motive of his thefts; at least, he had never

disposed of any of the articles, but had hidden them here and there.

He declared that, earlier in his life, he had indulged in normal

sexual intercourse with women. He denied onanism, pederasty, and other

sexual acts. He said he was engaged at twenty-five, but the engagement

was broken through no fault of his. He was incapable of insight into

the abnormality of his condition and the wrong of his acts. (Passow,

_Vierteljahrsschrift f. ger. Medic._, N. F. xxviii, p. 61; Krauss,

“Psychologie des Verbrechens,” 1884, p. 190.)

Hammond (_op. cit._) reports a case of passionate interest in single

articles of female wearing-apparel. Here, also, the patient’s pleasure

consisted in wearing a corset and other female garments (without any

traces of contrary sexual instinct). The pain of tight lacing,

experienced by himself or induced in women, is a delight to

him,—sadistic-masochistic element.

A case probably belonging here is one reported by Diez (“Der

Selbstmord,” 1838, p. 24), where a young man could not resist the

impulse to tear female linen. While tearing it, he always had

ejaculation.

A combination of fetichism with an impulse to destroy the fetich (in a

certain sense, sadism with inanimate objects) seems to occur quite

frequently (comp. Case 93).

An article of dress, which, though it has not really a private

character, by its material and color, as well as by the place where it

is worn, recalls under-garments, and hence has sexual relations, is the

apron (comp. also the metonymic use of the word “apron” for “petticoat”

in the saying, “To chase every apron,” etc.). This explains the

following case:—

Case 83. C., aged 37; of a badly tainted family; of small mental

endowment; plagiocephalic. At fifteen his attention was attracted by

aprons hung out to dry. He bound them about himself and masturbated

behind the fence. From that time he could not see aprons without

repeating the act. If any one—no matter whether man or woman—with an

apron on came near him, he was compelled to run after the person. In

order to free him from this constant stealing of aprons, he was sent

as a marine in his sixteenth year. In this calling he saw no aprons,

and had continual rest. When, at nineteen, he returned home, he was

again compelled to steal aprons, and, as a result, got into serious

complications, and was several times locked up. He sought to free

himself of his weakness by a sojourn of several years in a cloister.

When he came out, he was just as bad as before. As a result of a new

theft, he underwent a medico-legal examination, and was committed to

an asylum. He never stole anything but aprons. It was a pleasure to

him to revel in the memory of the first apron he ever stole. His

dreams were filled with aprons. He occasionally used the memory of his

thefts to make coitus possible, or for masturbation. (Charcot and

Magnan, _Arch. de neurolog._, 1882, Nr. 12.)

In a case reported by Lombroso (“Amori anomali precoci nei pazzi,”

_Arch. di psich._, 1883, p. 17), analogous to those of this series, a

boy of very bad heredity, at the age of four, had erections and great

sexual excitement at the sight of white garments, particularly

underclothing. He was lustfully excited by handling and crumpling

them. At the age of ten he began to masturbate at the sight of white,

starched linen. He seems to have been affected with moral insanity,

and was executed for murder.

The following case of petticoat-fetichism is combined with peculiar

circumstances:—

Case 84. Z., aged 35; official; the only child of a nervous mother and

healthy father. From childhood he was “nervous,” and at the

consultation his neuropathic eyes, delicate, slender body, fine

features, very thin voice, and sparse growth of beard attracted

attention. The patient presents nothing abnormal except symptoms of

slight neurasthenia. Genitals and sexual functions normal. Patient

states that he has only masturbated four or five times, and that when

he was very young. As early as at the age of thirteen, the patient was

powerfully excited sexually by the sight of wet female dresses; while

the same dresses, when dry, had no effect upon him. His greatest

delight was to look at women with wet garments in the rain. If he met

a woman having a pleasing face under such circumstances, he

experienced an intense feeling of lustful pleasure, had erection, and

felt impelled to perform coitus. He states that he has never had any

desire to wet female dresses or to throw water on women. He can give

no explanation of the origin of his peculiarity.

It is possible that, in this case, the sexual instinct was first

awakened by the sight of a woman as she exposed her charms by raising

her skirts in wet weather. The obscure instinct, not yet conscious of

its object, then became directed to the wet garments, as in other

cases.

_Lovers of female handkerchiefs_ are frequent, and, therefore, important

forensically. As to the frequency of handkerchief-fetichism, it may be

remarked that the handkerchief is the one article of feminine attire

which, outside of intimate association, is most frequently displayed,

and which, with its warmth from the person and specific odors, may by

accident fall into the hands of others. The frequency of early

association of lustful feelings with the idea of a handkerchief, which

may always be presumed to have occurred in such cases of fetichism,

probably is due to this.

Case 85. A baker’s assistant, aged 32, single, previously of good

repute, was discovered stealing a handkerchief from a lady. In sincere

remorse, he confessed that he had stolen from eighty to ninety such

handkerchiefs. He had cared only for handkerchiefs, and, indeed, only

for those belonging to young women attractive to him. In his outward

appearance the culprit presents nothing peculiar. He dresses himself

with much taste. His conduct is peculiar, anxious, depressed, and

unmanly, and he often lapses into whining and tears. Lack of

self-reliance, weakness of comprehension, and slowness of perception

and reflection, are noticeable. One of his sisters is epileptic. He

lives in good circumstances; was never severely sick; developed well.

In relating his history, he shows weakness of memory and lack of

clearness; calculation is hard for him, though when young he learned

and comprehended easily. His anxious, uncertain state of mind gives

rise to a suspicion of onanism. The culprit confessed that he had been

given to this practice excessively since his nineteenth year. For some

years, as a result of his vice, he had suffered with depression,

lassitude, trembling of the limbs, pain in the back, and

disinclination for work. Frequently a depressed, anxious state of mind

came over him, in which he avoided people. He had exaggerated,

fantastic notions about the results of sexual intercourse with women,

and could not bring himself to indulge in it. Of late, however, he had

thought of marriage. With great remorse and in a weak-minded way, X.

now confessed that six months before, while in a crowd, he became

violently excited sexually at the sight of a pretty young girl, and

was compelled to crowd up against her. He felt an impulse to

compensate himself for the want of a more complete satisfaction of his

sexual excitement, by stealing her handkerchief. Thereafter, as soon

as he came near attractive females, with violent sexual excitement,

palpitation of the heart, erection and _impetus coeundi_, the impulse

would seize him to crowd up against them and, _faute de mieux_, steal

their handkerchiefs. Although the consciousness of his criminal act

never left him for a moment, he was unable to make any resistance to

the impulse. During the act he felt an anxiety which was in part due

to his inordinate sexual impulse, and partly to the fear of detection.

The medico-legal opinion rightly gave weight to the congenital mental

enfeeblement and the pernicious influence of masturbation, and

referred the abnormal impulses to a perverse sexual impulse, calling

attention to the presence of an interesting and well-known

physiological connection between the olfactory and sexual senses. The

inability to resist the pathological impulse was recognized. X. was

not punished. (Zippe, _Wiener Med. Wochenschrift_, 1879, Nr. 23.)

I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Fritsch, of Vienna, for further

facts concerning this handkerchief-fetichist, who was again arrested in

August, 1890, in the act of taking a handkerchief from a lady’s pocket:—

On searching his house, four hundred and forty-six ladies’

handkerchiefs were found. He stated that he had burned besides two

bundles of them. In the course of the examination, it was further

shown that X. had been punished with imprisonment for fourteen days,

in 1883, for stealing twenty-seven handkerchiefs, and again with

imprisonment for three weeks, in 1886, for a similar crime. Concerning

his relatives, nothing more could be learned than that his father was

subject to congestions, and that a brother’s daughter was weak-minded

and constitutionally neuropathic. X. had married in 1879, and embarked

in an independent business, and in 1881 he made an assignment. Soon

after that, his wife, who could not live with him, and with whom he

did not perform his marital duty (denied by X.), demanded a divorce.

Thereafter he lived as assistant baker to his brother. He complained

bitterly of an impulse for ladies’ handkerchiefs, but when opportunity

offered, unfortunately, he could not resist it. In the act he

experienced a feeling of delight, and felt as if some one were forcing

him to it. Sometimes he could restrain himself, but, when the lady was

pleasing to him, he yielded to the first impulse. He would be wet with

sweat, partly from fear of detection, and partly on account of the

impulse to perform the act. He says he has been sensually excited, by

the sight of handkerchiefs belonging to women, since puberty. He

cannot recall the exact circumstances of this fetichistic association.

The sensual excitement, occasioned by the sight of a lady with a

handkerchief hanging out of her pocket, had constantly increased. This

had repeatedly caused erection, but never ejaculation. After his

twenty-first year, he says, he had inclination to normal sexual

indulgence, and had coitus without difficulty without ideas of

handkerchiefs. With increasing fetichism, the appropriation of

handkerchiefs had afforded him much more satisfaction than coitus. The

appropriation of the handkerchief of a lady attractive to him was the

same to him as intercourse with her would have been. In the act he had

true orgasm.

If he could not gain possession of the handkerchief he desired, he

would become painfully excited, tremble, and sweat all over. He kept

separate the handkerchiefs of ladies particularly pleasing to him, and

reveled in the sight of them, taking great pleasure in it. The odor of

them also gave him great delight, though he states that it was really

the odor peculiar to the linen, and not the perfume, which excited him

sensually. He had masturbated but very seldom.

X. complained of no physical ailments except occasional headache and

vertigo. He greatly regretted his misfortune, his abnormal

impulse,—the evil spirit that impelled him to such criminal acts. He

had but one wish: that some one might help him. Objectively there are

mild neurasthenic symptoms, anomalies of the distribution of blood,

and unequal pupils.

It was proved that X. had committed his crimes in obedience to an

abnormal, irresistible impulse. Pardon.

Such cases of handkerchief-fetichism, where an abnormal individual is

driven to theft, are very numerous. They also occur in combination with

contrary sexuality, as is proved by the following case, which I borrow

from page 125 of Dr. Moll’s frequently-cited work[100]:—

Case 86. _Handkerchief-fetichism in a Case of Contrary Sexual

Instinct._—K., aged 38; mechanic; a powerfully built man. He makes

numerous complaints,—weakness of the legs, pain in the back, headache,

want of pleasure in work, etc. The complaints give the decided

impression of neurasthenia with tendency to hypochondria. Only after

the patient had been under my treatment several months did he state

that he was also abnormal sexually.

K. had never had any inclination whatever for women; but handsome men,

on the other hand, had a peculiar charm for him. Patient had

masturbated frequently until he came to me. He had never practiced

mutual onanism or pederasty. He did not think that he would have found

satisfaction in this, because, in spite of his preference for men, an

article of white linen was his chief charm, though the beauty of its

owner played a _rôle_. The handkerchiefs of handsome men particularly

excite him sexually. His greatest delight is to masturbate in men’s

handkerchiefs. For this reason he often took his friend’s

handkerchiefs. In order to save himself from detection, he always left

one of his own handkerchiefs with his friend in place of the one he

stole. In this way he sought to escape the suspicion of theft, by

creating the appearance of a mistake. Other articles of men’s linen

also excited K. sexually, but not to the extent handkerchiefs did.

K. had often performed coitus with women, having erection and

ejaculation, but without lustful pleasure. There was also nothing

which could stimulate the patient to the performance of coitus.

Erection and ejaculation occurred only when, during the act, he

thought of a man’s handkerchief; and this was easier for the patient

when he took a friend’s handkerchief with him, and had it in his hand

during coitus. In accordance with his sexual perversion, in his

nightly pollutions with lustful ideas, men’s linen played the

principal _rôle_.

It is possible that, in this interest in (used) handkerchiefs, elements

of feeling in the sense of masochism, group “_c_,” are also often at

work.

Still far more frequent than the fetichism of linen garments is that of

women’s shoes. These cases are, in fact, almost innumerable, and a great

many of them have been scientifically studied; but I have but a few

reports at second hand of the similar glove-fetichism (concerning the

reason for the relative infrequency of glove-fetichism, _vide_ p. 161).

In shoe-fetichism the close relationship of the object to the feminine

person, which explains linen-fetichism, is absolutely wanting. For this

reason, and because there is a large number of well-observed cases at

hand, in which the fetichistic enthusiasm for the female shoe or boot

consciously and undoubtedly arises from masochistic ideas, an origin of

a masochistic nature, even when it is concealed, may always be assumed

in shoe-fetichism, when, in the concrete case, no other manner of origin

is demonstrable. For this reason the majority of the cases of shoe- or

foot-fetichism have been given under “Masochism.” There the constant

masochistic character of this form of erotic fetichism has been

sufficiently demonstrated by means of transitional conditions. This

presumption of the masochistic character of shoe-fetichism is weakened

and removed only where another accidental cause for an association

between sexual excitation and the idea of women’s shoes—the occurrence

of which is quite improbable _a priori_—is demonstrable. In the two

following cases, however, there is such a demonstrable connection:—

Case 87. _Shoe-fetichism._ Mr. v. P., of an old and honorable family,

Pole, aged 32, consulted me, in 1890, on account of “unnaturalness” of

his vita sexualis. He gave the assurance that he came of a perfectly

healthy family. He had been nervous from childhood, and had suffered

with chorea minor at the age of eleven. For ten years he had suffered

with sleeplessness and various neurasthenic ailments. From his

fifteenth year he had recognized the difference of the sexes and been

capable of sexual excitation. At the age of seventeen he had been

seduced by a French governess, but coitus was not permitted; so that

intense mutual sensual excitement (mutual masturbation) was all that

was possible. In this situation his attention was attracted by her

very elegant boots. They made a very deep impression. His intercourse

with this lewd person lasted four months. During this association her

shoes became a fetich for the unfortunate boy. He began to have an

interest in ladies’ shoes in general, and actually went about trying

to catch sight of ladies wearing pretty boots. The shoe-fetichism

gained great power over his mind. He had the governess touch his penis

with her shoes, and thus ejaculation with great lustful feeling was

immediately induced. After separation from the governess, he went to

puellis, whom he had perform the same manipulation. This was usually

sufficient for satisfaction. Only seldom did he resort to coitus as an

auxiliary, and inclination for it grew less and less. His vita

sexualis consisted of dream-pollutions, in which women’s shoes played

the exclusive _rôle_; and of gratification with women’s shoes apposita

ad mentulam, but this had to be done by the puella. In the society of

the opposite sex the only thing that interested him was the shoe, and

that only when it was elegant, of the French style, with heels, and of

a brilliant black, like the original.

In the course of time the following conditions have become accessory:

A prostitute’s shoe that is elegant and _chic_; starched petticoats,

and black hose, if possible. Nothing else in woman interests him. _He

is absolutely indifferent to the naked foot._ Women have not the

slightest mental charm for him. He had never had masochistic desires,

in the sense of being trod upon. In the course of years his fetichism

had gained such power that when he saw a lady on the street, of a

certain appearance and with certain shoes, he was so intensely excited

that he had to masturbate. Slight pressure on the penis sufficed to

induce ejaculation, in his state of severe neurasthenia. Shoes

displayed in shops, and, of late, even advertisements of shoes,

sufficed to excite him intensely. In states of intense libido he made

use of onanism, if shoes were not at his immediate command. The

patient quite early recognized the pain and danger of his condition,

and, even when he was free from neurasthenic ailments, he was morally

very much depressed. He sought help of various physicians. Cold-water

cures and hypnotism were unsuccessful. The most celebrated physicians

advised him to marry, and assured him that, as soon as he once really

loved a girl, he would be free from his fetichism. The patient had no

confidence in his future, but he followed the advice of the

physicians. He was cruelly disappointed in the hope which the

authority of the physicians had aroused in him, though he led to the

altar a lady distinguished by both mental and physical charms. The

wedding-night was terrible; he felt like a criminal, and did not

approach his wife. The next day he saw a prostitute with the required

_chic_. He was weak enough to have intercourse with her in his way.

Then he bought a pair of elegant ladies’ boots, and hid them in bed,

and, by touching them, while in marital embrace, after a few days, he

was able to perform his marital duty. He ejaculated tardily, for he

had to force himself to coitus; and, after a few weeks, this artifice

failed, because his imagination failed. He felt unspeakably miserable,

and would have preferred to make an end of himself. He could no longer

satisfy his wife, who was sensual, and much excited by their previous

intercourse; and he saw her suffering severely, both mentally and

morally. He could not, and would not, disclose his secret. He

experienced disgust in marital intercourse; he felt afraid of his

wife, and feared the coming of night and being alone with her. He

could no longer induce erection.

He again made attempts with prostitutes, and satisfied himself by

touching their shoes. Then the puella had to touch his penis, when he

would have ejaculation; but, if this did not take place, he would

attempt coitus with the lewd woman; without success, however, for

ejaculation would occur immediately. In absolute despair, the patient

comes for consultation. He deeply regretted that, against his inner

conviction, he had followed the unfortunate advice of the physicians,

and made a virtuous wife unhappy, having deeply injured her, both

mentally and morally. Could he answer God for continuing such a

marriage? Even if he were to discover himself to his wife, and she

were to do everything for him, it would not help him; for the familiar

perfume of the _demi-monde_ was also necessary.

Aside from his mental pain, this unfortunate man presented no

remarkable symptoms. Genitals perfectly normal. Prostate somewhat

enlarged. He complained that he was so under the domination of his

boot-ideas that he would even blush when boots were talked about. His

whole imagination was given up to such ideas. When he was on his

estate, he often suddenly had to go a distance of ten miles to the

city, to satisfy his fetichism with shoe-stores or with puellis.

This pitiable man could not bring himself to take treatment; for his

faith in physicians had been greatly shaken. An attempt to ascertain

whether hypnosis and a removal of the fetichistic association by this

means, were possible, increased the mental excitement of the

unfortunate man, who was exclusively controlled by the thought that he

had made his wife unhappy.

Case 88. X., aged 24, from a badly-tainted family (mother’s brother

and grandfather insane, one sister epileptic, another sister subject

to migraine, parents of excitable temperament). During dentition he

had had convulsions. At the age of seven he was taught to masturbate

by a servant-girl. X. first experienced pleasure in these

manipulations when this girl occasionally _stroked his penis with her

foot with her shoe on_. Thus, in the predisposed boy, an association

was established, as a result of which, from that time on, merely the

sight of women’s shoes, and, finally, merely the idea of them,

sufficed to induce sexual excitement and erection. He now masturbated

while looking at women’s shoes, or while calling them up in

imagination. At school the teacher’s shoes excited him intensely, and

in general he was affected by shoes that were partly concealed by

female garments. One day he could not keep from grasping the teacher’s

shoes,—an act that caused him great sexual excitement. In spite of

punishment he could not keep from performing this act repeatedly.

Finally, it was recognized that there must be an abnormal motive in

play, and he was sent to a male teacher. He then reveled in the memory

of shoe-scenes with his former school-mistress, and thus had

erections, orgasm, and, after his fourteenth year, ejaculation. At the

same time, he masturbated while thinking of a woman’s shoe. One day

the thought came to him to increase his pleasure by using such a shoe

for masturbation. Thereafter he frequently took shoes secretly, and

used them for that purpose.

Nothing else in a woman could excite him; the thought of coitus filled

him with horror. Men did not interest him in any way. At the age of

eighteen he opened a general store, and, among other things handled

ladies’ shoes. He was excited sexually by fitting shoes for his female

patrons, or by manipulating shoes that they had worn. One day, while

doing this, he had an epileptic attack, and, soon after, another,

while practicing onanism in his customary way. Then he recognized, for

the first time, the injury to health caused by his sexual practices.

He tried to overcome his onanism, sold no more shoes, and strove to

free himself from the abnormal association between women’s shoes and

the sexual function. Then frequent pollutions, with erotic dreams

about shoes, occurred, and the epileptic attacks continued. Though

devoid of the slightest feeling for the female sex, he determined on

marriage, which seemed to him to be the only remedy.

He married a pretty young lady. In spite of lively erections when he

thought of his wife’s shoes, in attempts at cohabitation he was

absolutely impotent; for his distaste for coitus, and for close

intercourse in general, was far more powerful than the influence of

the shoe-idea, which induced sexual excitement. On account of his

impotence, the patient applied to Dr. Hammond, who treated his

epilepsy with bromides, and advised him to hang a shoe up over his

bed, and look at it fixedly during coitus, at the same time imagining

his wife to be a shoe. The patient became free from epileptic attacks,

and potent so that he could have coitus about once a week. Too, his

sexual excitation by women’s shoes grew less and less. (Hammond,

“Sexual Impotence.”)

Following these two cases of shoe-fetichism, which apparently depend

merely upon accidental association, and are not favored by any inner

relation between the things themselves, is given the very strange case

of a fetichist who was excited sexually only by the idea of a night-cap

on the head of an ugly old woman; also a case arising apparently from

merely accidental association:—

Case 89. L., aged 37, clerk, from tainted family, had his first

erection at five years, when he saw his bed-fellow—an aged

relative—put on a night-cap. The same thing occurred later, when he

saw an old servant put on her night-cap. Later, simply the idea of an

old, ugly woman’s head, covered with a night-cap, was sufficient to

cause an erection. Simply the sight of a cap, or of a naked woman or

man, made no impression, but the mere touch of a night-cap induced

erection, and sometimes even ejaculation. L. was not a masturbator,

and had never been sexually active until his thirty-second year, when

he married a young girl with whom he had fallen in love. On his

marriage-night he remained cold until, from necessity, he brought to

his aid the memory-picture of an ugly woman’s head with a night-cap.

Coitus was immediately successful. Thereafter it was always necessary

for him to use this means. Since childhood he had been subject to

occasional attacks of depression, with tendency to suicide, and now

and then to frightful hallucinations at night. When looking out of

windows, he became dizzy and anxious. He was a perverse, peculiar, and

easily embarrassed man, of bad mental constitution. (Charcot and

Magnan, _Arch. de neurol._, 1882, No. 12.)

In this very peculiar case, the simultaneous coincidence of the first

sexual excitation and an absolutely heterogeneous impression seems to

have determined the association.

Hammond (_op. cit._) also mentions a case of accidental associative

fetichism that is quite as peculiar. A married man, aged 30, who, in

other respects, was healthy, physically and mentally, is said to have

suddenly lost his sexual power, after moving to another house, and to

have regained it as soon as the furniture of the sleeping-room had been

arranged as it was before.

(c) _The Fetich is Some Special Material._—There is a third principal

group of fetichists who have as a fetich neither a portion of the female

body nor a part of female attire, but some particular material which is

so used, not because it is a material for female garments, but because

in itself it can arouse or increase sexual feelings. In many cases of

this kind, the act of feeling of such material during the sexual act

seems indispensable, in order to make the latter possible, or at least

satisfactory. Such materials are furs, velvet, and silk.

These cases differ from the foregoing instances of erotic

dress-fetichism, in that these materials, unlike female linen, do not

have any close relation to the female body; and, unlike shoes and

gloves, they are not related to certain parts of the person which have

peculiar symbolic significance. Moreover, this fetichism cannot be due

to an accidental association, like that in the cases of the night-caps

and the arrangement of the sleeping-room; for these cases form an entire

group having the same object. It must be presumed that certain tactile

sensations (a kind of tickling which stands in some distant relation to

lustful sensations?), in hyperæsthetic individuals, furnish the occasion

for the origin of this fetichism.

The following is a personal observation of a man affected with this

peculiar fetichism:—

Case 90. N. N., aged 37; of a neuropathic family; neuropathic

constitution. He makes the following statement: “From my earliest

youth I have always had a deeply-rooted partiality for furs and

velvet, in that these materials cause me sexual excitement, and the

sight and touch of them give me lustful pleasure. I can recall no

event that caused this peculiarity (such as the simultaneous

occurrence of the first sexual excitation and an impression of these

materials,—_i.e._, first excitation by a woman dressed in them); in

fact, I cannot remember when this enthusiasm began. However, by this I

would not exclude the possibility of such an event,—of an accidental

connection in a first impression and consequent association; but I

think it very improbable that such a thing took place, because I

believe such an occurrence would have deeply impressed me. All I know

is, that even when a small child I had a lively desire to see and

stroke furs, and thus had an obscure sensual pleasure. With the first

occurrence of definite sexual ideas,—_i.e._, the direction of sexual

thoughts to woman,—the peculiar preference for women dressed in such

materials was present. Since then, up to mature manhood, it has

remained unchanged. A woman wearing furs or velvet, or, better, both,

excites me much more quickly and intensely than one devoid of these

auxiliaries. To be sure, these materials are not a _conditio sine qua

non_ of excitation; the desire occurs also without them, in response

to the usual stimuli; but the sight and, particularly, the touch of

these fetich-materials form for me a powerful aid to other normal

stimuli, and intensify erotic pleasure. Often merely the sight of only

a passably pretty girl, dressed in these materials, causes me lively

excitement, and overcomes me completely. Even the sight of my

fetich-materials gives me pleasure, but the touch of them much more.

(To the penetrating odor of furs I am indifferent—rather, it is

unpleasant—and it is endurable only by reason of the association with

pleasing visual and tactile impressions.) I have an intense longing to

touch these materials while on a woman’s person, to stroke and kiss

them, and bury my face in them. My greatest pleasure is, _inter

actum_, to see and feel my fetich on the woman’s shoulder.

“Fur, or velvet alone, exerts on me the effect described, the former

much more intensely than the latter. The combination of the two has

the most intense effect. Too, female garments of velvet and fur, seen

and touched without the wearer, cause me sexual excitement; indeed,

though to a less extent, the same effect is exerted by furs or robes

having no relation to female attire, and also by the velvet and plush

of furniture and drapery. Merely pictures of costumes of furs and

velvet are objects of erotic interest to me; indeed, simply the word

“fur” has a magic charm for me, and immediately calls up erotic ideas.

“Fur is such an object of sexual interest for me that a man wearing

fur that is effective (_v. infra_) makes a very unpleasant, repugnant,

and disgusting impression on me; such as would be made on a normal

person by a man in the costume and attire of a ballet-dancer.

Similarly repugnant to me is the sight of an old or ugly woman clad in

beautiful furs; because opposing feelings are thus aroused.

“This erotic delight in furs and velvet is something entirely

different from simple æsthetic pleasure. I have a very lively

appreciation of beautiful female attire, and, at the same time, a

particular partiality for point-lace; but it is purely of an æsthetic

nature. A woman dressed in a point-lace _toilette_ (or in other

elegant, elaborate attire) is more _beautiful_ than another; but one

dressed in my fetich-material is more _charming_.

“But furs exercise on me the effect described only when the fur has

very thick, fine, smooth, and rather long hair, that stands out like

that of the so-called bearded furs. I have noticed that the effect

depends upon this. I am entirely indifferent not only to the common

coarse, bushy furs, but also to those that are commonly regarded as

beautiful and precious, from which the long hair has been removed

(seal, beaver), or of which the hair is naturally short (ermine); and

likewise to those of which the hair is over-long and lies down

(monkey, bear). The specific effect is exerted only by the standing

long hair of the sable, marten, skunk, etc. But velvet is made of

thick, fine, standing hairs (fibres); and its effect may be due to

this. The effect seems to depend upon a very definite impression of

the points of thick, fine hair upon the end-organs of the sensory

nerves.

“But how this peculiar impression on the tactile nerves is related to

sexual instinct is a perfect enigma to me. The fact is, that this is

the case with many men. I would also state expressly that beautiful

female hair pleases me, but plays no more important part than the

other charm; and that while touching fur I have no thought of female

hair. The tactile sensation, also, has not the least resemblance to

that imparted by female hair. There is never association of any other

idea. Fur, _per se_, arouses sensuality in me,—how, I cannot explain.

“The mere æsthetic effect, the beauty of costly furs, to which every

one is more or less susceptible; which, since Raphael’s Fornarina and

Reuben’s Helene Fourment, has been used as the foil and frame of

female beauty by innumerable painters; and which plays so important a

_rôle_ in fashion,—the art and science of female dress,—this æsthetic

effect, as has been remarked, explains nothing here. Beautiful furs

have the same æsthetic effect on me as on normal individuals, and

affect me in the same way that flowers, ribbons, precious stones, and

other ornaments affect every one. Such things, when skillfully used,

enhance female beauty, and thus, under certain circumstances, may have

an indirect sensual effect. They never have a direct, powerful,

sensual effect on me, as do the fetich-materials mentioned.

“Though in me, and, in fact, in all ‘fetichists,’ the sensual and

æsthetic effect must be strictly differentiated, nevertheless, that

does not prevent me from demanding in my fetich a whole series of

æsthetic qualities in form, style, color, etc. I could give a very

lengthy description of these qualities that my taste demands; but I

omit it as not being essential to the real subject in hand. I would

only call attention to the fact that erotic fetichism is complicated

with purely æsthetic tastes.

“The specific erotic effect of my fetich-materials can be explained no

better by the association with the idea of the person of the female

wearing them, than by their æsthetic impression. For, in the first

place, as has been said, these materials, as such, affect me when

entirely isolated from the body; and, in the second place, articles of

clothing of a much more private nature, and which undoubtedly call up

associations, exert a much weaker influence over me. Thus the

fetich-materials have an independent sensual value for me; why, is an

enigma to me.

“Feathers in women’s hats, fans, etc., have the same erotic

fetichistic effect on me as furs and velvet (similar tactile sensation

of airy, peculiar tickling). Finally, the fetichistic effect, with

much less intensity, is exerted by other smooth materials (satin and

silk); but rough goods (cloth, flannel) have a repelling effect.

“In conclusion, I will mention that somewhere I read an article by

Carl Vogt on microcephalic men, according to which these creatures, at

the sight of furs, rushed for them and stroked them with every

manifestation of delight. I am far from any thought, on this ground,

to see in wide-spread fur-fetichism an atavistic retrogression to the

taste of our hairy ancestors. Every cretin, with that simplicity

belonging to his condition, touches anything that pleases him; and the

act is not necessarily of a sexual nature; just as many normal men

like to stroke a cat and the like, or even velvet and furs, and are

not thus excited sexually.”

In the literature of this subject, there are a few cases belonging

here:—

Case 91. A boy, aged 12, became powerfully excited sexually when he

chanced to put on a fox-skin. From that time there was masturbation

with the employment of furs, or by means of taking a furry dog to bed.

Ejaculation would result, sometimes followed by an hysterical attack.

His nocturnal pollutions were induced by dreaming that he lay entirely

covered up in a white skin. He was absolutely insusceptible to stimuli

coming from men or women. He was neurasthenic, suffered with delusions

of being watched, and thought that every one noticed his sexual

anomaly. He had tædium vitæ on account of this, and finally became

insane. He had marked taint; his genitals were imperfectly formed, and

he presented other signs of degeneration. (Tarnowsky, _op. cit._, p.

22.)

Case 92. C. is an especial lover of velvet. He is attracted in a

normal way by beautiful women, but it particularly excites him to have

the person with whom he has sexual intercourse dressed in velvet. In

this, it is remarkable that it is not so much the sight as the touch

of the velvet that causes the excitation. C. told me that stroking a

woman’s velvet jacket would excite him sexually to an extent scarcely

possible in any other way. (Dr. Moll, _op. cit._, p. 127.)

The following is a very peculiar case of material-fetichism. It is

combined with the impulse to injure the fetich, which, in this case,

represents an element of sadism toward the woman wearing the fetich, or

impersonal sadism toward objects, which is of frequent occurrence in

fetichists (comp. p. 170). This impulse to injure made this a remarkable

criminal case:—

Case 93. In July, 1891, Alfred Bachmann, aged 25, locksmith, was

brought before Judge I., in the second term of the criminal court, in

Berlin. In April, 1891, the police had had numerous complaints,

according to which some evil hand had cut women’s dresses with a very

sharp instrument. On April 25, they were successful in arresting the

perpetrator in the person of the accused. A policeman noticed how the

accused pressed, in a remarkable manner, against a lady in the company

of a gentleman, while they were going through a passage. The officer

requested the lady to examine her dress, while he held the man under

suspicion. It was ascertained that the dress had received quite a long

slit. The accused was taken to the station, where he was examined.

Besides a sharp knife, which he confessed he used for cutting dresses,

two silk sashes, such as ladies wear on their dresses, were found on

him; he also confessed that he had taken these from dresses in crowds.

Finally, the examination of his person brought to light a lady’s silk

neck-cloth. The accused said he had found this. Since his statement in

this case could not be refuted, complaint was therefore made to rest

on the result of the search; in two instances in which complaint was

made by the injured parties his acts were designated as injury to

property, and in two other instances as theft. The accused, a man who

had been often punished before, with a pale, expressionless face,

before the judge, gave a strange explanation of his enigmatical

action. A major’s cook had once thrown him down-stairs when he was

begging of her, and since that time he had entertained great hatred of

the whole female sex. There was a doubt about his responsibility, and

he was therefore examined by a physician. The medical expert gave the

opinion, at the final trial, that there was no reason to regard the

accused as insane, though he was of low intelligence. The culprit

defended himself in a peculiar manner. An irresistible impulse forced

him to approach women wearing silk dresses. _The touch of silk

material gave him a feeling of delight_, and this went so far that,

while in prison for examination, he had been excited if a silk thread

happened to pass through his fingers while raveling rags. Judge Müller

considered the accused to be simply a dangerous, vicious man, who

should be made harmless for a long time. He advised imprisonment for

one year. The court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment, with

loss of honor for a year.

The following case was communicated to me by a physician:—

In a brothel a certain man was known by the name of “Velvet.” He

dressed a puella pleasing to him in a black velvet dress, and excited

and satisfied his sexual appetite simply by stroking his face with a

part of the velvet skirt, touching the woman in no other way.

I am assured by an officer that, among masochists, a partiality for

furs, velvet, and feathers, is very frequent (comp. Case 44). In the

novels of Sacher-Masoch, fur plays an important part; indeed, it

furnishes a title to some of them. The explanation given there seems

far-fetched and unsatisfactory,—that fur (ermine) is the symbol of

royalty, and therefore the fetich of the men described in the novels.

II. _Great Diminution or Complete Absence of Sexual Feeling for the

Opposite Sex, with Substitution of Sexual Feeling and Instinct for the

Same Sex. (Homo-sexuality, or Contrary Sexual Instinct)._

After the attainment of complete sexual development, among the most

constant elements of self-consciousness in the individual, are the

knowledge of representing a definite sexual personality and the

consciousness of desire, during the period of physiological activity of

the reproductive organs (production of semen and ova), to perform sexual

acts corresponding with that sexual personality,—acts which, consciously

or unconsciously, have a procreative purpose.

The sexual instinct and desire, save for indistinct feelings and

impulses, remain latent until the period of development of the sexual

organs. The child is _generis neutrius_; and though, during this latent

period,—when sexuality has not yet risen into clear consciousness, is

but virtually present, and unconnected with powerful organic

sensations,—too early excitation of the genitals may occur, either

spontaneously or as a result of external influence, and find

satisfaction in masturbation; yet, notwithstanding this, the _psychical_

relation to persons of the opposite sex is still absolutely wanting, and

the sexual acts during this period partake more or less of a reflex

spinal nature.

The fact of innocence, or of sexual neutrality, is the more remarkable,

since very early, in education, employment, dress, etc., the child

undergoes a differentiation from children of the opposite sex. These

impressions, however, remain destitute of mental meaning, because they

apparently are without sexual coloring; for the central organ (cortex)

of sexual emotions and ideas is not yet capable of activity, owing to

its undeveloped condition.

With the inception of anatomical and functional development of the

generative organs, and the differentiation of form belonging to each

sex, which goes hand in hand with it in the boy or girl, rudiments of a

mental feeling corresponding with the sex are developed; and in this, of

course, education and external influences in general have a powerful

effect upon the individual, who is now all attention.

If the sexual development is normal and undisturbed, a definite

character, corresponding with the sex, is developed. Certain definite

inclinations and reactions in intercourse with persons of the opposite

sex arise; and it is psychologically worthy of note with what relative

rapidity the definite mental type corresponding with the sex is evolved.

While modesty, for example, during childhood, is essentially but an

uncomprehended and incomprehensible exaction of education and imitation,

and in the innocence and _näiveté_ of the child but imperfectly

expressed; in the youth and maiden it becomes an imperative requirement

of self-respect; and, if in any way it is offended, intense vasomotor

reaction (blushing) and psychical emotion are induced.

If the original constitution is favorable and normal, and factors

injurious to the psycho-sexual development exercise no influence, then a

psycho-sexual personality is developed that is so unchangeable, and

corresponds so completely and harmoniously with the sex the individual

represents, that subsequent loss of the generative organs (as by

castration), or the climacteric or senility, cannot essentially alter

it. But this, of course, is not to declare that the castrated man or

woman, the youth and the aged man, the maiden and matron, the impotent

and the potent man, do not differ essentially from one another mentally.

An interesting and important question for what follows is, whether the

peripheral influences of the generative glands (testes and ovaries), or

central cerebral conditions, are the determining factors in

psycho-sexual development. The fact that congenital deficiency of the

generative glands, or removal of them before puberty, has a great

influence on physical and psycho-sexual development, so that the latter

is distorted and assumes a type more closely resembling the opposite sex

(eunuchs, certain viragoes, etc.), betokens their great importance in

this respect.

But that the physical processes taking place in the genital organs are

only co-operative, and not the exclusive factors in the process of

development of the psycho-sexual character, is shown by the fact that,

notwithstanding a normal anatomical and physiological state of these

organs, a sexual instinct may be developed which is the exact opposite

of that characteristic of the sex to which the individual belongs.

In this case, the cause is to be sought only in an anomaly of central

conditions,—in an abnormal psycho-sexual constitution. This

constitution, as far as its anatomical and functional foundation is

concerned, is absolutely unknown. Since, in almost all such cases, the

individual subject to the perverse sexual instinct displays a

neuropathic predisposition in several directions, and the latter may be

brought into relation with hereditary degenerate conditions, this

anomaly of psycho-sexual feeling may be called, clinically, a functional

sign of degeneration. This perverse sexuality appears spontaneously,

without external cause, with the development of sexual life, as an

individual manifestation of an abnormal form of the vita sexualis, and

then has the force of a _congenital_ phenomenon; or it develops upon a

sexuality the beginning of which was normal, as a result of very

definite injurious influences, and thus appears as an _acquired_

anomaly. Upon what this enigmatical phenomenon of acquired homo-sexual

instinct depends is still inexplicable, and only a matter for

hypothesis. Careful examination of the so-called acquired cases makes it

probable that the predisposition also present here consists of a latent

homo-sexuality, or, at least, bi-sexuality, which, for its

manifestation, requires the influence of accidental exciting causes to

rouse it from its slumber.

In so-called contrary sexual instinct there are degrees of the

phenomenon which quite correspond with the degrees of predisposition of

the individuals. Thus, in the milder cases, there is simple

hermaphroditism; in more pronounced cases, only homo-sexual feeling and

instinct, but limited to the vita sexualis; in still more complete

cases, the whole psychical personality, and even the bodily sensations,

are transformed to correspond with the sexual perversion; and, in the

complete cases, the physical form is correspondingly altered.

The following division of the various phenomena of this psycho-sexual

anomaly is made, therefore, in accordance with these clinical facts:—

A. _Homo-sexual Feeling as an Acquired Manifestation._—The determining

condition here is the demonstration of perverse feeling for the same

sex; not the proof of sexual acts with the same sex. These two phenomena

must not be confounded with each other; perversity must not be taken for

perversion.

Perverse sexual acts, not dependent upon perversion, often come under

observation. This is especially true with reference to sexual acts

between persons of the same sex, particularly pederasty. Here

paræsthesia sexualis is not necessarily at work; but hyperæsthesia, with

physical or mental impossibility of natural sexual satisfaction. Thus we

find homo-sexual intercourse in impotent masturbators or debauchees, or

_faute de mieux_ in sensual men and women in imprisonment, on

ship-board, in garrisons, bagnios, boarding-schools, etc.

There is an immediate return to normal sexual intercourse as soon as

obstacles to it are removed. Very frequently the cause of such temporary

aberration is masturbation and its results in youthful individuals.

Nothing is so prone to contaminate—under certain circumstances, even to

exhaust—the source of all noble and ideal sentiments, which arise of

themselves from a normally developing sexual instinct, as the practice

of masturbation in early years. It despoils the unfolding bud of perfume

and beauty, and leaves behind only the coarse, animal desire for sexual

satisfaction. If an individual, spoiled in this manner, reaches an age

of maturity, there is wanting in him that æsthetic, ideal, pure, and

free impulse which draws one toward the opposite sex. Thus the glow of

sensual sensibility wanes, and the inclination toward the opposite sex

becomes weakened. This defect influences the morals, character, fancy,

feeling, and instinct of the youthful masturbator, male or female, in an

unfavorable way, and, under certain circumstances, allows the desire for

the opposite sex to sink to _nil_; so that masturbation is preferred to

the natural mode of satisfaction.

Sometimes the development of higher sexual feelings toward the opposite

sex suffers, on account of hypochondriacal fear of infection in sexual

intercourse; or on account of an actual infection; or they suffer as a

result of a faulty education which points out such dangers and

exaggerates them. Again (especially in females), fear of the result of

coitus (pregnancy), or abhorrence of men, by reason of mental or moral

weakness, may direct into perverse channels an instinct that makes

itself felt with abnormal intensity. But too early and perverse sexual

satisfaction injures not merely the mind, but also the body; inasmuch as

it induces neuroses of the sexual apparatus (irritable weakness of the

centres governing erection and ejaculation; defective pleasurable

feeling in coitus), while, at the same time, it maintains the

imagination and libido in continuous excitement.

Almost every masturbator at last reaches a point where, frightened on

learning the results of the vice, or on experiencing them

(neurasthenia), or led by example or seduction to the opposite sex, he

wishes to free himself of the vice and re-instate his vita sexualis. The

moral and mental conditions are the most unfavorable possible. The pure

glow of sexual feeling is destroyed; the fire of sexual instinct is

wanting, and self-confidence, no less; for every masturbator is more or

less timid and cowardly. If the youthful sinner at last comes to make an

attempt at coitus, he is either disappointed because enjoyment is

wanting, on account of defective sensual feeling, or he is lacking in

the mental strength necessary to accomplish the act. The fiasco has a

fatal effect, and leads to absolute psychical impotence. A bad

conscience and the memory of past failures prevent success in any

further attempts. The constant libido sexualis, however, demands

satisfaction; but this moral and mental perversion separates him further

and further from women. For various reasons, however (neurasthenic

complaints, hypochondriacal fear of the results, etc.), the individual

is kept from masturbation. Occasionally, under such circumstances, there

may be bestiality. Intercourse with the same sex is then near at

hand,—as a result of occasional seduction or of the feelings of

friendship which, on the level of pathological sexuality, easily

associate themselves with sexual feelings. Passive and mutual onanism

then becomes the equivalent of the avoided act. If there is a

seducer,—which, unfortunately, is so frequent,—then the cultivated

pederast is produced,—_i.e._, a man who performs _quasi_ acts of onanism

with persons of his own sex, and, at the same time, feels and prefers

himself in an active _rôle_ corresponding with his real sex; who is

mentally indifferent not only to persons of the opposite sex, but also

to those of his own sex.

Sexual aberration in the _normally_ constituted, _untainted_, mentally

healthy individual, reaches this degree. No case has been demonstrated

in which perversity has been transformed into perversion,—into a

reversal of the sexual instinct.[101]

With tainted individuals, the matter is quite different. The latent

perverse sexuality is developed under the influence of neurasthenia

induced by masturbation, abstinence, or otherwise.

Gradually, in contact with persons of the same sex, sexual excitation by

them is induced. Related ideas are colored with lustful feelings, and

awaken corresponding desires. This decidedly degenerate reaction is the

beginning of a process of physical and mental transformation, a

description of which is attempted in what follows, and which is one of

the most interesting psychological phenomena that has been observed.

This metamorphosis presents different stages, or degrees.

_I. Degree: Simple Reversal of Sexual Feeling._—This degree is attained

when persons of the same sex have an aphrodisiac effect, and the

individual has a sexual feeling for them. Character and feeling,

however, still correspond with the sex of the individual presenting the

reversal of sexual feeling. He feels himself in the active _rôle_; he

recognizes his impulse toward his own sex as an aberration, and finally

seeks aid. With episodical improvement of the neurosis, at first even

normal sexual feelings may re-appear and assert themselves. The

following case seems well suited to exemplify this stage of the

psycho-sexual degeneration:—

Case 94. _Acquired Contrary Sexual Instinct._—“I am an official, and,

as far as I know, come of an untainted family. My father died of an

acute disease; my mother is living and is _quite nervous_. _A sister

has been very intensely religious for some years._

“I myself am tall, and, in speech, gait, and manner, give a perfectly

masculine impression. Measles is the only disease I have had; but

since my thirteenth year I have suffered with so-called nervous

headache. My sexual life began in my thirteenth year, when I became

acquainted with a boy somewhat older than myself, with whom I took

pleasure in mutual fondling of the genitals. I had the first

ejaculation in my fourteenth year. Seduced to onanism by two older

school-mates, I practiced it partly with others and partly alone; in

the latter case, however, always with the thought of persons of the

female sex. My libido sexualis was very great, as it is to-day. Later,

I tried to win a pretty, stout servant-girl who had very large mammæ;

id solum assecutus sum, ut me praesente superiorem corporis sui partem

enudaret mihique concederet os mammasque osculari, dum ipsa penem meum

valde erectum in manum suam recepit eumque trivit.

“Notwithstanding my urgent demand for coitus, she would not allow it;

but she finally permitted me to touch her genitals.

“After going to the University, I visited a brothel and succeeded

without especial effort.

“There an event occurred which brought a change in me. One evening I

accompanied a friend home, and in a mild state of intoxication I

grasped him ad genitalia. He made but slight opposition. I then went

up to his room with him, and we practiced mutual masturbation. From

that time we indulged in it quite frequently; in fact, it came to

immissio penis in os, with resultant ejaculations. But it is strange

that I was not at all in love with this person, but passionately in

love with another friend, near whom I never felt the slightest sexual

excitement, and whom I never connected with sexual matters, even in

thought. My visits to brothels, where I was gladly received, became

more infrequent; in my friend I found a substitute, and did not desire

sexual intercourse with women.

“We never practiced pederasty, and that word was not even known

between us. From the beginning of this relation with my friend, I

again masturbated more frequently, and naturally the thought of

females receded more and more into the background, and I thought more

and more about young, handsome, strong men with the largest genitals.

I preferred young fellows, from sixteen to twenty-five years old,

without beards, but they had to be handsome and clean. Young laborers

dressed in trousers of Manchester cloth or English leather,

particularly masons, especially excited me.

“Persons in my own position had hardly any effect on me; but, at the

sight of one of those strapping fellows of the lower class, I

experienced marked sexual excitement. It seems to me that the touch of

such trousers, the opening of them, and the grasping of the penis, as

well as kissing the fellow, would be the greatest delight. My

sensibility to female charms is somewhat dulled; yet in sexual

intercourse with a woman, particularly when she has well-developed

mammæ, I am always potent without the help of imagination. I have

never attempted to make use of a young laborer, or the like, for the

satisfaction of my evil desires, and never shall; but I often feel the

longing to do it. I often impress on myself the mental image of such a

man, and then masturbate at home.

“I am absolutely devoid of taste for female work. I rather like to

move in female society, but dancing is repugnant to me. I have a

lively interest in the fine arts. That my sexual sense is partly

reversed is, I believe, in part due to greater convenience, which

keeps me from entering into a relation with a girl; as the latter is a

matter of too much trouble. To be constantly visiting houses of

prostitution is, for æsthetic reasons, repugnant to me; and thus I am

always returning to solitary onanism, which is very difficult for me

to avoid.

“Hundreds of times I have said to myself that, in order to have a

normal sexual sense, it would be necessary for me, first of all, to

overcome my irresistible passion for onanism,—a practice so repugnant

to my æsthetic feeling. Again and again I have resolved with all my

might to fight this passion; but I am still unsuccessful. When I felt

the sexual impulse gaining strength, instead of seeking satisfaction

in the natural manner, I preferred to masturbate, because I felt that

I would thus have more enjoyment.

“And yet experience has taught me that I am always potent with girls,

and that, too, without trouble and without the help of imagining

masculine genitals. In one case, however, I did not attain ejaculation

because the woman—it was in a brothel—was devoid of every charm. I

cannot avoid the thought and severe self-accusation that, to a certain

extent, my contrary sexuality is the result of excessive onanism; and

this especially depresses me, because I am compelled to acknowledge

that I scarcely feel strong enough to overcome this vice by the force

of my own will.

“As a result of my relations with my fellow-student and school-mate

for years, mentioned in this communication,—which, however, began

while we were at the University, and after we had been friends for

seven years,—the impulse to unnatural satisfaction of libido has grown

much stronger. I trust you will permit the description of an incident

which occupied me for months:—

“In the summer of 1882, I made the acquaintance of a companion six

years younger than myself, who, with several others, had been

introduced to me and my acquaintances. I very soon felt a deep

interest in this handsome man, who was unusually well proportioned,

slim, and full of health. After a few weeks of association, this

feeling became friendship, and at last passionate love, with feelings

of the most intense jealousy. I very soon noticed that, in this,

sexual excitation was also very marked; and, notwithstanding my

determination, aside from all others, to keep myself in check in

relation to this man, whom I respected so highly for his superior

character, one night, after free indulgence in beer, as we were

enjoying a bottle of champagne in my room and drinking to good, true,

and lasting friendship, I yielded to the irresistible impulse to

embrace him, etc.

“When I saw him, next day, I was so ashamed that I could not look him

in the face. I felt the deepest regret for my action, and accused

myself bitterly for having thus sullied this friendship, which was to

be and remain so pure and precious. In order to prove to him that I

had lost control of myself only momentarily, at the end of the

semester I urged him to make an excursion with me; and after some

reluctance, the reason of which was only too clear to me, he

consented. Several nights we slept in the same room without any

attempt on my part to repeat my action. I wished to talk with him

about the event of that night, but I could not bring myself to it;

even when, during the next semester, we were separated, I could not

induce myself to write to him on the subject; and when I visited him,

in March, at X., it was the same. And yet I felt a great desire to

clear up this dark point by an open statement. In October of the same

year, I was again in X., and this time found courage to speak without

reserve; indeed, I asked him why he had not resisted me. He answered

that, in part, it was because he wished to please me, and, in part,

owing to the fact that he was somewhat apathetic as a result of being

a little intoxicated. I explained to him my condition, and also gave

him “Psychopathia Sexualis” to read, expressing the hope that by the

force of my own will I should become fully and lastingly master of my

unnatural impulse. Since this confession, the relation between this

friend and me has been the most delightful and happy possible; there

are the most friendly feelings on both sides, which are heart-felt and

true; and it is to be hoped that they will endure.

“If I should not improve my abnormal condition, I am determined to put

myself under your treatment; the more because, after a careful study

of your work, I cannot count myself as belonging to the category of

so-called urnings; and, too, because I have the firm conviction, or

hope, at least, that a strong will, assisted and combined with

skillful treatment, could transform me into a man of normal feeling.”

Case 95. Ilma S.,[102] aged 29; single; merchant’s daughter. She comes

of a family having bad nervous taint. Father was a drinker and died by

suicide, as also did the patient’s brother and sister. A sister

suffers with convulsive hysteria. Mother’s father shot himself while

insane. Mother was sickly, and died paralyzed after apoplexy. The

patient never had any severe illness. She is bright, enthusiastic, and

dreamy. Menses at the age of eighteen without difficulty; but

thereafter they were very irregular. At fourteen, chlorosis and

catalepsy from fright. Later, hysteria gravis and an attack of

hysterical insanity. At eighteen, relations with a young man which

were not platonic. This man’s love was passionately returned. From

statements of the patient, it seems that she was very sensual, and

after separation from her lover practiced masturbation. After this she

led a romantic life. In order to earn a living, she put on male

clothing, and became a tutor; but she gave up her place because her

mistress, not knowing her sex, fell in love with her and courted her.

Then she became a railway-employé. In the company of her companions,

in order to conceal her sex, she was compelled to visit brothels with

them, and hear the most vulgar stories. This became so distasteful to

her that she gave up her place, resumed the garments of a female, and

again sought to earn her living. She was arrested for a theft, and on

account of severe hystero-epilepsy was sent to the hospital. There,

inclination and impulse toward the same sex were discovered. The

patient became troublesome on account of passionate love for female

nurses and patients.

Her sexual perversion was considered congenital. With regard to this

the patient made some interesting statements:—

“I am judged incorrectly, if it is thought that I feel myself a man

toward the female sex. In my whole thought and feeling I am much more

a woman. I loved my cousin as only a woman can love a man.

“The change of my feeling originated in this, that, in Pesth, dressed

as a man, I had an opportunity to observe my cousin. I saw that I had

wholly deceived myself in him. That gave me terrible heart-pangs. I

knew that I could never love another man; that I belonged to those who

love but once. Of similar effect was the fact that, in the society of

my companions at the railway, I was compelled to hear the most

offensive language and visit the most disreputable houses. As a result

of the insight into men’s motives, gained in this way, I took an

unconquerable dislike to them. However, since I am of a very

passionate nature and need to have some loving person on whom to

depend, and to whom I can wholly surrender myself, I felt myself more

and more powerfully drawn toward intelligent women and girls who were

in sympathy with me.”

The contrary sexual instinct of this patient, which was clearly

acquired, expressed itself in a stormy and decidedly sensual way, and

was further augmented by masturbation; because constant oversight in

hospitals made sexual satisfaction with the same sex impossible.

Character and occupation remained feminine. There were no manifestations

of viraginity. According to information lately received by the author,

this patient, after two years of treatment in an asylum, was entirely

freed from her neurosis and sexual perversion, and discharged cured.

Case 96. X., aged 19; mother nervous; two sisters of mother’s father

were insane. Patient of nervous temperament; well endowed mentally;

well developed; normally formed. When he was twelve years old, he was

seduced into mutual onanism by an elder brother.

After this, the patient continued the vice alone. In the last three

years, during the act of masturbation, he had had peculiar fancies in

the sense of “contrary sexual instinct.”

He fancies himself a female; as, for example, a ballet-dancer in the

act of coitus with an officer or circus rider. These perverse fancies

have accompanied the act of masturbation since the patient became

neurasthenic. He understands the harm of masturbation, fights

desperately against it, but always gives up to the impulse.

If he is able to withstand the impulse for a few days, a normal desire

for sexual intercourse with females is awakened; but a certain fear of

infection holds these desires in check, and always drives him again to

masturbation.

It is worthy of remark that this unfortunate’s lascivious dreams

concerned only females.

In the course of the last few months, the patient had become very

neurasthenic and hypochondriacal. He feared tabes.

I advised treatment of the neurasthenia, suppression of masturbation,

and marital cohabitation, if possible, after improvement of the

neurasthenia.

Case 97. Mr. X, aged 35, single, official; mother insane, brother

hypochondriacal.

Patient was healthy, strong, of lively sensual temperament. He had

manifested powerful sexual instinct abnormally early, and masturbated

while yet a small boy. He had coitus the first time at the age of

fourteen, he says, with enjoyment and complete power. When fifteen

years old, a man sought to seduce him, and performed manustupration on

him. X. experienced a feeling of repulsion, and freed himself from the

disgusting situation. At maturity he committed excesses in libido,

with coitus; in 1880 he became neurasthenic, being afflicted with

weakness of erection and ejaculatio præcox. He thus became less and

less potent, and no longer experienced pleasure in the sexual act. At

this time of sexual decadence, for a long time, he still had what was

previously foreign to him, and is still incomprehensible to him,—an

inclination for sexual intercourse with immature girls of the age of

twelve or thirteen. His libido increased as virility diminished.

Gradually he developed inclination for boys of thirteen or fourteen.

He was impelled to approach them.

Quodsi ei occasio data est ut tangere posset pueros qui ei placuere,

penis vehementer se erexit tum maxime quum crura puerorum tangere

potuisset. Abhinc feminas non cupivit. Nonnunquam feminas ad coitum

coëgit sed erectio debilis, ejaculatio præmatura erat sine ulla

voluptate.

Now only youths interested him. He dreamed about them and had

pollutions. After 1882 he now and then had opportunity concumbere cum

juvenibus. This led to powerful sexual excitement, which he satisfied

by masturbation. It was only exceptional for him to venture to touch

his bed-fellow and indulge in mutual masturbation. He shunned

pederasty. For the most part, he was compelled to satisfy his sexual

needs by means of solitary masturbation. In the act he called up the

vision of pleasing boys. After sexual intercourse with such boys, he

always felt strengthened and refreshed, but morally depressed; because

there was consciousness of having performed a perverse, indecent, and

punishable act. He found it painful that his disgusting impulse was

more powerful than his will.

X. thinks that his love for his own sex has resulted from great excess

in natural sexual intercourse, and bemoans his situation. On the

occasion of a consultation, in December, 1889, he asked whether there

were any means to bring him back to a normal sexual condition, since

he had no real horror feminæ, and would very gladly marry.

This intelligent patient, free from degenerative signs, presented no

abnormal symptoms except those of sexual and spinal neurasthenia of

moderate degree.

_II. Degree: Eviration and Defemination._—If, in cases of contrary

sexual instinct thus developed, no restoration occurs, then deep and

lasting transformations of the psychical personality may occur. The

process completing itself in this way may be briefly designated

_eviration_. The patient undergoes a deep change of character,

particularly in his feelings and inclinations, which become those of a

female. After this, he also feels himself to be a woman during the

sexual act, has desire only for passive sexual indulgence, and, under

certain circumstances, sinks to the level of a prostitute. In this

condition of deep and more lasting psycho-sexual transformation, the

individual is like the (congenital) urning of high grade. The

possibility of a restoration of the previous mental and sexual

personality seems, in such a case, excluded.

The following case is a classical example of this variety of lasting

acquired contrary sexual instinct:—

Case 98. Sch., aged 30, physician, one day told me the story of his

life and malady, asking explanation, and advice concerning certain

anomalies of his vita sexualis. The following description gives, for

the most part verbatim, the details of the autobiography; only in some

portions is it shortened:—

“My parents were healthy. As a child I was sickly; but with good care

I thrived, and got on well in school. When eleven years old, I was

taught to masturbate by my playmates, and gave myself up to it

passionately. Until I was fifteen, I learned easily. On account of

frequent pollutions, I became less capable, did not get on easily in

school, and was uncertain and embarrassed when called on by the

teacher. Frightened by my loss of capability, and recognizing that the

loss of semen was responsible for it, I gave up masturbation; but the

pollutions became even more frequent, so that I often had two or three

in a night. In despair, I now consulted one physician after another.

None were able to help me.

“Since I grew weaker and weaker, by reason of the loss of semen, with

the impulse to sexual satisfaction growing more and more powerful, I

sought houses of prostitution. But I was there unable to find

satisfaction; for, even though the sight of a naked female pleased me,

neither orgasm nor erection occurred; and even manustupration by the

puella was not capable of inducing erection. Scarcely would I leave

the house, when the impulse would seize me again, and I would have

violent erections. I grew ashamed before the girls, and ceased to

visit such houses. Thus a couple of years passed. My sexual life

consisted of pollutions. My inclination toward the opposite sex grew

less and less. At nineteen I went to the University. The theatre had

more attractions for me. I wished to become an actor. My parents were

not willing. At the Capital I was compelled now and then to visit

girls with my comrades. I feared such a situation; because I knew that

coitus was impossible for me, and because my friends might discover my

impotence. Therefore, I avoided, as far as possible, the danger of

becoming the butt of jokes and ridicule.

“One evening, in the opera-house, an old gentleman sat near me. He

courted me. I laughed heartily at the foolish old man, and entered

into his joke. Exinapinato genitalia mea prehendit, quo facto statim

penis meus se erexit. Frightened, I demanded of him what he meant. He

said that he was in love with me. Having heard of hermaphrodites in

the clinics, I thought I had one before me, and became curious to see

his genitals. The old man was very willing, and went with me to the

water-closet. Sicuti penem maximum ejus erectum adspexi, perterritus

effugi.

“This man followed me, and made strange proposals which I did not

understand, and repelled. He did not give me any rest. I learned the

secrets of male love for males, and felt that my sexuality was excited

by it. But I resisted the shameful passion (as I then regarded it),

and, for the next three years, I remained free from it. During this

time I repeatedly attempted coitus with girls in vain. My attempts to

free myself of my impotence by means of medical treatment were also

vain. Once, when my libido sexualis was troubling me again, I recalled

what the old man had told me: that male-loving men were accustomed to

meet on the E. Promenade.

“After a hard struggle, and with beating heart, I went there, made the

acquaintance of a blonde man, and allowed myself to be seduced. The

first step was taken. This kind of sexual love was satisfactory to me.

I always preferred to be in the arms of a strong man. The satisfaction

consisted of mutual manustupration; occasionally in osculum ad penem

alterius. I was then twenty-three years old. Sitting, together with my

comrades, on the beds of patients in the clinic during the lectures,

excited me so intensely that I could scarcely listen to the lectures.

In the same year I entered into a formal love-relation with a merchant

of thirty-four. We lived as man and wife. X. played the man, and fell

more and more in love. I gave up to him, but now and then I had to

play the man. After a time I grew tired of him, became unfaithful, and

he became jealous. There were terrible scenes, which led to temporary

separation, and finally to actual rupture. (The merchant afterward

became insane, and died by suicide.)

“I made many acquaintances, and loved the most ordinary people. I

preferred those having a full beard, and who were tall and of middle

age, and able to play the active _rôle_ well. I developed a proctitis.

The professor thought it was the result of sitting too much while

preparing for examinations. I developed a fistula, and had to undergo

an operation; but this did not cure me of my desire to allow myself to

be used passively. I became a physician, and went to a provincial

city, where I had to live like a nun. I developed a desire to move in

ladies’ society, and was gladly welcomed there; because it was found

that I was not so one-sided as most men, and was interested in

_toilettes_ and such feminine things. However, I felt very unhappy and

lonesome. Fortunately, in this town, I made the acquaintance of a man,

a ‘sister,’ who felt like me. For some time I was taken care of by

him. When he had to leave, I had an attack of despair, with

depression, which was accompanied by thoughts of suicide.

“When it became impossible for me to longer endure the town, I became

a military surgeon in the Capital. There I began to live again, and

often made two or three acquaintances in one day. I had never loved

boys or young people; only fully-developed men. The thought of falling

into the hands of the police was frightful. Thus I have escaped the

clutches of the blackmailer. At the same time, I could not keep myself

from the satisfaction of my impulse. After some months I fell in love

with an official of forty. I remained true to him for a year, and we

lived like a pair of lovers. I was the wife, and was formally courted

by the lover. One day I was transferred to a small town. We were in

despair. The last night was spent in continually kissing and caressing

one another.

“In T. I was unspeakably unhappy, in spite of some ‘sisters’ whom I

found. I could not forget my lover. In order to satisfy my sexual

desire, which cried for satisfaction, I chose soldiers. Money obtained

men; but they remained cold, and I had no enjoyment with them. I was

successful in being re-transferred to the Capital. There, there was a

new love-relation, but much jealousy; because my lover liked to go

into the society of ‘sisters,’ and was proud and coquettish. There was

a rupture. I was very unhappy and very glad to be transferred from the

Capital. I now stayed in C., alone and in despair. Two infantry

privates were brought into service, but with the same unsatisfactory

result. When shall I ever find true love again?

“I am over medium height, well developed, and look somewhat aged; and,

therefore, when I wish to make conquests I use the arts of the toilet.

My manner, movements, and face are masculine. Physically I feel as

youthful as a boy of twenty. I love the theatre, and especially art.

My interest in the stage is in the actresses, whose every movement and

gesture I notice and criticise.

“In the society of gentlemen I am silent and embarrassed, while in the

society of those like myself I am free, witty, and as fawning as a

cat, if a man is sympathetic. If I am without love, I become deeply

melancholic; but the favors of the first handsome man dispel my

depression. In other ways I am frivolous; anything but ambitious. My

profession is nothing to me. Masculine pursuits do not interest me. I

prefer novels and going to the theatre. I am effeminate, sensitive,

easily moved, easily injured, and nervous. A sudden noise makes my

whole body tremble, and I have to collect myself in order to keep from

crying out.”

_Remarks_: The foregoing case is certainly one of acquired contrary

sexual instinct, since the sexual instinct and impulse were originally

directed toward the female sex. Sch. became neurasthenic through

masturbation.

As an accompanying manifestation of the neurasthenic neurosis,

lessened impressionability of the erection-centre and consequent

relative impotence came on. As a result of this, sexual sensibility

toward the opposite sex was lessened, with simultaneous persistence of

libido sexualis. The acquired contrary sexual instinct must be

abnormal, since the first touch by a person of the same sex is an

adequate stimulus for the erection-centre. The perverse sexual feeling

became complete. At first Sch. felt like a man in the sexual act; but

more and more, as the change progressed, the feeling and desire of

satisfaction changed to the form which, as a rule, characterizes the

(congenital) urning.

This eviration induces a desire for the passive _rôle_, and, further,

for (passive) pederasty. It makes a deeper impress on the character.

The character becomes feminine, inasmuch as Sch. now prefers to move

in the society of actual females, has an increasing desire for

feminine occupations, and, indeed, makes use of the arts of the toilet

in order to improve his fading charms and make “conquests.”

The foregoing facts, concerning acquired contrary sexual instinct and

effemination, find an interesting confirmation in the following

ethnological data:—

Even Herodotus describes a peculiar disease which frequently affected

the Scythians. The disease consisted in this: that men became

effeminate in character, put on female garments, did the work of

women, and even became effeminate in appearance. As an explanation of

this insanity of the Scythians,[103] Herodotus relates the myth that

the goddess Venus, angered by the plundering of the temple at Ascalon

by the Scythians, had made women of these plunderers and their

posterity.

Hippocrates, not believing in supernatural diseases, recognized that

impotence was here a causative factor, and explained it, though

incorrectly, as due to the custom of the Scythians, by attributing it

to disease of the jugular veins induced by excessive riding. He

thought that these veins were of great importance in the preservation

of the sexual powers, and that when they were severed, impotence was

induced. Since the Scythians considered their impotence due to divine

punishment, and incurable, they put on the clothing of females, and

lived as women among women.

It is worthy of note that, according to Klaproth (“Reise in den

Kaukasus,” Berlin, 1812, v, p. 285) and Chotomski, even at the present

time impotence is very frequent among the Tartars, as a result of

riding unsaddled horses. The same is observed among the Apaches and

Navajos of the Western Continent, who ride excessively, scarcely ever

going on foot, and are remarkable for small genitals and mild libido

and virility. Sprengel, Lallemand, and Nysten recognized the fact that

excessive riding may be injurious to the sexual organs.

Hammond reports analogous observations of great interest concerning

the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. These descendants of the Aztecs

cultivate so-called “mujerados,” of which every Pueblo tribe requires

one in the religious ceremonies (actual orgies in the spring), in

which pederasty plays an important part. In order to cultivate a

“mujerado,” a very powerful man is chosen, and he is made to

masturbate excessively and ride constantly. Gradually such irritable

weakness of the genital organs is engendered that, in riding, great

loss of semen is induced. This condition of irritability passes into

paralytic impotence. Then the testicles and penis atrophy, the hair of

the beard falls out, the voice loses its depth and compass, and

physical strength and energy decrease. Inclinations and disposition

become feminine. The “mujerado” loses his position in society as a

man. He takes on feminine manners and customs, and associates with

women. Yet, for religious reasons, he is held in honor. It is probable

that, at other times than during the festivals, he is used by the

chiefs for pederasty. Hammond had an opportunity to examine two

“mujerados.” One had become such seven years before, and was

thirty-five years old at the time. Seven years before, he was entirely

masculine and potent. He had noticed gradual atrophy of the testicles

and penis. At the same time he lost libido and the power of erection.

He differed in nowise, in dress and manner, from the women among whom

Hammond found him. The genital hair was wanting, the penis was

shrunken, the scrotum lax and pendulous, and the testicles were very

much atrophied and no longer sensitive to pressure. The “mujerado” had

large mammæ like a pregnant woman, and asserted that he had nursed

several children whose mothers had died. A second “mujerado,” aged

thirty-six, after he had been ten years in the condition, presented

the same peculiarities, though with less development of mammæ. Like

the first, the voice was high and thin. The body was plump.[104]

_III. Degree: Stage of Transition to Metamorphosis Sexualis Paranoica._

A further degree of development is represented by those cases in which

bodily sensation is also transformed in the sense of a _transmutatio

sexus_. In this respect the following case is unique:—

Case 99. _Autobiography._ “Born in Hungary in 1844, for many years I

was the only child of my parents; for the other children died for the

most part of general weakness. A brother came late, who is still

living.

“I come of a family in which nervous and mental diseases have been

numerous. It is said that I was very pretty as a little child, with

blonde locks and transparent skin; very obedient, quiet, and modest,

so that I was taken everywhere in the society of ladies without any

offense on my part.

“With a very active imagination—my enemy through life—my talents

developed rapidly. I could read and write at the age of four; my

memory reaches back to my third year. I played with everything that

fell into my hands,—with leaden soldiers, or stones, or ribbons from a

children’s store; but a machine for working in wood, that was given to

me as a present, I did not like. I liked best to be at home with my

mother, who was everything to me. I had two or three friends, with

whom I got on good-naturedly; but I liked to play with their sisters

quite as well, who always treated me like a girl, which at first did

not embarrass me. I must have already been on the road to become just

like a girl; at least, I can still well remember how it was always

said: ‘He is not intended for a boy.’ At this I tried to play the

boy,—imitated my companions in everything, and tried to surpass them

in wildness. In this I succeeded. There was no tree or building too

high for me to reach its top. I took great delight in soldiers. I

avoided girls more, because I did not wish to play with their

play-things; and it always annoyed me that they treated me so much

like one of themselves.

“In the society of mature people, however, I was always modest, and,

also, always regarded with favor. Fantastic dreams about wild

animals—which once drove me out of bed without waking me—frequently

troubled me. I was always very simply, but very elegantly, dressed,

and thus developed a taste for beautiful clothing. It seems peculiar

to me that, from the time of my school-days, I had a partiality for

ladies’ gloves, which I put on secretly as often as I could. Thus,

when once my mother was about to give away a pair of gloves, I made

great opposition to it, and told her, when she asked why I acted so,

that I wanted them myself. I was laughed at; and from that time I took

good care not to display my preference for female things. Yet my

delight in them was very great. I took especial pleasure in masquerade

costumes,—_i.e._, only in female attire. If I saw them, I envied their

owners. What seemed to me the prettiest sight was: two young men,

beautifully dressed as white ladies, with masks on; and yet I would

not have shown myself to others as a girl for anything; I was so

afraid of being ridiculed. At school I worked very hard, and was

always among the first. From childhood my parents taught me that duty

came first; and they always set me an example. It was also a pleasure

for me to attend school; for the teachers were kind, and the elder

scholars did not plague the younger ones. We left my first home; for

my father was compelled, on account of his business,—which was dear to

him,—to separate from his family for a year. We moved to Germany. Here

there was a stricter, rougher manner, partly in teachers and partly in

scholars; and I was again ridiculed on account of my girlishness. My

school-mates went so far as to give a girl, who had exactly my

features, my name, and me hers; so that I hated the girl. But I later

came to be on terms of friendship with her after her marriage. My

mother tried to dress me elegantly; but this was repugnant to me,

because it made me the object of joke. So, finally, I was delighted

when I had correct trousers and coats. But with these came a new

annoyance. They irritated my genitals, particularly when the cloth was

rough; and the touch of tailors while measuring me, on account of

their tickling, which almost convulsed me, was unendurable,

particularly about the genitals. Then I had to practice gymnastics;

and I simply could do nothing at all, or only indifferently the things

that girls cannot do easily. While bathing I was troubled by feeling

ashamed to undress; but I liked to bathe. Until my twelfth year I had

a great weakness in my back. I learned to swim late, but ultimately so

well that I took long swims. At thirteen I had pubic hair, and was

about six feet tall; but my face was feminine until my eighteenth

year, when my beard came in abundance and gave me rest from

resemblance to woman. An inguinal hernia that was acquired in my

twelfth year, and cured when I was twenty, gave me much trouble,

particularly in gymnastics. Besides, from my twelfth year on, I had,

after sitting long, and particularly while working at night, an

itching, burning, and twitching, extending from the penis to my back,

which the acts of sitting and standing increased, and which was made

worse by catching cold. But I had no suspicion whatever that this

could be connected with the genitals. Since none of my friends

suffered in this way, it seemed strange to me; and it required the

greatest patience to endure it; the more owing to the fact that my

abdomen troubled me.

“In _sexualibus_ I was still perfectly innocent; but now, as at the

age of twelve or thirteen, I had a definite feeling of preferring to

be a young lady. A young lady’s form was more pleasing to me; her

quiet manner, her deportment, but particularly her attire, attracted

me. But I was careful not to allow this to be noticed; and yet, I am

sure that I should not have shrunk from the castration-knife, could I

have thus attained my desire. If I had been asked to say why I

preferred female attire, I could have said nothing more than that it

attracted me powerfully; perhaps, too, I seemed to myself, on account

of my uncommonly white skin, more like a girl. The skin of my face and

hands, particularly, was very sensitive. Girls liked my society; and,

though I should have preferred to have been with them constantly, I

avoided them when I could; for I had to exaggerate in order not to

appear feminine. In my heart I always envied them. I was particularly

envious when one of my young girl friends got long dresses and wore

gloves and veils. When, at the age of fifteen, I was on a journey, a

young lady, with whom I was boarding, proposed that I mask as a lady

and go out with her; but, owing to the fact that she was not alone, I

did not acquiesce, much as I should have liked it. Others stood on

very little ceremony with me. While on this journey, I was pleased at

seeing boys in one city wearing blouses with short sleeves, and the

arms bare. A lady elaborately dressed was like a goddess to me; and if

even her hand touched me coldly I was happy and envious, and only too

gladly would have put myself in her place in the beautiful garments

and lovely form. Nevertheless, I studied assiduously, and passed

through the Realschule and the Gymnasium in nine years, passing a good

final examination. I remember, when fifteen, to have first expressed

to a friend the wish to be a girl. In answer to his question, I could

not give the reason why. At seventeen I got into fast society; I drank

beer, smoked, and tried to joke with waiter-girls. The latter liked my

society, but they always treated me as if I wore petticoats. I could

not take dancing lessons, they repelled me so; but if I could have

gone as a mask, it would have been different. My friends loved me

dearly; I hated only one, who seduced me into onanism. Shame on those

days, which injured me for life! I practiced it quite frequently, but

in it seemed to myself like a double man. I cannot describe the

feeling; I think it was masculine, but mixed with feminine elements. I

could not approach girls; I feared them, but they were not strange to

me. They impressed me as being more like myself; I envied them. I

would have denied myself all pleasures if, after my classes, at home I

could have been a girl and thus have gone out. Crinoline and a

smoothly-fitting glove were my ideals. With every lady’s gown I saw I

fancied how I should feel in it,—_i.e._, as a lady. I had no

inclination toward men. But I remember that I was somewhat lovingly

attached to a very handsome friend with a girl’s face and dark hair,

though I think I had no other wish than that we both might be girls.

“At the high-school I finally once had coitus; hoc modo sensi, me

libentius sub puella concubuisse et penem meum cum cunno mutatum

maluisse. To my astonishment, too, the girl had to treat me as a girl,

and did it willingly; but she treated me as if I were she (she was

still quite inexperienced, and, therefore, did not laugh at me).

“When a student, at times I was wild, but I always felt that I assumed

this wildness as a mask. I drank and duelled, but I could not take

lessons in dancing, because I was afraid of betraying myself. My

friendships were close, but without other thoughts. It pleased me most

to have a friend masked as a lady, or to study the ladies’ costumes at

a ball. I understood such things perfectly. Gradually I began to feel

like a girl.

“On account of unhappy circumstances, I twice attempted suicide.

Without any cause I once slept fourteen days, had many hallucinations

(visual and auditory at the same time), and was with both the living

and the dead. The latter habit of thought remains. I also had a friend

(a lady) who knew my hobby and put on my gloves for me; but she always

looked upon me as a girl. Thus I understood women better than other

men did, and in what they differed from men; so I was always treated

_more feminarum_,—as if they had found in me a female friend. On the

whole, I could not endure obscenity, and indulged in it myself only