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Title: Psychopathia sexualis: With especial reference to
contrary sexual instinct
Author: R. von Krafft-Ebing

Translator: Charles Gilbert Chaddock

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Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS: WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE
TO CONTRARY SEXUAL INSTINCT ***

Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber
and is placed in the public domain.

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.

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] a. Aspermia.
2. Secretory.
b. Polyspermia.
a. Pollutions (spasm).
3. Motor.
b. Spermatorrhœa (paralysis).

1. Affections of the erection centre.
II. Spinal.
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