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Title: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3

Author: Havelock Ellis

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY
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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 (of 6), by
Havelock Ellis

STUDIES

IN THE

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX

VOLUME III

ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE
LOVE AND PAIN
THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN

BY

HAVELOCK ELLIS

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

1927

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

This volume has been thoroughly revised for the present edition and considerably enlarged
throughout, in order to render it more accurate and more illustrative, while bringing it fairly up
to date with reference to scientific investigation. Numerous histories have also been added to
the Appendix.
It has not been found necessary to modify the main doctrines set forth ten years ago. At the
same time, however, it may be mentioned, as regards the first study in the volume, that our
knowledge of the physiological mechanism of the sexual instinct has been revolutionized
during recent years. This is due to the investigations that have been made, and the deductions
that have been built up, concerning the part played by hormones, or internal secretions of the
ductless glands, in the physical production of the sexual instinct and the secondary sexual
characters. The conception of the psychology of the sexual impulse here set forth, while
correlated to terms of a physical process of tumescence and detumescence, may be said to be
independent of the ultimate physiological origins of that process. But we cannot fail to realize
the bearing of physiological chemistry in this field; and the doctrine of internal secretions,
since it may throw light on many complex problems presented by the sexual instinct, is full of
interest for us.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
June, 1913.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

The present volume of Studies deals with some of the most essential problems of sexual
psychology. The Analysis of the Sexual Impulse is fundamental. Unless we comprehend the
exact process which is being worked out beneath the shifting and multifold phenomena
presented to us we can never hope to grasp in their true relations any of the normal or
abnormal manifestations of this instinct. I do not claim that the conception of the process here
stated is novel or original. Indeed, even since I began to work it out some years ago, various
investigators in these fields, especially in Germany, have deprived it of any novelty it might
otherwise have possessed, while at the same time aiding me in reaching a more precise
statement. This is to me a cause of satisfaction. On so fundamental a matter I should have been
sorry to find myself tending to a peculiar and individual standpoint. It is a source of
gratification to me that the positions I have reached are those toward which current intelligent
and scientific opinions are tending. Any originality in my study of this problem can only lie in
the bringing together of elements from somewhat diverse fields. I shall be content if it is found
that I have attained a fairly balanced, general, and judicial statement of these main factors in
the sexual instinct.
In the study of Love and Pain I have discussed the sources of those aberrations which are
commonly called, not altogether happily, "sadism" and "masochism." Here we are brought
before the most extreme and perhaps the most widely known group of sexual perversions. I
have considered them from the medico-legal standpoint, because that has already been done
by other writers whose works are accessible. I have preferred to show how these aberrations
may be explained; how they may be linked on to normal and fundamental aspects of the
sexual impulse; and, indeed, in their elementary forms, may themselves be regarded as
normal. In some degree they are present, in every case, at some point of sexual development;
their threads are subtly woven in and out of the whole psychological process of sex. I have
made no attempt to reduce their complexity to a simplicity that would be fallacious. I hope
that my attempt to unravel these long and tangled threads will be found to make them fairly
clear.
In the third study, on The Sexual Impulse in Women, we approach a practical question of
applied sexual psychology, and a question of the first importance. No doubt the sex impulse in
men is of great moment from the social point of view. It is, however, fairly obvious and well
understood. The impulse in women is not only of at least equal moment, but it is far more
obscure. The natural difficulties of the subject have been increased by the assumption of most
writers who have touched it—casually and hurriedly, for the most part—that the only
differences to be sought in the sexual impulse in man and in woman are quantitative
differences. I have pointed out that we may more profitably seek for qualitative differences,
and have endeavored to indicate such of these differences as seem to be of significance.
In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less normal sexual
development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often been presented in books devoted

to the sexual instinct; it has not hitherto been usual to inquire into the facts of normal sexual
development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our ignorance is greatest,
and the innovation can scarcely need justification. I have inserted these histories not only
because many of them are highly instructive in themselves, but also because they exhibit the
nature of the material on which my work is mainly founded.
I am indebted to many correspondents, medical and other, in various parts of the world, for
much valuable assistance. When they have permitted me to do so I have usually mentioned
their names in the text. This has not been possible in the case of many women friends and
correspondents, to whom, however, my debt is very great. Nature has put upon women the
greater part of the burden of sexual reproduction; they have consequently become the supreme
authorities on all matters in which the sexual emotions come into question. Many
circumstances, however, that are fairly obvious, conspire to make it difficult for women to
assert publicly the wisdom and knowledge which, in matters of love, the experiences of life
have brought to them. The ladies who, in all earnestness and sincerity, write books on these
questions are often the last people to whom we should go as the representatives of their sex;
those who know most have written least. I can therefore but express again, as in previous
volumes I have expressed before, my deep gratitude to these anonymous collaborators who
have aided me in throwing light on a field of human life which is of such primary social
importance and is yet so dimly visible.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
Carbis Water,
Lelant, Cornwall, England.

CONTENTS.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE.

Definition of Instinct—The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct—Theory of the
Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation—The Evidence in Support of this Theory
Inadequate—The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands—The
Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men—The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women,
After the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands—The Internal
Secretions—Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother and
her Child—The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse—This Theory
Untenable—Moll's Definition—The Impulse of Detumescence—The Impulse of Contrectation
—Modification of this Theory Proposed—Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual Selection—The
Essential Element in Darwin's Conception—Summary of the History of the Doctrine of Sexual
Selection. Its Psychological Aspect—Sexual Selection a Part of Natural Selection—The
Fundamental Importance of Tumescence—Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in
Animals and in Man—The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence—The
Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man—Dancing is a Potent Agent for
Producing Tumescence—The Element of Truth in the Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with
an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder—Both Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions—
Their Intimate and Sometimes Vicarious Relationships—Analogy between Coitus and
Epilepsy—Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to Hunger—Final Object of the Impulses of
Tumescence and Detumescence.

LOVE AND PAIN.

I.

The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in Animal Courtship—
Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty—Human Play in the Light of Animal
Courtship—The Frequency of Crimes Against the Person in Adolescence—Marriage by
Capture and its Psychological Basis—Man's Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman's Pleasure
in Experiencing it—Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward Expression—The Love-
bite—In What Sense Pain May be Pleasurable—The Natural Contradiction in the Emotional
Attitude of Women Toward Men—Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere

in Women—The Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus—
The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as the Necessary Condition for
Sexual Pleasure.

II.

The Definition of Sadism—De Sade—Masochism to some Extent Normal—Sacher-Masoch—
No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and Masochism—Algolagnia Includes Both
Groups of Manifestations—The Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia
—The Fascination of Blood—The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to Normal
Phenomena.

III.

Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia—Causes of Connection between Sexual
Emotion and Whipping—Physical Causes—Psychic Causes Probably More Important—The
Varied Emotional Associations of Whipping—Its Wide Prevalence.

IV.

The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual Desire—The Wish to be Strangled. Respiratory
Disturbance the Essential Element in this Group of Phenomena—The Part Played by
Respiratory Excitement in the Process of Courtship—Swinging and Suspension—The
Attraction Exerted by the Idea of being Chained and Fettered.

V.

Pain, and not Cruelty, the Essential Element in Sadism and Masochism—Pain Felt as Pleasure
—Does the Sadist Identify Himself with the Feelings of his Victim?—The Sadist Often a
Masochist in Disguise—The Spectacle of Pain or Struggle as a Sexual Stimulant.

VI.

Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?—It is the Most Effective Method of Arousing Emotion—
Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emotions—Their Biological Significance in Courtship—
Their General and Special Effects in Stimulating the Organism—Grief as a Sexual Stimulant
—The Physiological Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasurable.

VII.

Summary of Results Reached—The Joy of Emotional Expansion—The Satisfaction of the
Craving for Power—The Influence of Neurasthenic and Neuropathic Conditions—The
Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes a Special Case of Erotic Symbolism.

THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN.

I.

The Primitive View of Women—As a Supernatural Element in Life—As Peculiarly
Embodying the Sexual Instinct—The Modern Tendency to Underestimate the Sexual Impulse
in Women—This Tendency Confined to Recent Times—Sexual Anæsthesia—Its Prevalence—
Difficulties in Investigating the Subject—Some Attempts to Investigate it—Sexual Anæsthesia
Must be Regarded as Abnormal—The Tendency to Spontaneous Manifestations of the Sexual
Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty.

II.

Special Characters of the Sexual Impulse in Women—The More Passive Part Played by
Women in Courtship—This Passivity Only Apparent—The Physical Mechanism of the Sexual
Process in Women More Complex—The Slower Development of Orgasm in Women—The
Sexual Impulse in Women More Frequently Needs to be Actively Aroused—The Climax of
Sexual Energy Falls Later in Women's Lives than in Men's—Sexual Ardor in Women
increased After the Establishment of Sexual Relationships—Women Bear Sexual Excesses
Better than Men—The Sexual Sphere Larger and More Diffused in Women—The Sexual
Impulse in Women Shows a Greater Tendency to Periodicity and a Wider Range of Variation.

III.

Summary of Conclusions.

APPENDIX A.

The Sexual Instinct in Savages.

I.

II.

III.

APPENDIX B.

The Development of the Sexual Instinct.

INDEX OF AUTHORS.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

ANALYSIS OF THE SEXUAL IMPULSE.
Definition of Instinct—The Sexual Impulse a Factor of the Sexual Instinct—Theory of the
Sexual Impulse as an Impulse of Evacuation—The Evidence in Support of this Theory
Inadequate—The Sexual Impulse to Some Extent Independent of the Sexual Glands—The
Sexual Impulse in Castrated Animals and Men—The Sexual Impulse in Castrated Women,
after the Menopause, and in the Congenital Absence of the Sexual Glands—The Internal
Secretions—Analogy between the Sexual Relationship and that of the Suckling Mother and
her Child—The Theory of the Sexual Impulse as a Reproductive Impulse—This Theory
Untenable—Moll's Definition—The Impulse of Detumescence—The Impulse of Contrectation
—Modification of this Theory Proposed—Its Relation to Darwin's Sexual Selection—The
Essential Element in Darwin's Conception—Summary of the History of the Doctrine of Sexual
Selection—Its Psychological Aspect—Sexual Selection a Part of Natural Selection—The
Fundamental Importance of Tumescence—Illustrated by the Phenomena of Courtship in
Animals and in Man—The Object of Courtship is to Produce Sexual Tumescence—The
Primitive Significance of Dancing in Animals and Man—Dancing is a Potent Agent for
Producing Tumescence—The Element of Truth in the Comparison of the Sexual Impulse with
an Evacuation, Especially of the Bladder—Both Essentially Involve Nervous Explosions—
Their Intimate and Sometimes Vicarious Relationships—Analogy between Coitus and
Epilepsy—Analogy of the Sexual Impulse to Hunger—Final Object of the Impulses of
Tumescence and Detumescence.

The term "sexual instinct" may be said to cover the whole of the neuropsychic phenomena of
reproduction which man shares with the lower animals. It is true that much discussion has
taken place concerning the proper use of the term "instinct," and some definitions of
instinctive action would appear to exclude the essential mechanism of the process whereby
sexual reproduction is assured. Such definitions scarcely seem legitimate, and are certainly
unfortunate. Herbert Spencer's definition of instinct as "compound reflex action" is sufficiently
clear and definite for ordinary use.
A fairly satisfactory definition of instinct is that supplied by Dr. and Mrs. Peckham in the
course of their study On the Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps. "Under the term 'instinct,'"
they say, "we place all complex acts which are performed previous to experience and in a
similar manner by all members of the same sex and race, leaving out as non-essential, at this
time, the question of whether they are or are not accompanied by consciousness." This
definition is quoted with approval by Lloyd Morgan, who modifies and further elaborates it
(Animal Behavior, 1900, p. 21). "The distinction between instinctive and reflex behavior," he
remarks, "turns in large degree on their relative complexity," and instinctive behavior, he
concludes, may be said to comprise "those complex groups of co-ordinated acts which are, on
their first occurrence, independent of experience; which tend to the well-being of the
individual and the preservation of the race; which are due to the co-operation of external and
internal stimuli; which are similarly performed by all the members of the same more or less

restricted group of animals; but which are subject to variation, and to subsequent modification
under the guidance of experience." Such a definition clearly justifies us in speaking of a
"sexual instinct." It may be added that the various questions involved in the definition of the
sexual instinct have been fully discussed by Moll in the early sections of his Untersuchungen
über die Libido Sexualis.
Of recent years there has been a tendency to avoid the use of the term "instinct," or, at all
events, to refrain from attaching any serious scientific sense to it. Loeb's influence has
especially given force to this tendency. Thus, while Piéron, in an interesting discussion of the
question ("Les Problèmes Actuels de l'Instinct," Revue Philosophique, Oct., 1908), thinks it
would still be convenient to retain the term, giving it a philosophical meaning, Georges Bohn,
who devotes a chapter to the notion of instinct (La Naissance de l'Intelligence, 1909), is
strongly in favor of eliminating the word, as being merely a legacy of medieval theologians
and metaphysicians, serving to conceal our ignorance or our lack of exact analysis.
It may be said that the whole of the task undertaken in these Studies is really an attempt to
analyze what is commonly called the sexual instinct. In order to grasp it we have to break it up
into its component parts. Lloyd Morgan has pointed out that the components of an instinct
may be regarded as four: first, the internal messages giving rise to the impulse; secondly, the
external stimuli which co-operate with the impulse to affect the nervous centers; thirdly, the
active response due to the co-ordinate outgoing discharges; and, fourthly, the message from
the organs concerned in the behavior by which the central nervous system is further affected.
[1]

In dealing with the sexual instinct the first two factors are those which we have most fully to
discuss. With the external stimuli we shall be concerned in a future volume (IV). We may here
confine ourselves mainly to the first factor: the nature of the internal messages which prompt
the sexual act. We may, in other words, attempt to analyze the sexual impulse.
The first definition of the sexual impulse we meet with is that which regards it as an impulse
of evacuation. The psychological element is thus reduced to a minimum. It is true that,
especially in early life, the emotions caused by forced repression of the excretions are
frequently massive or acute in the highest degree, and the joy of relief correspondingly great.
But in adult life, on most occasions, these desires can be largely pushed into the background of
consciousness, partly by training, partly by the fact that involuntary muscular activity is less
imperative in adult life; so that the ideal element in connection with the ordinary excretions is
almost a negligible quantity. The evacuation theory of the sexual instinct is, however, that
which has most popular vogue, and the cynic delights to express it in crude language. It is the
view that appeals to the criminal mind, and in the slang of French criminals the brothel is le
cloaque. It was also the view implicitly accepted by medieval ascetic writers, who regarded
woman as "a temple built over a sewer," and from a very different standpoint it was concisely
set forth by Montaigne, who has doubtless contributed greatly to support this view of the
matter: "I find," he said, "that Venus, after all, is nothing more than the pleasure of discharging
our vessels, just as nature renders pleasurable the discharges from other parts."[2] Luther,
again, always compared the sexual to the excretory impulse, and said that marriage was just as
necessary as the emission of urine. Sir Thomas More, also, in the second book of Utopia,
referring to the pleasure of evacuation, speaks of that felt "when we do our natural easement,

or when we be doing the act of generation." This view would, however, scarcely deserve
serious consideration if various distinguished investigators, among whom Féré may be
specially mentioned, had not accepted it as the best and most accurate definition of the sexual
impulse. "The genesic need may be considered," writes Féré, "as a need of evacuation; the
choice is determined by the excitations which render the evacuation more agreeable."[3]
Certain facts observed in the lower animals tend to support this view; it is, therefore,
necessary, in the first place, to set forth the main results of observation on this matter.
Spallanzani had shown how the male frog during coitus will undergo the most horrible
mutilations, even decapitation, and yet resolutely continue the act of intercourse, which lasts
from four to ten days, sitting on the back of the female and firmly clasping her with his
forelegs. Goltz confirmed Spallanzani's observations and threw new light on the mechanism of
the sexual instinct and the sexual act in the frog. By removing various parts of the female frog
Goltz found that every part of the female was attractive to the male at pairing time, and that he
was not imposed on when parts of a male were substituted. By removing various of the sense-
organs of the male Goltz[4] further found that it was not by any special organ, but by the whole
of his sensitive system, that this activity was set in action. If, however, the skin of the arms
and of the breast between was removed, no embrace took place; so that the sexual sensations
seemed to be exerted through this apparatus. When the testicles were removed the embrace
still took place. It could scarcely be said that these observations demonstrated, or in any way
indicated, that the sexual impulse is dependent on the need of evacuation. Professor
Tarchanoff, of St. Petersburg, however, made an experiment which seemed to be crucial. He
took several hundred frogs (Rana temporaria), nearly all in the act of coitus, and in the first
place repeated Goltz's experiments. He removed the heart; but this led to no direct or indirect
stoppage of coitus, nor did removal of the lungs, parts of the liver, the spleen, the intestines,
the stomach, or the kidneys. In the same way even careful removal of both testicles had no
result. But on removing the seminal receptacles coitus was immediately or very shortly
stopped, and not renewed. Thus, Tarchanoff concluded that in frogs, and possibly therefore in
mammals, the seminal receptacles are the starting-point of the centripetal impulse which by
reflex action sets in motion the complicated apparatus of sexual activity.[5] A few years later
the question was again taken up by Steinach, of Prague. Granting that Tarchanoff's
experiments are reliable as regards the frog, Steinach points out that we may still ask whether
in mammals the integrity of the seminal receptacles is bound up with the preservation of
sexual excitability. This cannot be taken for granted, nor can we assume that the seminal
receptacles of the frog are homologous with the seminal vesicles of mammals. In order to test
the question, Steinach chose the white rat, as possessing large seminal vesicles and a very
developed sexual impulse. He found that removal of the seminal sacs led to no decrease in the
intensity of the sexual impulse; the sexual act was still repeated with the same frequency and
the same vigor. But these receptacles, Steinach proceeded to argue, do not really contain
semen, but a special secretion of their own; they are anatomically quite unlike the seminal
receptacles of the frog; so that no doubt is thus thrown on Tarchanoff's observations. Steinach
remarked, however, that one's faith is rather shaken by the fact that in the Esculenta, which in
sexual life closely resembles Rana temporaria, there are no seminal receptacles. He therefore
repeated Tarchanoff's experiments, and found that the seminal receptacles were empty before
coitus, only becoming gradually filled during coitus; it could not, therefore, be argued that the
sexual impulse started from the receptacles. He then extirpated the seminal receptacles,
avoiding hemorrhage as far as possible, and found that, in the majority of cases so operated

on, coitus still continued for from five to seven days, and in the minority for a longer time. He
therefore concluded, with Goltz, that it is from the swollen testicles, not from the seminal
receptacles, that the impulse first starts. Goltz himself pointed out that the fact that the
removal of the testicles did not stop coitus by no means proves that it did not begin it, for,
when the central nervous mechanism is once set in action, it can continue even when the
exciting stimulus is removed. By extirpating the testicles some months before the sexual
season he found that no coitus occurred. At the same time, even in these frogs, a certain degree
of sexual inclination and a certain excitability of the embracing center still persisted,
disappearing when the sexual epoch was over.
According to most recent writers, the seminal vesicles of mammals are receptacles for their
own albuminous secretion, the function of which is unknown. Steinach could find no
spermatozoa in these "seminal" sacs, and therefore he proposed to use Owen's name of
glandulæ vesiculares. After extirpation of these vesicular glands in the white rat typical coitus
occurred. But the capacity for procreation was diminished, and extirpation of both glandulæ
vesiculares and glandulæ prostaticæ led to disappearance of the capacity for procreation.
Steinach came to the conclusion that this is because the secretions of these glands impart
increased vitality to the spermatozoa, and he points out that great fertility and high
development of the accessory sexual glands go together.
Steinach found that, when sexually mature white rats were castrated, though at first they
remained as potent as ever, their potency gradually declined; sexual excitement, however, and
sexual inclination always persisted. He then proceeded to castrate rats before puberty and
discovered the highly significant fact that in these also a quite considerable degree of sexual
inclination appeared. They followed, sniffed, and licked the females like ordinary males; and
that this was not a mere indication of curiosity was shown by the fact that they made attempts
at coitus which only differed from those of normal males by the failure of erection and
ejaculation, though, occasionally, there was imperfect erection. This lasted for a year, and then
their sexual inclinations began to decline, and they showed signs of premature age. These
manifestations of sexual sense Steinach compares to those noted in the human species during
childhood.[6]
The genesic tendencies are thus, to a certain degree, independent of the generative glands,
although the development of these glands serves to increase the genesic ability and to furnish
the impulsion necessary to assure procreation, as well as to insure the development of the
secondary sexual characters, probably by the influence of secretions elaborated and thrown
into the system from the primary sexual glands.[7]
Halban ("Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere," Archiv für Gynäkologie, 1903, pp. 205-
308) argues that the primary sex glands do not necessarily produce the secondary sex
characters, nor inhibit the development of those characteristic of the opposite sex. It is indeed
the rule, but it is not the inevitable result. Sexual differences exist from the first. Nussbaum
made experiments on frogs (Rana fusca), which go through a yearly cycle of secondary sexual
changes at the period of heat. These changes cease on castration, but, if the testes of other
frogs are introduced beneath the skin of the castrated frogs, Nussbaum found that they acted as
if the frog had not been castrated. It is the secretion of the testes which produces the secondary
sexual changes. But Nussbaum found that the testicular secretion does not work if the nerves

of the secondary sexual region are cut, and that the secretion has no direct action on the
organism. Pflüger, discussing these experiments (Archiv für die Gesammte Physiologie, 1907,
vol. cxvi, parts 5 and 6), disputes this conclusion, and argues that the secretion is not
dependent on the action of the nervous system, and that therefore the secondary sexual
characters are independent of the nervous system.
Steinach has also in later experiments ("Geschlechtstrieb und echt Sekundäre
Geschlechtsmerkmale als Folge der innerskretorischen Funktion der Keimdrusen,"
Zentralblatt für Physiologie, Bd. xxiv, Nu. 13, 1910) argued against any local nervous
influence. He found in Rana fusca and esculenta that after castration in autumn the impulse to
grasp the female persisted in some degrees and then disappeared, reappearing in a slight
degree, however, every winter at the normal period of sexual activity. But when the testicular
substance of actively sexual frogs was injected into the castrated frogs it exerted an elective
action on the sexual reflex, sometimes in a few hours, but the action is, Steinach concludes,
first central. The testicular secretion of frogs that were not sexually active had no stimulating
action, but if the frogs were sexually active the injection of their central nervous substance
was as effective as their testicular substance. In either case, Steinach concludes, there is the
removal of an inhibition which is in operation at sexually quiescent periods.
Speaking generally, Steinach considers that there is a process of "erotisation" (Erotisieurung)
of the nervous center under the influence of the internal testicular secretions, and that this
persists even when the primary physical stimulus has been removed.
The experience of veterinary surgeons also shows that the sexual impulse tends to persist in
animals after castration. Thus the ox and the gelding make frequent efforts to copulate with
females in heat. In some cases, at all events in the case of the horse, castrated animals remain
potent, and are even abnormally ardent, although impregnation cannot, of course, result.[8]
The results obtained by scientific experiment and veterinary experience on the lower animals
are confirmed by observation of various groups of phenomena in the human species. There
can be no doubt that castrated men may still possess sexual impulses. This has been noted by
observers in various countries in which eunuchs are made and employed.[9]
It is important to remember that there are different degrees of castration, for in current
language these are seldom distinguished. The Romans recognized four different degrees: 1.
True castrati, from whom both the testicles and the penis had been removed. 2. Spadones,
from whom the testicles only had been removed; this was the most common practice. 3.
Thlibiæ, in whom the testicles had not been removed, but destroyed by crushing; this practice
is referred to by Hippocrates. 4. Thlasiæ, in whom the spermatic cord had simply been cut.
Millant, from whose Paris thesis (Castration Criminelle et Maniaque, 1902) I take these
definitions, points out that it was recognized that spadones remained apt for coitus if the
operation was performed after puberty, a fact appreciated by many Roman ladies, ad seouras
libidinationes, as St. Jerome remarked, while Martial (lib. iv) said of a Roman lady who
sought eunuchs: "Vult futui Gallia, non parere." (See also Millant, Les Eunuques à Travers les
Ages, 1909, and articles by Lipa Bey and Zambaco, Sexual-Probleme, Oct. and Dec., 1911.)
In China, Matignon, formerly physician to the French legation in Pekin, tells us that eunuchs
are by no means without sexual feeling, that they seek the company of women and, he

believes, gratify their sexual desires by such methods as are left open to them, for the sexual
organs are entirely removed. It would seem probable that, the earlier the age at which the
operation is performed, the less marked are the sexual desires, for Matignon mentions that
boys castrated before the age of 10 are regarded by the Chinese as peculiarly virginal and
pure.[10] At Constantinople, where the eunuchs are of negro race, castration is usually
complete and performed before puberty, in order to abolish sexual potency and desire as far as
possible. Even when castration is effected in infancy, sexual desire is not necessarily rendered
impossible. Thus Marie has recorded the case of an insane Egyptian eunuch whose penis and
scrotum were removed in infancy; yet, he had frequent and intense sexual desire with
ejaculation of mucus and believed that an invisible princess touched him and aroused
voluptuous sensations. Although the body had a feminine appearance, the prostate was normal
and the vesiculæ seminales not atrophied.[11] It may be added that Lancaster[12] quotes the
following remark, made by a resident for many years in the land, concerning Nubian eunuchs:
"As far as I can judge, sex feeling exists unmodified by absence of the sexual organs. The
eunuch differs from the man not in the absence of sexual passion, but only in the fact that he
cannot fully gratify it. As far as he can approach a gratification of it he does so." In this
connection it may be noted that (as quoted by Moll) Jäger attributes the preference of some
women—noted in ancient Rome and in the East—for castrated men as due not only to the
freedom from risk of impregnation in such intercourse, but also to the longer duration of
erection in the castrated.
When castration is performed without removal of the penis it is said that potency remains for
at least ten years afterward, and Disselhorst, who in his Die accessorischen Geschlechtsdrüsen
der Wirbelthiere takes the same view as has been here adopted, mentions that, according to
Pelikan (Das Skopzentum in Rüssland), those castrated at puberty are fit for coitus long
afterward. When castration is performed for surgical reasons at a later age it is still less likely
to affect potency or to change the sexual feelings.[13] Guinard concludes that the sexual
impulse after castration is relatively more persistent in man than in the lower animals, and is
sometimes even heightened, being probably more dependent on external stimuli.[14]
Except in the East, castration is more often performed on women than on men, and then the
evidence as to the influence of the removal of the ovaries on the sexual emotions shows
varying results. It has been found that after castration sexual desire and sexual pleasure in
coitus may either remain the same, be diminished or extinguished, or be increased. By some
the diminution has been attributed to autosuggestion, the woman being convinced that she can
no longer be like other women; the augmentation of desire and pleasure has been supposed to
be due to the removal of the dread of impregnation. We have, of course, to take into account
individual peculiarities, method of life, and the state of the health.
In France Jayle ("Effets physiologiques de la Castration chez la Femme," Revue de
Gynécologie, 1897, pp. 403-57) found that, among 33 patients in whom ovariotomy had been
performed, in 18 sexual desire remained the same, in 3 it was diminished, in 8 abolished, in 3
increased; while pleasure in coitus remained the same in 17, was diminished in 1, abolished in
4, and increased in 5, in 6 cases sexual intercourse was very painful. In two other groups of
cases—one in which both ovaries and uterus were removed and another in which the uterus
alone was removed—the results were not notably different.

In Germany Gläveke (Archiv für Gynäkologie, Bd. xxxv, 1889) found that desire remained in
6 cases, was diminished in 10, and disappeared in 11, while pleasure in intercourse remained
in 8, was diminished in 10, and was lost in 8. Pfister, again (Archiv für Gynäkologie, Bd. lvi,
1898), examined this point in 99 castrated women; he remarks that sexual desire and sexual
pleasure in intercourse were usually associated, and found the former unchanged in 19 cases,
decreased in 24, lost in 35, never present in 21, while the latter was unchanged in 18 cases and
diminished or lost in 60. Keppler (International Medical Congress, Berlin, 1890) found that
among 46 castrated women sexual feeling was in no case abolished. Adler also, who discusses
this question (Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, p. 75 et seq.),
criticises Gläveke's statements and concludes that there is no strict relation between the sexual
organs and the sexual feelings. Kisch, who has known several cases in which the feelings
remained the same as before the operation, brings together (The Sexual Life of Women)
varying opinions of numerous authors regarding the effects of removal of the ovaries on the
sexual appetite.
In America Bloom (as quoted in Medical Standard, 1896, p. 121) found that in none of the
cases of women investigated, in which oöphorectomy had been performed before the age of
33, was the sexual appetite entirely lost; in most of them it had not materially diminished and
in a few it was intensified. There was, however, a general consensus of opinion that the normal
vaginal secretion during coitus was greatly lessened. In the cases of women over 33, including
also hysterectomies, a gradual lessening of sexual feeling and desire was found to occur most
generally. Dr. Isabel Davenport records 2 cases (reported in Medical Standard, 1895, p. 346)
of women between 30 and 35 years of age whose erotic tendencies were extreme; the ovaries
and tubes were removed, in one case for disease, in the other with a view of removing the
sexual tendencies; in neither case was there any change. Lapthorn Smith (Medical Record, vol.
xlviii) has reported the case of an unmarried woman of 24 whose ovaries and tubes had been
removed seven years previously for pain and enlargement, and the periods had disappeared for
six years; she had had experience of sexual intercourse, and declared that she had never felt
such extreme sexual excitement and pleasure as during coitus at the end of this time.
In England Lawson Tait and Bantock (British Medical Journal, October 14, 1899, p. 975)
have noted that sexual passion seems sometimes to be increased even after the removal of
ovaries, tubes, and uterus. Lawson Tait also stated (British Gynæcological Journal, Feb.,
1887, p. 534) that after systematic and extensive inquiry he had not found a single instance in
which, provided that sexual appetite existed before the removal of the appendages, it was
abolished by that operation. A Medical Inquiry Committee appointed by the Liverpool
Medical Institute (ibid., p. 617) had previously reported that a considerable number of patients
stated that they had suffered a distinct loss of sexual feeling. Lawson Tait, however, throws
doubts on the reliability of the Committee's results, which were based on the statements of
unintelligent hospital patients.
I may quote the following remarks from a communication sent to me by an experienced
physician in Australia: "No rule can be laid down in cases in which both ovaries have been
extirpated. Some women say that, though formerly passionate, they have since become quite
indifferent, but I am of opinion that the majority of women who have had prior sexual
experience retain desire and gratification in an equal degree to that they had before operation. I
know one case in which a young girl hardly 19 years old, who had been accustomed to

congress for some twelve months, had trouble which necessitated the removal of the ovaries
and tubes on both sides. Far from losing all her desire or gratification, both were very
materially increased in intensity. Menstruation has entirely ceased, without loss of femininity
in either disposition or appearance. During intercourse, I am told, there is continuous
spasmodic contraction of various parts of the vagina and vulva."
The independence of the sexual impulse from the distention of the sexual glands is further
indicated by the great frequency with which sexual sensations, in a faint or even strong degree,
are experienced in childhood and sometimes in infancy, and by the fact that they often persist
in women long after the sexual glands have ceased their functions.
In the study of auto-erotism in another volume of these Studies I have brought together some
of the evidence showing that even in very young children spontaneous self-induced sexual
excitement, with orgasm, may occur. Indeed, from an early age sexual differences pervade the
whole nervous tissue. I may here quote the remarks of an experienced gynecologist: "I venture
to think," Braxton Hicks said many years ago, "that those who have much attended to children
will agree with me in saying that, almost from the cradle, a difference can be seen in manner,
habits of mind, and in illness, requiring variations in their treatment. The change is certainly
hastened and intensified at the time of puberty; but there is, even to an average observer, a
clear difference between the sexes from early infancy, gradually becoming more marked up to
puberty. That sexual feelings exist [it would be better to say 'may exist'] from earliest infancy
is well known, and therefore this function does not depend upon puberty, though intensified by
it. Hence, may we not conclude that the progress toward development is not so abrupt as has
been generally supposed?... The changes of puberty are all of them dependent on the
primordial force which, gradually gathering in power, culminates in the perfection both of
form and of the sexual system, primary and secondary."
There appear to have been but few systematic observations on the persistence of the sexual
impulse in women after the menopause. It is regarded as a fairly frequent phenomenon by
Kisch, and also by Löwenfeld (Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, p. 29). In America, Bloom (as
quoted in Medical Standard, 1896), from an investigation of four hundred cases, found that in
some cases the sexual impulse persisted to a very advanced age, and mentions a case of a
woman of 70, twenty years past the menopause, who had been long a widow, but had recently
married, and who declared that both desire and gratification were as great, if not greater, than
before the menopause.
Reference may finally be made to those cases in which the sexual impulse has developed
notwithstanding the absence, verified or probable, of any sexual glands at all. In such cases
sexual desire and sexual gratification are sometimes even stronger than normal. Colman has
reported a case in which neither ovaries nor uterus could be detected, and the vagina was too
small for coitus, but pleasurable intercourse took place by the rectum and sexual desire was at
times so strong as to amount almost to nymphomania. Clara Barrus has reported the case of a
woman in whom there was congenital absence of uterus and ovaries, as proved subsequently
by autopsy, but the sexual impulse was very strong and she had had illicit intercourse with a
lover. She suffered from recurrent mania, and then masturbated shamelessly; when sane she
was attractively feminine. Macnaughton-Jones describes the case of a woman of 32 with
normal sexual feelings and fully developed breasts, clitoris, and labia, but no vagina or

internal genitalia could be detected even under the most thorough examination. In a case of
Bridgman's, again, the womb and ovaries were absent, and the vagina small, but coitus was
not painful, and the voluptuous sensations were complete and sexual passion was strong. In a
case of Cotterill's, the ovaries and uterus were of minute size and functionless, and the vagina
was absent, but the sexual feelings were normal, and the clitoris preserved its usual sensibility.
Mundé had recorded two similar cases, of which he presents photographs. In all these cases
not only was the sexual impulse present in full degree, but the subjects were feminine in
disposition and of normal womanly conformation; in most cases the external sexual organs
were properly developed.[15]
Féré (L'Instinct sexuel, p. 241) has sought to explain away some of these phenomena, in so far
as they may be brought against the theory that the secretions and excretions of the sexual
glands are the sole source of the sexual impulse. The persistence of sexual feelings after
castration may be due, he argues, to the presence of the nerves in the cicatrices, just as the
amputated have the illusion that the missing limb is still there. Exactly the same explanation
has since been put forward by Moll, Medizinische Klinik, 1905, Nrs. 12 and 13. In the same
way the presence of sexual feelings after the menopause may be due to similar irritation
determined by degeneration during involution of the glands. The precocious appearance of the
sexual impulse in childhood he would explain as due to an anomaly of development in the
sexual organs. Féré makes no attempt to explain the presence of the sexual impulse in the
congenital absence of the sexual glands; here, however, Mundé intervenes with the suggestion
that it is possible that in most cases "an infinitesimal trace of ovary" may exist, and preserve
femininity, though insufficient to produce ovulation or menstruation.
It is proper to mention these ingenious arguments. They are, however, purely hypothetical,
obviously invented to support a theory. It can scarcely be said that they carry conviction. We
may rather agree with Guinard that so great is the importance of reproduction that nature has
multiplied the means by which preparation is made for the conjunction of the sexes and the
roads by which sexual excitation may arrive. As Hirschfeld puts it, in a discussion of this
subject (Sexual-Probleme, Feb., 1912), "Nature has several irons in the fire."
It will be seen that the conclusions we have reached indirectly involve the assumption that the
spinal nervous centers, through which the sexual mechanism operates, are not sufficient to
account for the whole of the phenomena of the sexual impulse. The nervous circuit tends to
involve a cerebral element, which may sometimes be of dominant importance. Various
investigators, from the time of Gall onward, have attempted to localize the sexual instinct
centrally. Such attempts, however, cannot be said to have succeeded, although they tend to
show that there is a real connection between the brain and the generative organs. Thus Ceni, of
Modena, by experiments on chickens, claims to have proved the influence of the cortical
centers of procreation on the faculty of generation, for he found that lesions of the cortex led
to sterility corresponding in degree to the lesion; but as these results followed even
independently of any disturbance of the sexual instinct, their significance is not altogether
clear (Carlo Ceni, "L'Influenza dei Centri Corticali sui Fenomeni della Generazione," Revista
Sperimentale di Freniatria, 1907, fasc. 2-3). At present, as Obici and Marchesini have well
remarked, all that we can do is to assume the existence of cerebral as well as spinal sexual
centers; a cerebral sexual center, in the strictest sense, remains purely hypothetical.

Although Gall's attempt to locate the sexual instinct in the cerebellum—well supported as it
was by observations—is no longer considered to be tenable, his discussion of the sexual
instinct was of great value, far in advance of his time, and accompanied by a mass of facts
gathered from many fields. He maintained that the sexual instinct is a function of the brain,
not of the sexual organs. He combated the view ruling in his day that the seat of erotic mania
must be sought in the sexual organs. He fully dealt with the development of the sexual instinct
in many children before maturity of the sexual glands, the prolongation of the instinct into old
age, its existence in the castrated and in the congenital absence of the sexual glands; he
pointed out that even with an apparently sound and normal sexual apparatus all sorts of
psychic pathological deviations may yet occur. In fact, all the lines of argument I have briefly
indicated in the foregoing pages—although when they were first written this fact was
unknown to me—had been fully discussed by this remarkable man nearly a century ago. (The
greater part of the third volume of Gall's Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, in the edition of 1825,
is devoted to this subject. For a good summary, sympathetic, though critical, of Gall's views on
this matter, see Möbius, "Ueber Gall's Specielle Organologie," Schmidt's Jahrbücher der
Medicin, 1900, vol. cclxvii; also Ausgewahlte Werke, vol. vii.)
It will be seen that the question of the nature of the sexual impulse has been slowly
transformed. It is no longer a question of the formation of semen in the male, of the function
of menstruation in the female. It has become largely a question of physiological chemistry.
The chief parts in the drama of sex, alike on its psychic as on its physical sides, are thus
supposed to be played by two mysterious protagonists, the hormones, or internal secretions, of
the testes and of the ovary. Even the part played by the brain is now often regarded as
chemical, the brain being considered to be a great chemical laboratory. There is a tendency,
moreover, to extend the sexual sphere so as to admit the influence of internal secretions from
other glands. The thymus, the adrenals, the thyroid, the pituitary, even the kidneys: it is
possible that internal secretions from all these glands may combine to fill in the complete
picture of sexuality as we know it in men and women.[16] The subject is, however, so complex
and at present so little known that it would be hazardous, and for the present purpose it is
needless, to attempt to set forth any conclusions.
It is sufficiently clear that there is on the surface a striking analogy between sexual desire and
the impulse to evacuate an excretion, and that this analogy is not only seen in the frog, but
extends also to the highest vertebrates. It is quite another matter, however, to assert that the
sexual impulse can be adequately defined as an impulse to evacuate. To show fully the
inadequate nature of this conception would require a detailed consideration of the facts of
sexual life. That is, however, unnecessary. It is enough to point out certain considerations
which alone suffice to invalidate this view. In the first place, it must be remarked that the
trifling amount of fluid emitted in sexual intercourse is altogether out of proportion to the
emotions aroused by the act and to its after-effect on the organism; the ancient dictum omne
animal post coitum triste may not be exact, but it is certain that the effect of coitus on the
organism is far more profound than that produced by the far more extensive evacuation of the
bladder or bowels. Again, this definition leaves unexplained all those elaborate preliminaries
which, both in man and the lower animals, precede the sexual act, preliminaries which in
civilized human beings sometimes themselves constitute a partial satisfaction to the sexual
impulse. It must also be observed that, unlike the ordinary excretions, this discharge of the
sexual glands is not always, or in every person, necessary at all. Moreover, the theory of

evacuation at once becomes hopelessly inadequate when we apply it to women; no one will
venture to claim that an adequate psychological explanation of the sexual impulse in a woman
is to be found in the desire to expel a little bland mucus from the minute glands of the genital
tract. We must undoubtedly reject this view of the sexual impulse. It has a certain element of
truth and it permits an instructive and helpful analogy; but that is all. The sexual act presents
many characters which are absent in an ordinary act of evacuation, and, on the other hand, it
lacks the special characteristic of the evacuation proper, the elimination of waste material; the
seminal fluid is not a waste material, and its retention is, to some extent perhaps, rather an
advantage than a disadvantage to the organism.
Eduard von Hartmann long since remarked that the satisfaction of what we call the sexual
instinct through an act carried out with a person of the opposite sex is a very wonderful
phenomenon. It cannot be said, however, that the conception of the sexual act as a simple
process of evacuation does anything to explain the wonder. We are, at most, in the same
position as regards the stilling of normal sexual desire as we should be as regards the
emptying of the bladder, supposing it were very difficult for either sex to effect this
satisfactorily without the aid of a portion of the body of a person of the other sex acting as a
catheter. In such a case our thoughts and ideals would center around persons of opposite sex,
and we should court their attention and help precisely as we do now in the case of our sexual
needs. Some such relationship does actually exist in the case of the suckling mother and her
infant. The mother is indebted to the child for the pleasurable relief of her distended breasts;
and, while in civilization more subtle pleasures and intelligent reflection render this massive
physical satisfaction comparatively unessential to the act of suckling, in more primitive
conditions and among animals the need of this pleasurable physical satisfaction is a real bond
between the mother and her offspring. The analogy is indeed very close: the erectile nipple
corresponds to the erectile penis, the eager watery mouth of the infant to the moist and
throbbing vagina, the vitally albuminous milk to the vitally albuminous semen.[17] The
complete mutual satisfaction, physical and psychic, of mother and child, in the transfer from
one to the other of a precious organized fluid, is the one true physiological analogy to the
relationship of a man and a woman at the climax of the sexual act. Even this close analogy,
however, fails to cover all the facts of the sexual life.
A very different view is presented to us in the definition of the sexual instinct as a
reproductive impulse, a desire for offspring. Hegar, Eulenburg, Näcke, and Löwenfeld have
accepted this as, at all events, a partial definition.[18] No one, indeed, would argue that it is a
complete definition, although a few writers appear to have asserted that it is so sometimes as
regards the sexual impulse in women. There is, however, considerable mental confusion in the
attempt to set up such a definition. If we define an instinct as an action adapted to an end
which is not present to consciousness, then it is quite true that the sexual instinct is an instinct
of reproduction. But we do not adequately define the sexual instinct by merely stating its
ultimate object. We might as well say that the impulse by which young animals seize food is
"an instinct of nutrition." The object of reproduction certainly constitutes no part of the sexual
impulse whatever in any animal apart from man, and it reveals a lack of the most elementary
sense of biological continuity to assert that in man so fundamental and involuntary a process
can suddenly be revolutionized. That the sexual impulse is very often associated with a strong
desire for offspring there can be no doubt, and in women the longing for a child—that is to

say, the longing to fulfill those functions for which their bodies are constituted—may become
so urgent and imperative that we may regard it as scarcely less imperative than the sexual
impulse. But it is not the sexual impulse, though intimately associated with it, and though it
explains it. A reproductive instinct might be found in parthenogenetic animals, but would be
meaningless, because useless, in organisms propagating by sexual union. A woman may not
want a lover, but may yet want a child. This merely means that her maternal instincts have
been aroused, while her sexual instincts are still latent. A desire for reproduction, as soon as
that desire becomes instinctive, necessarily takes on the form of the sexual impulse, for there
is no other instinctive mechanism by which it can possibly express itself. A "reproductive
instinct," apart from the sexual instinct and apart from the maternal instinct, cannot be
admitted; it would be an absurdity. Even in women in whom the maternal instincts are strong,
it may generally be observed that, although before a woman is in love, and also during the
later stages of her love, the conscious desire for a child may be strong, during the time when
sexual passion is at its highest the thought of offspring, under normally happy conditions,
tends to recede into the background. Reproduction is the natural end and object of the sexual
instinct, but the statement that it is part of the contents of the sexual impulse, or can in any
way be used to define that impulse, must be dismissed as altogether inacceptable. Indeed,
although the term "reproductive instinct" is frequently used, it is seldom used in a sense that
we need take seriously; it is vaguely employed as a euphemism by those who wish to veil the
facts of the sexual life; it is more precisely employed mainly by those who are unconsciously
dominated by a superstitious repugnance to sex.
I now turn to a very much more serious and elaborate attempt to define the constitution of the
sexual impulse, that of Moll. He finds that it is made up of two separate components, each of
which may be looked upon as an uncontrollable impulse.[19] One of these is that by which the
tension of the sexual organs is spasmodically relieved; this he calls the impulse of
detumescence,[20] and he regards it as primary, resembling the impulse to empty a full bladder.
The other impulse is the "instinct to approach, touch, and kiss another person, usually of the
opposite sex"; this he terms the impulse of contrectation, and he includes under this head not
only the tendency to general physical contact, but also the psychic inclination to become
generally interested in a person of the opposite sex. Each of these primary impulses Moll
regards as forming a constituent of the sexual instinct in both men and women. It seems to me
undoubtedly true that these two impulses do correspond to the essential phenomena. The
awkward and unsatisfactory part of Moll's analysis is the relation of the one to the other. It is
true that he traces both impulses back to the sexual glands, that of detumescence directly, that
of contrectation indirectly; but evidently he does not regard them as intimately related to each
other; he insists on the fact that they may exist apart from each other, that they do not appear
synchronously in youth: the contrectation impulse he regards as secondary; it is, he states, an
indirect result of the sexual glands, "only to be understood by the developmental history of
these glands and the object which they subserve"; that is to say, that it is connected with the
rise of the sexual method of reproduction and the desirability of the mingling of the two sexes
in procreation, while the impulse of detumescence arose before the sexual method of
reproduction had appeared; thus the contrectation impulse was propagated by natural selection
together with the sexual method of reproduction. The impulse of contrectation is secondary,
and Moll even regards it as a secondary sexual character.

While, therefore, this analysis seems to include all the phenomena and to be worthy of very
careful study as a serious and elaborate attempt to present an adequate psychological
definition of the sexual impulse, it scarcely seems to me that we can accept it in precisely the
form in which Moll presents it. I believe, however, that by analyzing the process a little more
minutely we shall find that these two constituents of the sexual impulse are really much more
intimately associated than at the first glance appears, and that we need by no means go back to
the time when the sexual method of reproduction arose to explain the significance of the
phenomena which Moll includes under the term contrectation.
To discover the true significance of the phenomena in men it is necessary to observe carefully
the phenomena of love-making not only among men, but among animals, in which the impulse
of contrectation plays a very large part, and involves an enormous expenditure of energy.
Darwin was the first to present a comprehensive view of, at all events a certain group of, the
phenomena of contrectation in animals; on his interpretation of those phenomena he founded
his famous theory of sexual selection. We are not primarily concerned with that theory; but the
facts on which Darwin based his theory lie at the very roots of our subject, and we are bound
to consider their psychological significance. In the first place, since these phenomena are
specially associated with Darwin's name, it may not be out of place to ask what Darwin
himself considered to be their psychological significance. It is a somewhat important question,
even for those who are mainly concerned with the validity of the theory which Darwin
established on those facts, but so far as I know it has not hitherto been asked. I find that a
careful perusal of the Descent of Man reveals the presence in Darwin's mind of two quite
distinct theories, neither of them fully developed, as to the psychological meaning of the facts
he was collecting. The two following groups of extracts will serve to show this very
conclusively: "The lower animals have a sense of beauty," he declares, "powers of
discrimination and taste on the part of the female" (p. 211[21]); "the females habitually or
occasionally prefer the more beautiful males," "there is little improbability in the females of
insects appreciating beauty in form or color" (p. 329); he speaks of birds as the most "esthetic"
of all animals excepting man, and adds that they have "nearly the same taste for the beautiful
as we have" (p. 359); he remarks that a change of any kind in the structure or color of the male
bird "appears to have been admired by the female" (p. 385). He speaks of the female Argus
pheasant as possessing "this almost human degree of taste." Birds, again, "seem to have some
taste for the beautiful both in color and sound," and "we ought not to feel too sure that the
female does not attend to each detail of beauty" (p. 421). Novelty, he says, is "admired by
birds for its own sake" (p. 495). "Birds have fine powers of discrimination and in some few
instances it can be shown that they have a taste for the beautiful" (p. 496). The "esthetic
capacity" of female animals has been advanced by exercise just as our own taste has improved
(p. 616). On the other hand, we find running throughout the book quite another idea. Of
cicadas he tells us that it is probable that, "like female birds, they are excited or allured by the
male with the most attractive voice" (p. 282); and, coming to Locustidæ, he states that "all
observers agree that the sounds serve either to call or excite the mute females" (p. 283). Of
birds he says, "I am led to believe that the females prefer or are most excited by the more
brilliant males" (p. 316). Among birds also the males "endeavor to charm or excite their mates
by love-notes," etc., and "the females are excited by certain males, and thus unconsciously
prefer them" (p. 367), while ornaments of all kinds "apparently serve to excite, attract, or
fascinate the female" (p. 394). In a supplemental note, also, written in 1876, five years after

the first publication of the Descent of Man, and therefore a late statement of his views, Darwin
remarks that "no supporter of the principle of sexual selection believes that the females select
particular points of beauty in the males; they are merely excited or attracted in a greater degree
by one male than by another, and this seems often to depend, especially with birds, on brilliant
coloring" (p. 623). Thus, on the one hand, Darwin interprets the phenomena as involving a real
esthetic element, a taste for the beautiful; on the other hand, he states, without apparently any
clear perception that the two views are quite distinct, that the colors and sounds and other
characteristics of the male are not an appeal to any esthetic sense of the female, but an appeal
to her sexual emotions, a stimulus to sexual excitement, an allurement to sexual contact.
According to the first theory, the female admires beauty, consciously or unconsciously, and
selects the most beautiful partner[22]; according to the second theory, there is no esthetic
question involved, but the female is unconsciously influenced by the most powerful or
complex organic stimulus to which she is subjected. There can be no question that it is the
second, and not the first, of these two views which we are justified in accepting. Darwin, it
must be remembered, was not a psychologist, and he lived before the methods of comparative
psychology had begun to be developed; had he written twenty years later we may be sure he
would never have used so incautiously some of the vague and hazardous expressions I have
quoted. He certainly injured his theory of sexual selection by stating it in too anthropomorphic
language, by insisting on "choice," "preference," "esthetic sense," etc. There is no need
whatever to burden any statement of the actual facts by such terms borrowed from human
psychology. The female responds to the stimulation of the male at the right moment just as the
tree responds to the stimulation of the warmest days in spring. We should but obscure this fact
by stating that the tree "chooses" the most beautiful days on which to put forth its young
sprouts. In explaining the correlation between responsive females and accomplished males the
supposition of esthetic choice is equally unnecessary. It is, however, interesting to observe
that, though Darwin failed to see that the love-combats, pursuits, dances, and parades of the
males served as a method of stimulating the impulse of contrectation—or, as it would be better
to term it, tumescence—in the male himself,[23] he to some extent realized the part thus played
in exciting the equally necessary activity of tumescence in the female.
The justification for using the term "tumescence," which I here propose, is to be found in the
fact that vascular congestion, more especially of the parts related to generation, is an essential
preliminary to acute sexual desire. This is clearly brought out in Heape's careful study of the
"sexual season" in mammals. Heape distinguishes between the "pro-estrum," or preliminary
period of congestion, in female animals and the immediately following "estrus," or period of
desire. The latter period is the result of the former, and, among the lower animals at all events,
intercourse only takes place during the estrus, not during the pro-estrum. Tumescence must
thus be obtained before desire can become acute, and courtship runs pari passu with
physiological processes. "Normal estrus," Heape states, "occurs in conjunction with certain
changes in the uterine tissue, and this is accompanied by congestion and stimulation or
irritation of the copulatory organs.... Congestion is invariably present and is an essential
condition.... The first sign of pro-estrum noticed in the lower mammals is a swollen and
congested vulva and a general restlessness, excitement, or uneasiness. There are other signs
familiar to breeders of various mammals, such as the congested conjunctiva of the rabbit's eye
and the drooping ears of the pig. Many monkeys exhibit congestion of the face and nipples, as
well as of the buttocks, thighs, and neighboring parts; sometimes they are congested to a very

marked extent, and in some species a swelling, occasionally prodigious, of the soft tissues
round the anal and generative openings, which is also at the time brilliantly congested,
indicates the progress of the pro-estrum.... The growth of the stroma-tissue [in the uterus of
monkeys during the pro-estrum] is rapidly followed by an increase in the number and size of
the vessels of the stroma; the whole becomes richly supplied with blood, and the surface is
flushed and highly vascular. This process goes on until the whole of the internal stroma
becomes tense and brilliantly injected with blood.... In all essential points the menstruation or
pro-estrum of the human female is identical with that of monkeys.... Estrus is possible only
after the changes due to pro-estrum have taken place in the uterus. A wave of disturbance, at
first evident in the external generative organs, extends to the uterus, and after the various
phases of pro-estrum have been gone through in that organ, and the excitement there is
subsiding, it would seem as if the external organs gain renewed stimulus, and it is then that
estrus takes place.... In all animals which have been investigated coition is not allowed by the
female until some time after the swelling and congestion of the vulva and surrounding tissue
are first demonstrated, and in those animals which suffer from a considerable discharge of
blood the main portion of that discharge, if not the whole of it, will be evacuated before sexual
intercourse is allowed." (W. Heape, "The 'Sexual Season' of Mammals," Quarterly Journal of
Microscopical Science, vol. xliv, Part I, 1900. Estrus has since been fully discussed in
Marshall's Physiology of Reproduction.) This description clearly brings out the fundamentally
vascular character of the process I have termed "tumescence"; it must be added, however, that
in man the nervous elements in the process tend to become more conspicuous, and more or
less obliterate these primitive limitations of sexual desire. (See "Sexual Periodicity" in the first
volume of these Studies.)
Moll subsequently restated his position with reference to my somewhat different analysis of
the sexual impulse, still maintaining his original view ("Analyse des Geschlechtstriebes,"
Medizinische Klinik, Nos. 12 and 13, 1905; also Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, vol. ii, Nos. 9
and 10). Numa Praetorius (Jahrbuch für Sexeuelle Zwischenstufen, 1904, p. 592) accepts
contrectation, tumescence, and detumescence as all being stages in the same process,
contrectation, which he defines as the sexual craving for a definite individual, coming first.
Robert Müller (Sexualbiologie, 1907, p. 37) criticises Moll much in the same sense as I have
done and considers that contrectation and detumescence cannot be separated, but are two
expressions of the same impulse; so also Max Katte, "Die Präliminarien des
Geschlechtsaktes," Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, Oct., 1908, and G. Saint-Paul,
L'Homosexualité et les Types Homosexuels, 1910, p. 390.
While I regard Moll's analysis as a valuable contribution to the elucidation of the sexual
impulse, I must repeat that I cannot regard it as final or completely adequate. As I understand
the process, contrectation is an incident in the development of tumescence, an extremely
important incident indeed, but not an absolutely fundamental and primitive part of it. It is
equally an incident, highly important though not primitive and fundamental, of detumescence.
Contrectation, from first to last; furnishes the best conditions for the exercise of the sexual
process, but it is not an absolutely essential part of the process and in the early stages of
zoölogical development it had no existence at all. Tumescence and detumescence are alike
fundamental, primitive, and essential; in resting the sexual impulse on these necessarily
connected processes we are basing ourselves on the solid bedrock of nature.

Moreover, of the two processes, tumescence, which in time comes first, is by far the most
important, and nearly the whole of sexual psychology is rooted in it. To assert, with Moll, that
the sexual process may be analyzed into contrectation and detumescence alone is to omit the
most essential part of the process. It is much the same as to analyze the mechanism of a gun
into probable contact with the hand, and a more or less independent discharge, omitting all
reference to the loading of the gun. The essential elements are the loading and the discharging.
Contrectation is a part of loading, though not a necessary part, since the loading may be
effected mechanically. But to understand the process of firing a gun and to comprehend the
mechanism of the discharge, we must insist on the act of loading and not merely on the contact
of the hand. So it is in analyzing the sexual impulse. Contrectation is indeed highly important,
but it is important only in so far as it aids tumescence, and so may be subordinated to
tumescence, exactly as it may also be subordinated to detumescence. It is tumescence which is
the really essential part of the process, and we cannot afford, with Moll, to ignore it altogether.
Wallace opposed Darwin's theory of sexual selection, but it can scarcely be said that his
attitude toward it bears critical examination. On the one hand, as has already been noted, he
saw but one side of that theory and that the unessential side, and, on the other hand, his own
view really coincided with the more essential elements in Darwin's theory. In his Tropical
Nature he admitted that the male's "persistency and energy win the day," and also that this
"vigor and liveliness" of the male are usually associated with intense coloration, while twenty
years later (in his Darwinism) he admitted also that it is highly probable that the female is
pleased or excited by the male's display. But all that is really essential in Darwin's theory is
involved, directly or indirectly, in these admissions.
Espinas, in 1878, in his suggestive book, Des Sociétés Animales, described the odors, colors
and forms, sounds, games, parades, and mock battles of animals, approaching the subject in a
somewhat more psychological spirit than either Darwin or Wallace, and he somewhat more
clearly apprehended the object of these phenomena in producing mutual excitement and
stimulating tumescence. He noted the significance of the action of the hermaphroditic snails in
inserting their darts into each other's flesh near the vulva in order to cause preliminary
excitation. He remarks of this whole group of phenomena: "It is the preliminary of sexual
union, it constitutes the first act of it. By it the image of the male is graven on the
consciousness of the female, and in a manner impregnates it, so as to determine there, as the
effects of this representation descend to the depths of the organism, the physiological
modifications necessary to fecundation." Beaunis, again, in an analysis of the sexual
sensations, was inclined to think that the dances and parades of the male are solely intended to
excite the female, not perceiving, however, that they at the same time serve to further excite
the male also.[24]
A better and more comprehensive statement was reached by Tillier, who, to some extent, may
be said to have anticipated Groos. Darwin, Tillier pointed out, had not sufficiently taken into
account the coexistence of combat and courtship, nor the order of the phenomena. Courtship
without combat, Tillier argued, is rare; "there is a normal coexistence of combat and
courtship."[25] Moreover, he proceeded, force is the chief factor in determining the possession
of the female by the male, who in some species is even prepared to exert force on her; so that
the female has little opportunity of sexual selection, though she is always present at these
combats. He then emphasized the significant fact that courtship takes place long after pairing

has ceased, and the question of selection thus been eliminated. The object of courtship, he
concluded, is not sexual selection by the female, but the sexual excitement of both male and
female, such excitement, he asserted, not only rendering coupling easier, but favoring
fecundation. Modesty, also, Tillier further argued, again anticipating Groos, works toward the
same end; it renders the male more ardent, and by retarding coupling may also increase the
secretions of the sexual glands and favor the chances of reproduction.[26]
In a charming volume entitled The Naturalist in La Plata (1892) Mr. W. H. Hudson included a
remarkable chapter on "Music and Dancing in Nature." In this chapter he described many of
the dances, songs, and love-antics of birds, but regarded all such phenomena as merely
"periodical fits of gladness." While, however, we may quite well agree with Mr. Hudson that
conscious sexual gratification on the part of the female is not the cause of music and dancing
performances in birds, nor of the brighter colors and ornaments that distinguish the male, such
an opinion by no means excludes the conclusion that these phenomena are primarily sexual
and intimately connected with the process of tumescence in both sexes. It is noteworthy that,
according to H. E. Howard ("On Sexual Selection in Birds," Zoölogist, Nov., 1903), color is
most developed just before pairing, rapidly becoming less beautiful—even within a few hours
—after this, and the most beautiful male is most successful in getting paired. The fact that, as
Mr. Hudson himself points out, it is at the season of love that these manifestations mainly, if
not exclusively, appear, and that it is the more brilliant and highly endowed males which play
the chief part in them, only serves to confirm such a conclusion. To argue, with Mr. Hudson,
that they cannot be sexual because they sometimes occur before the arrival of the females, is
much the same as to argue that the antics of a kitten with a feather or a reel have no
relationship whatever to mice. The birds that began earliest to practise their accomplishments
would probably have most chance of success when the females arrived. Darwin himself said
that nothing is commoner than for animals to take pleasure in practising whatever instinct they
follow at other times for some real good. These manifestations are primarily for the sake of
producing sexual tumescence, and could not well have been developed to the height they have
reached unless they were connected closely with propagation. That they may incidentally
serve to express "gladness" one need not feel called upon to question.
Another observer of birds, Mr. E. Selous, has made observations which are of interest in this
connection. He finds that all bird-dances are not nuptial, but that some birds—the stone-
curlew (or great plover), for example—have different kinds of dances. Among these birds he
has made the observation, very significant from our present point of view, that the nuptial
dances, taken part in by both of the pair, are immediately followed by intercourse. In spring
"all such runnings and chasings are, at this time, but a part of the business of pairing, and one
divines at once that such attitudes are of a sexual character.... Here we have a bird with distinct
nuptial (sexual) and social (non-sexual) forms of display or antics, and the former as well as
the latter are equally indulged in by both sexes." (E. Selous, Bird Watching, pp. 15-20.)
The same author (ibid., pp. 79, 94) argues that in the fights of two males for one female—with
violent emotion on one side and interested curiosity on the other—the attitude of the former
"might gradually come to be a display made entirely for the female, and of the latter a greater
or less degree of pleasurable excitement raised by it, with a choice in accordance." On this
view the interest of the female would first have been directed, not to the plumage, but to the
frenzied actions and antics of the male. From these antics in undecorated birds would

gradually develop the interest in waving plumes and fluttering wings. Such a dance might
come to be of a quite formal and non-courting nature.
Last, we owe to Professor Häcker what may fairly be regarded, in all main outlines, as an
almost final statement of the matter. In his Gesang der Vögel (1900) he gives a very clear
account of the evolution of bird-song, which he regards as the most essential element in all
this group of manifestations, furnishing the key also to the dancing and other antics. Originally
the song consists only of call-cries and recognition-notes. Under the parallel influence of
natural selection and sexual selection they become at the pairing season reflexes of excitement
and thus develop into methods of producing excitement, in the male by the muscular energy
required, and in the female through the ear; finally they become play, though here also it is
probable that use is not excluded. Thus, so far as the male bird is concerned, bird-song
possesses a primary prenuptial significance in attracting the female, a secondary nuptial
significance in producing excitement (p. 48). He holds also that the less-developed voices of
the females aid in attaining the same end (p. 51). Finally, bird-song possesses a tertiary
extranuptial significance (including exercise play, expression of gladness). Häcker points out,
at the same time, that the maintenance of some degree of sexual excitement beyond pairing
time may be of value for the preservation of the species, in case of disturbance during
breeding and consequent necessity for commencing breeding over again.
Such a theory as this fairly coincides with the views brought forward in the preceding pages,
—views which are believed to be in harmony with the general trend of thought today,—since
it emphasizes the importance of tumescence and all that favors tumescence in the sexual
process. The so-called esthetic element in sexual selection is only indirectly of importance.
The male's beauty is really a symbol of his force.
It will be seen that this attitude toward the facts of tumescence among birds and other animals
includes the recognition of dances, songs, etc., as expressions of "gladness." As such they are
closely comparable to the art manifestations among human races. Here, as Weismann in his
Gedanken über Musik has remarked, we may regard the artistic faculty as a by-product: "This
[musical] faculty is, as it were, the mental hand with which we play on our own emotional
nature, a hand not shaped for this purpose, not due to the necessity for the enjoyment of music,
but owing its origin to entirely different requirements."
The psychological significance of these facts has been carefully studied and admirably
developed by Groos in his classic works on the play instinct in animals and in men.[27] Going
beyond Wallace, Groos denies conscious sexual selection, but, as he points out, this by no
means involves the denial of unconscious selection in the sense that "the female is most easily
won by the male who most strongly excites her sexual instincts." Groos further quotes a
pregnant generalization of Ziegler: "In all animals a high degree of excitement of the nervous
system is necessary to procreation, and thus we find an excited prelude to procreation widely
spread."[28] Such a stage, indeed, as Groos points out, is usually necessary before any
markedly passionate discharge of motor energy, as may be observed in angry dogs and the
Homeric heroes. While, however, in other motor explosions the prelude may be reduced to a
minimum, in courtship it is found in a highly marked degree. The primary object of courtship,
Groos insists, is to produce sexual excitement.

It is true that Groos's main propositions were by no means novel. Thus, as I have pointed out,
he was at most points anticipated by Tillier. But Groos developed the argument in so masterly
a manner, and with so many wide-ranging illustrations, that he has carried conviction where
the mere insight of others had passed unperceived. Since Darwin wrote the Descent of Man
the chief step in the development of the theory of sexual selection has been taken by Groos,
who has at the same time made it clear that sexual selection is largely a special case of natural
selection.[29] The conjunction of the sexes is seen to be an end only to be obtained with much
struggle; the difficulty of achieving sexual erethism in both sexes, the difficulty of so
stimulating such erethism in the female that her instinctive coyness is overcome, these
difficulties the best and most vigorous males,[30] those most adapted in other respects to carry
on the race, may most easily overcome. In this connection we may note what Marro has said
in another connection, when attempting to answer the question why it is that among savages
courtship becomes so often a matter in which persuasion takes the form of force. The
explanation, he remarks, is yet very simple. Force is the foundation of virility, and its psychic
manifestation is courage. In the struggle for life violence is the first virtue. The modesty of
women—in its primordial form consisting in physical resistance, active or passive, to the
assaults of the male—aided selection by putting to the test man's most important quality, force.
Thus it is that when choosing among rivals for her favors a woman attributes value to
violence.[31] Marro thus independently confirms the result reached by Groos.
The debate which has for so many years been proceeding concerning the validity of the theory
of sexual selection may now be said to be brought to an end. Those who supported Darwin and
those who opposed him were, both alike, in part right and in part wrong, and it is now possible
to combine the elements of truth on either side into a coherent whole. This is now beginning to
be widely recognized; Lloyd Morgan,[32] for instance, has readjusted his position as regards
the "pairing instinct" in the light of Groos's contribution to the subject. "The hypothesis of
sexual selection," he concludes, "suggests that the accepted male is the one which adequately
evokes the pairing impulse.... Courtship may thus be regarded from the physiological point of
view as a means of producing the requisite amount of pairing hunger; of stimulating the whole
system and facilitating general and special vascular changes; of creating that state of profound
and explosive irritability which has for its psychological concomitant or antecedent an
imperious and irresistible craving.... Courtship is thus the strong and steady bending of the
bow that the arrow may find its mark in a biological end of the highest importance in the
survival of a healthy and vigorous race."
Having thus viewed the matter broadly, we may consider in detail a few examples of the
process of tumescence among the lower animals and man, for, as will be seen, the process in
both is identical. As regards animal courtship, the best treasury of facts is Brehm's Thierleben,
while Büchner's Liebe und Liebes-Leben in der Thierwelt is a useful summary; the admirable
discussion of bird-dancing and other forms of courtship in Häcker's Gesang der Vögel, chapter
iv, may also be consulted. As regards man, Wallaschek's Primitive Music, chapter vii, brings
together much scattered material, and is all the more valuable since the author rejects any form
of sexual selection; Hirn's Origins of Art, chapter xvii, is well worth reading, and Finck's
Primitive Love and Love-stories contains a large amount of miscellaneous information. I have
preferred not to draw on any of these easily accessible sources (except that in one or two cases

I have utilized references they supplied), but here simply furnish illustrations met with in the
course of my own reading.
Even in the hermaphroditic slugs (Limax maximus) the process of courtship is slow and
elaborate. It has been described by James Bladon ("The Loves of the Slug [Limax cinereus],"
Zoölogist, vol. xv, 1857, p. 6272). It begins toward midnight on sultry summer nights, one
slug slowly following another, resting its mouth on what may be called the tail of the first, and
following its every movement. Finally they stop and begin crawling around each other,
emitting large quantities of mucus. When this has constituted a mass of sufficient size and
consistence they suspend themselves from it by a cord of mucus from nine to fifteen inches in
length, continuing to turn round each other till their bodies form a cone. Then the organs of
generation are protruded from their orifice near the mouth and, hanging down a short distance,
touch each other. They also then begin again the same spiral motion, twisting around each
other, like a two-strand cord, assuming various and beautiful forms, sometimes like an
inverted agaric, or a foliated murex, or a leaf of curled parsley, the light falling on the ever-
varying surface of the generative organs sometimes producing iridescence. It is not until after
a considerable time that the organs untwist and are withdrawn and the bodies separate, to
crawl up the suspending cord and depart.
Some snails have a special organ for creating sexual excitement. A remarkable part of the
reproductive system in many of the true Helicidæ is the so-called dart, Liebespfeil, or telum
Veneris. It consists of a straight or curved, sometimes slightly twisted, tubular shaft of
carbonate of lime, tapering to a fine point above, and enlarging gradually, more often
somewhat abruptly, to the base. The sides of the shaft are sometimes furnished with two or
more blades; these are apparently not for cutting purposes, but simply to brace the stem. The
dart is contained in a dart-sac, which is attached as a sort of pocket to the vagina, at no great
distance from its orifice. In Helix aspersa the dart is about five-sixteenths of an inch in length,
and one-eighth of an inch in breadth at its base. It appears most probable that the dart is
employed as an adjunct for the sexual act. Besides the fact of the position of the dart-sac
anatomically, we find that the darts are extended and become imbedded in the flesh, just
before or during the act of copulation. It may be regarded, then, as an organ whose functions
induce excitement preparatory to sexual union. It only occurs in well-grown specimens. (Rev.
L. H. Cooke, "Molluscs," Cambridge Natural History, vol. iii, p. 143.)
Racovitza has shown that in the octopus (Octopus vulgaris) courtship is carried on with
considerable delicacy, and not brutally, as had previously been supposed. The male gently
stretches out his third arm on the right and caresses the female with its extremity, eventually
passing it into the chamber formed by the mantle. The female contracts spasmodically, but
does not attempt to move. They remain thus about an hour or more, and during this time the
male shifts the arm from one oviduct to the other. Finally he withdraws his arm, caresses her
with it for a few moments, and then replaces it with his other arm. (E. G. Racovitza, in
Archives de Zoölogie Expérimentale, quoted in Natural Science, November, 1894.)
The phenomena of courtship are very well illustrated by spiders. Peckham, who has carefully
studied them, tells us of Saitis pulex: "On May 24th we found a mature female, and placed her
in one of the larger boxes, and the next day we put a male in with her. He saw her as she stood
perfectly still, twelve inches away; the glance seemed to excite him, and he at once moved

toward her; when some four inches from her he stood still, and then began the most
remarkable performances that an amorous male could offer to an admiring female. She eyed
him eagerly, changing her position from time to time so that he might be always in view. He,
raising his whole body on one side by straightening out the legs, and lowering it on the other
by folding the first two pairs of legs up and under, leaned so far over as to be in danger of
losing his balance, which he only maintained by sliding rapidly toward the lowered side. The
palpus, too, on this side was turned back to correspond to the direction of the legs nearest it.
He moved in a semicircle for about two inches, and then instantly reversed the position of the
legs and circled in the opposite direction, gradually approaching nearer and nearer to the
female. Now she dashes toward him, while he, raising his first pair of legs, extends them
upward and forward as if to hold her off, but withal slowly retreats. Again and again he circles
from side to side, she gazing toward him in a softer mood, evidently admiring the grace of his
antics. This is repeated until we have counted one hundred and eleven circles made by the
ardent little male. Now he approaches nearer and nearer, and when almost within reach whirls
madly around and around her, she joining and whirling with him in a giddy maze. Again he
falls back and resumes his semicircular motions, with his body tilted over; she, all excitement,
lowers her head and raises her body so that it is almost vertical; both draw nearer; she moves
slowly under him, he crawling over her head, and the mating is accomplished."
The same author thus describes the courtship of Dendryphantes elegans: "While from three to
five inches distant from her, he begins to wave his plumy first legs in a way that reminds one
of a windmill. She eyes him fiercely, and he keeps at a proper distance for a long time. If he
comes close she dashes at him, and he quickly retreats. Sometimes he becomes bolder, and
when within an inch, pauses, with the first legs outstretched before him, not raised as is
common in other species; the palpi also are held stiffly out in front with the points together.
Again she drives him off, and so the play continues. Now the male grows excited as he
approaches her, and while still several inches away, whirls completely around and around;
pausing, he runs closer and begins to make his abdomen quiver as he stands on tiptoe in front
of her. Prancing from side to side, he grows bolder and bolder, while she seems less fierce, and
yielding to the excitement, lifts up her magnificently iridescent abdomen, holding it at one
time vertical, and at another sideways to him. She no longer rushes at him, but retreats a little
as he approaches. At last he comes close to her, lying flat, with his first legs stretched out and
quivering. With the tips of his front legs he gently pats her; this seems to arouse the old demon
of resistance, and she drives him back. Again and again he pats her with a caressing
movement, gradually creeping nearer and nearer, which she now permits without resistance,
until he crawls over her head to her abdomen, far enough to reach the epigynum with his
palpus." (G. W. Peckham, "Sexual Selection of Spiders," Occasional Papers of the Natural
History Society of Wisconsin, 1889, quoted in Nature, August 21, 1890.)
The courtship of another spider, the Agelena labyrinthica, has been studied by Lécaillon ("Les
Instincts et les Psychismes des Araignées," Revue Scientifique, Sept. 15, 1906.) The male
enters the female's web and may be found there about the middle of July. When courtship has
begun it is not interrupted by the closest observation, even under the magnifying glass. At first
it is the male which seeks to couple and he pursues the female over her web till she consents.
The pursuit may last some hours, the male agitating his abdomen in a peculiar way, while the
female simply retreats a short distance without allowing herself to be approached. At last the
female holds herself completely motionless, and then the male approaches, seizes her, places

her on her side, sometimes carrying her to a more suitable part of the web. Then one of his
copulative apparatus is applied to the female genital opening, and copulation begins. When
completed (on an average in about two hours) the male withdraws his copulatory palpus and
turns over the female, who is still inert, on to her other side, then brings his second copulatory
apparatus to the female opening and starts afresh. When the process is definitely completed
the male leaves the female, suddenly retiring to a little distance. The female, who had
remained completely motionless for four hours, suddenly runs after the male. But she only
pursues him for a short distance, and the two spiders remain together without any danger to
either. Lécaillon disbelieves the statement of Romanes (in his Animal Intelligence) that the
female eats the male after copulation. But this certainly seems to occur sometimes among
insects, as illustrated by the following instance described by so careful an observer of insects
as Fabre.
The Mantis religiosa is described by Fabre as contemplating the female for a long time in an
attitude of ecstasy. She remains still and seems indifferent. He is small and she is large. At last
he approaches; spreads his wings, which tremble convulsively; leaps on her back, and fixes
himself there. The preludes are long and the coupling itself sometimes occupies five or six
hours. Then they separate. But the same day or the following day she seizes him and eats him
up in small mouthfuls. She will permit a whole series of males to have intercourse with her,
always eating them up directly afterward. Fabre has even seen her eating the male while still
on her back, his head and neck gone, but his body still firmly attached. (J. H. Fabre, Souvenirs
Entomologiques, fifth series, p. 307.) Fabre also describes in great detail (ibid., ninth series,
chs. xxi-xxii) the sexual parades of the Languedoc scorpion (Scorpio occitanus), an arachnid.
These parades are in public; for their subsequent intercourse the couple seek complete
seclusion, and the female finally eats the male.
An insect (a species of Empis) has been described which excites the female by manipulating a
large balloon. "This is of elliptical shape, about seven millimeters long (nearly twice as long as
the fly), hollow, and composed entirely of a single layer of minute bubbles, nearly uniform in
size, arranged in regular circles concentric with the axis of the structure. The beautiful,
glistening whiteness of the object when the sun shines upon it makes it very conspicuous. The
bubbles were slightly viscid, and in nearly every case there was a small fly pressed into the
front end of the balloon, apparently as food for the Empis. In all cases they were dead. The
balloon appears to be made while the insect is flying in the air. Those flying highest had the
smallest balloons. The bubbles are probably produced by some modification of the anal
organs. It is possible that the captured fly serves as a nucleus to begin the balloon on. One case
of a captured fly but no balloon was observed. After commencing, it is probable that the rest of
the structure is made by revolving the completed part between the hind legs and adding more
bubbles somewhat spirally. The posterior end of the balloon is left more or less open. The
purpose of this structure is to attract the female. When numerous males were flying up and
down the road, it happened several times that a female was seen to approach them from some
choke-cherry blossoms near by. The males immediately gathered in her path, and she with
little hesitation selected for a mate the one with the largest balloon, taking a position upon his
back. After copulation had begun, the pair would settle down toward the ground, select a quiet
spot, and the female would alight by placing her front legs across a horizontal grass blade, her
head resting against the blade so as to brace the body in position. Here she would continue to
hold the male beneath her for a little time, until the process was finished. The male,

meanwhile, would be rolling the balloon about in a variety of positions, juggling with it, one
might almost say. After the male and female parted company, the male immediately dropped
the balloon upon the ground, and it was greedily seized by ants. No illustration could properly
show the beauty of the balloon." (Aldrich and Turley, "A Balloon-making Fly," American
Naturalist, October, 1899.)
"In many species of moths the males 'assemble' around the freshly emerged female, but no
special advantage appears to attend on early arrival. The female sits apparently motionless,
while the little crowd of suitors buzz around her for several minutes. Suddenly, and, as far as
one can see, without any sign from the female, one of the males pairs with her and all the
others immediately disappear. In these cases the males do not fight or struggle in any way, and
as one watches the ceremony the wonder arises as to how the moment is determined, and why
the pairing did not take place before. Proximity does not decide the point, for long beforehand
the males often alight close to the female and brush against her with fluttering wings. I have
watched the process exactly as I have described it in a common Northern Noctua, the antler
moth (Charæax graminis), and I have seen the same thing among beetles." (E. B. Poulton, The
Colors of Animals, 1890, p. 391.) This author mentions that among some butterflies the
females take the active part. The example here quoted of courtship among moths illustrates
how phenomena which are with difficulty explicable by the theory of sexual selection in its
original form become at once intelligible when we realize the importance of tumescence in
courtship.
Of the Argentine cow-bird (Molothrus bonariensis) Hudson says (Argentine Ornithology, vol.
i, p. 73): "The song of the male, particularly when making love, is accompanied with gestures
and actions somewhat like those of the domestic pigeon. He swells himself out, beating the
ground with his wings, and uttering a series of deep internal notes, followed by others loud
and clear; and occasionally, when uttering them, he suddenly takes wing and flies directly
away from the female to a distance of fifty yards, and performs a wide circuit about her in the
air, singing all the time. The homely object of his passion always appears utterly indifferent to
this curious and pretty performance; yet she must be even more impressionable than most
female birds, since she continues scattering about her parasitical and often wasted eggs during
four months in every year."
Of a tyrant-bird (Pitangus Bolivianus) Hudson writes (Argentine Ornithology, vol. i, p. 148):
"Though the male and female are greatly attached, they do not go afield to hunt in company,
but separate to meet again at intervals during the day. One of a couple (say, the female) returns
to the trees where they are accustomed to meet, and after a time, becoming impatient or
anxious at the delay of her consort, utters a very long, clear call-note. He is perhaps a quarter
of a mile away, watching for a frog beside a pool, or beating over a thistle-bed, but he hears
the note and presently responds with one of equal power. Then, perhaps, for half an hour, at
intervals of half a minute, the birds answer each other, though the powerful call of the one
must interfere with his hunting. At length he returns; then the two birds, perched close
together, with their yellow bosoms almost touching, crests elevated, and beating the branch
with their wings, scream their loudest notes in concert—a confused jubilant noise that rings
through the whole plantation. Their joy at meeting is patent, and their action corresponds to
the warm embrace of a loving human couple."

Of the red-breasted marsh-bird (Leistes superciliaris) Hudson (Argentine Ornithology, vol. i,
p. 100) writes: "These birds are migratory, and appear everywhere in the eastern part of the
Argentine country early in October, arriving singly, after which each male takes up a position
in a field or open space abounding with coarse grass and herbage, where he spends most of his
time perched on the summit of a tall stalk or weed, his glowing crimson bosom showing at a
distance like some splendid flower above the herbage. At intervals of two or three minutes he
soars vertically up to a height of twenty or twenty-five yards to utter his song, composed of a
single long, powerful and rather musical note, ending with an attempt at a flourish, during
which the bird flutters and turns about in the air; then, as if discouraged at his failure, he drops
down, emitting harsh, guttural chirps, to resume his stand. Meanwhile the female is invisible,
keeping closely concealed under the long grass. But at length, attracted perhaps by the bright
bosom and aërial music of the male, she occasionally exhibits herself for a few moments,
starting up with a wild zigzag flight, and, darting this way and that, presently drops into the
grass once more. The moment she appears above the grass the male gives chase, and they
vanish from sight together."
"Courtship with the mallard," says J. G. Millais (Natural History of British Ducks, p. 6),
"appears to be carried on by both sexes, though generally three or four drakes are seen
showing themselves off to attract the attention of a single duck. Swimming round her, in a coy
and semi-self-conscious manner, they now and again all stop quite still, nod, bow, and throw
their necks out in token of their admiration and their desire of a favorable response. But the
most interesting display is when all the drakes simultaneously stand up in the water and
rapidly pass their bills down their breasts, uttering at the same time a low single note
somewhat like the first half of the call that teal and pintail make when 'showing off.' At other
times the love-making of the drake seems to be rather passive than active. While graciously
allowing himself to be courted, he holds his head high with conscious pride, and accepts as a
matter of course any attention that may be paid to him. A proud bird is he when three or four
ducks come swimming along beside and around him, uttering a curious guttural note, and at
the same time dipping their bills in quick succession to right and left. He knows what that
means, and carries himself with even greater dignity than before. In the end, however, he must
give in. As a last appeal, one of his lady lovers may coyly lower herself in the water till only
the top of her back, head, and neck is seen, and so fascinating an advance as this no drake of
any sensibility can withstand."
The courting of the Argus pheasant, noted for the extreme beauty of the male's plumage, was
observed by H. O. Forbes in Sumatra. It is the habit of this bird to make "a large circus, some
ten or twelve feet in diameter, in the forest, which it clears of every leaf and twig and branch,
till the ground is perfectly swept and garnished. On the margin of this circus there is invariably
a projecting branch or high-arched root, at a few feet elevation above the ground, on which the
female bird takes its place, while in the ring the male—the male birds alone possess great
decoration—shows off all its magnificence for the gratification and pleasure of his consort and
to exalt himself in her eyes." (H. O. Forbes, A. Naturalist's Wanderings, 1885, p. 131.)
"All ostriches, adults as well as chicks, have a strange habit known as 'waltzing.' After running
for a few hundred yards they will also stop, and, with raised wings, spin around rapidly for
some time after until quite giddy, when a broken leg occasionally occurs.... Vicious cocks 'roll'
when challenging to fight or when wooing the hen. The cock will suddenly bump down on to

his knees (the ankle-joint), open his wings, and then swing them alternately backward and
forward, as if on a pivot.... While rolling, every feather over the whole body is on end, and the
plumes are open, like a large white fan. At such a time the bird sees very imperfectly, if at all;
in fact, he seems so preoccupied that, if pursued, one may often approach unnoticed. Just
before rolling, a cock, especially if courting the hen, will often run slowly and daintily on the
points of his toes, with neck slightly inflated, upright, and rigid, the tail half-drooped, and all
his body-feathers fluffed up; the wings raised and expanded, the inside edges touching the
sides of the neck for nearly the whole of its length, and the plumes showing separately, like an
open fan. In no other attitude is the splendid beauty of his plumage displayed to such
advantage." (S. C. Cronwright Schreiner, "The Ostrich," Zoölogist, March, 1897.)
As may be seen from the foregoing fairly typical examples, the phenomena of courtship are
highly developed, and have been most carefully studied, in animals outside the mammal
series. It may seem a long leap from birds to man; yet, as will be seen, the phenomena among
primitive human peoples, if not, indeed, among many civilized peoples also, closely resemble
those found among birds, though, unfortunately, they have not usually been so carefully
studied.
In Australia, where dancing is carried to a high pitch of elaboration, its association with the
sexual impulse is close and unmistakable. Thus, Mr. Samuel Gason (of whom it has been said
that "no man living has been more among blacks or knows more of their ways") remarks
concerning a dance of the Dieyerie tribe: "This dance men and women only take part in, in
regular form and position, keeping splendid time to the rattle of the beat of two boomerangs;
some of the women keep time by clapping their hands between their thighs; promiscuous
sexual intercourse follows after the dance; jealousy is forbidden." Again, at the Mobierrie, or
rat-harvest, "many weeks' preparation before the dance comes off; no quarreling is allowed;
promiscuous sexual intercourse during the ceremony." The fact that jealousy is forbidden at
these festivals clearly indicates that sexual intercourse is a recognized and probably essential
element in the ceremonies. This is further emphasized by the fact that at other festivals open
sexual intercourse is not allowed. Thus, at the Mindarie, or dance at a peace festival (when a
number of tribes comes together), "there is great rejoicing at the coming festival, which is
generally held at the full of the moon, and kept up all night. The men are artistically decorated
with down and feathers, with all kinds of designs. The down and feathers are stuck on their
bodies with blood freshly taken from their penis; they are also nicely painted with various
colors; tufts of boughs are tied on their ankles to make a noise while dancing. Promiscuous
sexual intercourse is carried on secretly; many quarrels occur at this time." (Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, vol. xxiv, November, 1894, p. 174.)
In Australian dances, sometimes men and women dance together, sometimes the men dance
alone, sometimes the women. In one dance described by Eyre: "Women are the chief
performers; their bodies are painted with white streaks, and their hair adorned with cockatoo
feathers. They carry large sticks in their hands, and place themselves in a row in front, while
the men with their spears stand in a row behind them. They then all commence their
movements, but without intermingling, the males and females dancing by themselves. The
women have occasionally another mode of dancing, by joining the hands together over the
head, closing the feet, and bringing the knees into contact. The legs are then thrown outward
from the knee, while the feet and hands are kept in their original position, and, being drawn

quickly in again, a sharp sound is produced by the collision. This is also practised alone by
young girls or by several together for their own amusement. It is adopted also when a single
woman is placed in front of a row of male dancers to excite their passions." (E. J. Eyre,
Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, vol. ii, p. 235.)
A charming Australian folk-tale concerning two sisters with wings, who disliked men, and
their wooing by a man, clearly indicates, even among the Australians (whose love-making is
commonly supposed to be somewhat brutal in character), the consciousness that it is by his
beauty, charm, and skill in courtship that a man wins a woman. Unahanach, the lover, stole
unperceived to the river where the girls were bathing and at last showed himself carelessly
sitting on a high tree. The girls were startled, but thought it would be safe to amuse themselves
by looking at the intruder. "Young and with the most active figure, yet of a strength that defied
the strongest emu, and even enabled him to resist an 'old man' kangaroo, he had no equal in
the chase, and conscious power gave a dignity to his expression that at one glance calmed the
fears of the two girls. His large brilliant eyes, shaded by a deep fringe of soft black eyelashes,
gazed down upon them admiringly, and his rich black hair hung around his well-formed face,
smooth and shining from the emu-oil with which it was abundantly covered." At last he
persuaded them to talk and by and by induced them to call him husband. Then they went off
with him, with no thought of flight in their hearts. ("Australian Folklore Stories," collected by
W. Dunlop, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 1898, p. 33.)
Of the people of Torres Straits Haddon states (Reports Anthropological Expedition to Torres
Straits, vol. v, p. 222): "It was during the secular dance, or Kap, that the girls usually lost their
hearts to the young men. A young man who was a good dancer would find favor in the sight of
the girls. This can be readily understood by anyone who has seen the active, skilful, and
fatiguing dances of these people. A young man who could acquit himself well in these dances
must be possessed of no mean strength and agility, qualities which everywhere appeal to the
opposite sex. Further, he was decorated, according to local custom, with all that would render
him more imposing in the eyes of the spectators. As the former chief of Mabuiag put it, 'In
England if a man has plenty of money, women want to marry him; so here, if a man dances
well they too want him.' In olden days the war-dance, which was performed after a successful
foray, would be the most powerful excitement to a marriageable girl, especially if a young
man had distinguished himself sufficiently to bring home the head of someone he had killed."
Among the tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela River, New Guinea, "when a boy
admires a girl, he will not look at her, speak to her, or go near her. He, however, shows his
love by athletic bounds, posing, and pursuit, and by the spearing of imaginary enemies, etc.,
before her, to attract her attention. If the girl reciprocates his love she will employ a small girl
to give to him an ugauga gauna, or love invitation, consisting of an areca-nut whose skin has
been marked with different designs, significant of her wish to ugauga. After dark he is
apprised of the place where the girl awaits him; repairing thither, he seats himself beside her as
close as possible, and they mutually share in the consumption of the betel-nut." This
constitutes betrothal; henceforth he is free to visit the girl's house and sleep there. Marriages
usually take place at the most important festival of the year, the kapa, preparations for which
are made during the three previous months, so that there may be a bountiful and unfailing
supply of bananas. Much dancing takes place among the unmarried girls, who, also, are
tattooed at this time over the whole of the front of the body, special attention being paid to the

lower parts, as a girl who is not properly tattooed there possesses no attraction in the eyes of
young men. Married women and widows and divorced women are not forbidden to take part
in these dances, but it would be considered ridiculous for them to do so. (R. E. Guise, "On the
Tribes of the Wanigela River," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i,
1899, pp. 209, 214 et seq.)
In the island of Nias in the Malay Archipelago, Modigliani (mainly on the excellent authority
of Sundermann, the missionary) states, at a wedding "dancing and singing go on throughout
the day. The women, two or three at a time, a little apart from the men, take part in the
dancing, which is very well adapted to emphasize the curves of the flanks and the breasts,
though at the same time the defects of their legs are exhibited in this series of rhythmic
contortions which constitute a Nias dance. The most graceful movement they execute is a
lascivious undulation of the flanks while the face and breast are slowly wound round by the
sarong [a sort of skirt] held in the hands, and then again revealed. These movements are
executed with jerks of the wrist and contortions of the flanks, not always graceful, but which
excite the admiration of the spectators, even of the women, who form in groups to sing in
chorus a compliment, more or less sincere, in which they say: 'They dance with the grace of
birds when they fly. They dance as the hawk flies; it is lovely to see.' They sing and dance
both at weddings and at other festivals." (Elio Modigliani, Un Viaggio a Nias, 1890, p. 549.)
In Sumatra Marsden states that chastity prevails more, perhaps, than among any other people:
"But little apparent courtship precedes their marriages. Their manners do not admit of it, the
boojong and geddas (youths of each sex) being carefully kept asunder and the latter seldom
trusted from under the wings of their mothers.... The opportunities which the young people
have of seeing and conversing with each other are at the birnbangs, or public festivals. On
these occasions the young people meet together and dance and sing in company. The men,
when determined in their regard, generally employ an old woman as their agent, by whom
they make known their sentiments, and send presents to the female of their choice. The parents
then interfere, and the preliminaries being settled, a birnbang takes place. The young women
proceed in a body to the upper end of the balli (hall), where there is a part divided off for them
by a curtain. They do not always make their appearance before dinner, that time, previous to a
second or third meal, being appropriated to cock-fighting or other diversions peculiar to men.
In the evening their other amusements take place, of which the dances are the principal. These
are performed either singly or by two women, two men, or with both mixed. Their motions
and attitudes are usually slow, approaching often to the lascivious. They bend forward as they
dance, and usually carry a fan, which they close and strike smartly against their elbows at
particular cadences.... The assembly seldom breaks up before daylight and these birnbangs are
often continued for several days together. The young men frequent them in order to look out
for wives, and the lasses of course set themselves off to the best advantage. They wear their
best silken dresses, of their own weaving, as many ornaments of filigree as they possess, silver
rings upon their arms and legs, and ear-rings of a particular construction. Their hair is
variously adorned with flowers, and perfumed with oil of benjamin. Civet is also in repute, but
more used by the men. To render their skin fine, smooth, and soft they make use of a white
cosmetic called poopoor [a mixture of ginger, patch-leaf, maize, sandal-wood, fairy-cotton,
and mush-seed with a basis of fine rice]." (W. Marsden, History of Sumatra, 1783, p. 230.)

The Alfurus of Seram in the Moluccas, who have not yet been spoilt by foreign influences, are
very fond of music and dancing. Their maku dances, which take place at night, have been
described by Joest: "Great torches of dry bamboos and piles of burning resinous leaves light
up the giant trees to their very summits and reveal in the distance the little huts which the
Alfuras have built in the virgin forests, as well as the skulls of the slain. The women squat
together by the fire, making a deafening noise with the gongs and the drums, while the young
girls, richly adorned with pearls and fragrant flowers, await the beginning of the dance. Then
appear the men and youths without weapons, but in full war-costume, the girdle freshly
marked with the number of slain enemies. [Among the Alfuras it is the man who has the
largest number of heads to show who has most chance of winning the object of his love.] They
hold each other's arms and form a circle, which is not, however, completely closed. A song is
started, and with small, slow steps this ring of bodies, like a winding snake, moves sideways,
backward, closes, opens again, the steps become heavier, the songs and drums louder, the girls
enter the circle and with closed eyes grasp the girdle of their chosen youths, who clasp them
by the hips and necks, the chain becomes longer and longer, the dance and song more ardent,
until the dancers grow tired and disappear in the gloom of the forest." (W. Joest, Welt-Fahrten,
1895, Bd. ii, p. 159.)
The women of the New Hebrides dance, or rather sway, to and fro in the midst of a circle
formed by the men, with whom they do not directly mingle. They leap, show their genital
parts to the men, and imitate the movements of coitus. Meanwhile the men unfasten the manou
(penis-wrap) from their girdles with one hand, with the other imitating the action of seizing a
woman, and, excited by the women, also go through a mock copulation. Sometimes, it is said,
the dancers masturbate. This takes place amid plaintive songs, interrupted from time to time
by loud cries and howls. (Untrodden Fields of Anthropology, by a French army-surgeon, 1898,
vol. ii, p. 341.)
Among the hill tribes of the Central Indian Hills may be traced a desire to secure communion
with the spirit of fertility embodied in vegetation. This appears, for instance, in a tree-dance,
which is carried out on a date associated not only with the growths of the crops or with
harvest, but also with the seasonal period for marriage and the annual Saturnalia. (W. Crooke,
"The Hill Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 1899, p. 243.)
The association of dancing with seasonal ritual festivals of a generative character—of which
the above is a fairly typical instance—leads us to another aspect of these phenomena on which
I have elsewhere touched in these Studies (vol. i) when discussing the "Phenomena of
Periodicity."
The Tahitians, when first discovered by Europeans, appear to have been highly civilized on the
sexual side and very licentious. Yet even at Tahiti, when visited by Cook, the strict primitive
relationship between dancing and courtship still remained traceable. Cook found "a dance
called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be
collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the
practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words
which, if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. But the practice
which is allowed to the virgin is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put
these hopeful lessons in practice and realized the symbols of the dance." He added, however,
that among the specially privileged class of the Areoi these limitations were not observed, for

he had heard that this dance was sometimes performed by them as a preliminary to sexual
intercourse. (Hawkesworth, An Account of the Voyages, etc., 1775, vol. ii, p. 54.)
Among the Marquesans at the marriage of a woman, even of high rank, she lies with her head
at the bridegroom's knees and all the male guests come in single file, singing and dancing—
those of lower class first and the great chiefs last—and have connection with the woman.
There are often a very large number of guests and the bride is sometimes so exhausted at the
end that she has to spend several days in bed. (Tautain, "Etude sur le Mariage chez les
Polynésiens," L'Anthropologie, November-December, 1895, p. 642.) The interesting point for
us here is that singing and dancing are still regarded as a preliminary to a sexual act. It has
been noted that in sexual matters the Polynesians, when first discovered by Europeans, had
largely gone beyond the primitive stage, and that this applies also to some of their dances.
Thus the hula-hula dance, while primitive in origin, may probably be compared more to a
civilized than to a primitive dance, since it has become divorced from real life. In the same
way, while the sexual pantomime dance of the Azimba girls of central Africa has a direct and
recognized relationship to the demands of real life, the somewhat allied danses du ventre of
the Hamitic peoples of northern Africa are merely an amusement, a play more or less based on
the sexual instinct. At the same time it is important to bear in mind that there is no rigid
distinction between dances that are, and those that are not, primitive. As Haddon truly points
out in a book containing valuable detailed descriptions of dances, even among savages dances
are so developed that it is difficult to trace their origin, and at Torres Straits, he remarks, "there
are certainly play or secular dances, dances for pure amusement without any ulterior design."
(A. C. Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 233.) When we remember that dancing had probably become
highly developed long before man appeared on the earth, this difficulty in determining the
precise origin of human dancing cannot cause surprise.
Spix and Martius described how the Muras of Brazil by moonlight would engage all night in a
Bacchantic dance in a great circle, hand in hand, the men on one side, the women on the other,
shouting out all the time, the men "Who will marry me?" the women, "You are a beautiful
devil; all women will marry you," (Spix and Martius, Reise in Brasilien, 1831, vol. iii, p.
1117.) They also described in detail the dance of the Brazilian Puris, performed in a state of
complete nakedness, the men in a row, the women in another row behind them. They danced
backward and forward, stamping and singing, at first in a slow and melancholy style, but
gradually with increasing vigor and excitement. Then the women began to rotate the pelvis
backward and forward, and the men to thrust their bodies forward, the dance becoming a
pantomimic representation of sexual intercourse (ibid., vol. i, 1823, pp. 373-5).
Among the Apinages of Brazil, also, the women stand in a row, almost motionless, while the
men dance and leap in front of them, both men and women at the same time singing.
(Buscalioni, "Reise zu den Apinages," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1899, ht. 6, p. 650.)
Among the Gilas of New Mexico, "when a young man sees a girl whom he desires for a wife,
he first endeavors to gain the good-will of the parents; this accomplished, he proceeds to
serenade his lady-love, and will often sit for hours, day after day, near her home, playing on
his flute. Should the girl not appear, it is a sign she rejects him; but if, on the other hand, she
comes out to meet him, he knows that his suit is accepted, and he takes her to his home. No

marriage ceremony is performed."[33] (H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific, vol. i, p.
549.)
"Among the Minnetarees a singular night-dance is, it is said, sometimes held. During this
amusement an opportunity is given to the squaws to select their favorites. A squaw, as she
dances, will advance to a person with whom she is captivated, either for his personal
attractions or for his renown in arms; she taps him on the shoulder and immediately runs out
of the lodge and betakes herself to the bushes, followed by the favorite. But if it should happen
that he has a particular preference for another from whom he expects the same favor, or if he is
restrained by a vow, or is already satiated with indulgence, he politely declines her offer by
placing his hand in her bosom, on which they return to the assembly and rejoin the dance." It
is worthy of remark that in the language of the Omahas the word watche applies equally to the
amusement of dancing and to sexual intercourse. (S. H. Long, Expedition to the Rocky
Mountains, 1823, vol. i, p. 337.)
At a Kaffir marriage "singing and dancing last until midnight. Each party [the bride's and the
bridegroom's] dances in front of the other, but they do not mingle together. As the evening
advances, the spirits and passions of all become greatly excited; and the power of song, the
display of muscular action, and the gesticulations of the dancers and leapers are something
extraordinary. The manner in which, at certain times, one man or woman, more excited than
the rest, bounds from the ranks, leaps into the air, bounces forward, and darts backward
beggars all description. These violent exercises usually close about midnight, when each party
retires; generally, each man selects a paramour, and, indulging in sexual gratification, spends
the remainder of the night." (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1866, p. 192.)
At the initiation of Kaffir boys into manhood, as described by Holden, they were circumcised.
"Cattle are then slaughtered by the parents, and the boys are plentifully supplied with flesh
meat; a good deal of dancing also ensues at this stage of the proceedings. The ukut-shila
consists in attiring themselves with the leaves of the wild date in the most fantastic manner;
thus attired they visit each of the kraals to which they belong in rotation, for the purpose of
dancing. These dances are the most licentious which can be imagined. The women act a
prominent part in them, and endeavor to excite the passions of the novices by performing all
sorts of obscene gesticulations. As soon as the soreness occasioned by the act of circumcision
is healed the boys are, as it were, let loose upon society, and exempted from nearly all the
restraints of law; so that should they even steal and slaughter their neighbor's cattle they would
not be punished; and they have the special privilege of seizing by force, if force be necessary,
every unmarried woman they choose, for the purpose of gratifying their passions." Similar
festivals take place at the initiation of girls. (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1866, p. 185.)
The Rev. J. Macdonald has described the ceremonies and customs attending and following the
initiation-rites of a young girl on her first menstruation among the Zulus between the Tugela
and Delagoa Bay. At this time the girl is called an intonjane. A beast is killed as a thank-
offering to the ancestral spirits, high revel is held for several days, and dancing and music take
place every night till those engaged in it are all exhausted or daylight arrives. "After a few
days and when dancing has been discontinued, young men and girls congregate in the outer
apartment of the hut, and begin singing, clapping their hands, and making a grunting noise to
show their joy. At nightfall most of the young girls who were the intonjane's attendants, leave

for their own homes for the night, to return the following morning. Thereafter the young men
and girls who gathered into the hut in the afternoon separate into pairs and sleep together in
puris naturalibus, for that is strictly ordained by custom. Sexual intercourse is not allowed, but
what is known as metsha or ukumetsha is the sole purpose of the novel arrangement.
Ukumetsha may be defined as partial intercourse. Every man who sleeps thus with a girl has to
send to the father of the intonjane an assegai; should he have formed an attachment for his
partner of the night and wish to pay her his addresses, he sends two assegais." (Rev. J.
Macdonald, "Manners, etc., of South African Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
vol. xx, November, 1890, p. 117.)
Goncourt reports the account given him by a French officer from Senegal of the dances of the
women, "a dance which is a gentle oscillation of the body, with gradually increasing
excitement, from time to time a woman darting forward from the group to stand in front of her
lover, contorting herself as though in a passionate embrace, and, on passing her hand between
her thighs, showing it covered with the moisture of amorous enjoyment." (Journal, vol. ix, p.
79.) The dance here referred to is probably the Bamboula dance of the Wolofs, a spring
festival which has been described by Pierre Loti in his Roman d'un Spahi, and concerning
which various details are furnished by a French army-surgeon, acquainted with Senegal, in his
Untrodden Fields of Anthropology. The dance, as described by the latter, takes place at night
during full moon, the dancers, male and female, beginning timidly, but, as the beat of the tam-
tams and the encouraging cries of the spectators become louder, the dance becomes more
furious. The native name of the dance is anamalis fobil, "the dance of the treading drake."
"The dancer in his movements imitates the copulation of the great Indian duck. This drake has
a member of a corkscrew shape, and a peculiar movement is required to introduce it into the
duck. The woman tucks up her clothes and convulsively agitates the lower part of her body;
she alternately shows her partner her vulva and hides it from him by a regular movement,
backward and forward, of the body." (Untrodden Fields of Anthropology, Paris, 1898, vol. ii,
p. 112.)
Among the Gurus of the Ivory Coast (Gulf of Guinea), Eysséric observes, dancing is usually
carried on at night and more especially by the men, and on certain occasions women must not
appear, for if they assisted at fetichistic dances "they would die." Under other circumstances
men and women dance together with ardor, not forming couples but often vis-à-vis: their
movements are lascivious. Even the dances following a funeral tend to become sexual in
character. At the end of the rites attending the funeral of a chief's son the entire population
began to dance with ever-growing ardor; there was nothing ritualistic or sad in these
contortions, which took on the character of a lascivious dance. Men and women, boys and
girls, young and old, sought to rival each other in suppleness, and the festival became joyous
and general, as if in celebration of a marriage or a victory. (Eysséric, "La Côte d'Ivoire,"
Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, tome ix, 1890, pp. 241-49.)
Mrs. French-Sheldon has described the marriage-rites she observed at Taveta in East Africa.
"During this time the young people dance and carouse and make themselves generally merry
and promiscuously drunk, carrying the excess of their dissipation to such an extent that they
dance until they fall down in a species of epileptic fit." It is the privilege of the bridegroom's
four groomsmen to enjoy the bride first, and she is then handed over to her legitimate
husband. This people, both men and women, are "great dancers and merry-makers; the young

fellows will collect in groups and dance as though in competition one with the other; one lad
will dash out from the circle of his companions, rush into the middle of a circumscribed space,
and scream out 'Wow, wow!' Another follows him and screams; then a third does the same.
These men will dance with their knees almost rigid, jumping into the air until their excitement
becomes very great and their energy almost spasmodic, leaving the ground frequently three
feet as they spring into the air. At some of their festivals their dancing is carried to such an
extent that I have seen a young fellow's muscles quiver from head to foot and his jaws tremble
without any apparent ability on his part to control them, until, foaming at the mouth and with
his eyes rolling, he falls in a paroxysm upon the ground, to be carried off by his companions."
The writer adds significantly that this dancing "would seem to emanate from a species of
voluptuousness." (Mrs. French-Sheldon, "Customs among the Natives of East Africa," Journal
of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxi, May, 1892, pp. 366-67.) It may be added that among
the Suaheli dances are intimately associated with weddings; the Suaheli dances have been
minutely described by Velten (Sitten und Gebraüche der Suaheli, pp. 144-175). Among the
Akamba of British East Africa, also, according to H. R. Tate (Journal of the Anthropological
Institute, Jan.-June, 1904, p. 137), the dances are followed by connection between the young
men and girls, approved of by the parents.
The dances of the Faroe Islanders have been described by Raymond Pilet ("Rapport sur une
Mission en Islande et aux lies Féroë," Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques, tome vii,
1897, p. 285). These dances, which are entirely decorous, include poetry, music, and much
mimicry, especially of battle. They sometimes last for two consecutive days and nights. "The
dance is simply a permitted and discreet method by which the young men may court the young
girls. The islander enters the circle and places himself beside the girl to whom he desires to
show his affection; if he meets with her approval she stays and continues to dance at his side;
if not, she leaves the circle and appears later at another spot."
Pitre (Usi, etc., del Popolo Siciliano, vol. ii, p. 24, as quoted in Marro's Pubertà) states that in
Sicily the youth who wishes to marry seeks to give some public proof of his valor and to show
himself off. In Chiaramonte, in evidence of his virile force, he bears in procession the standard
of some confraternity, a high and richly adorned standard which makes its staff bend to a
semicircle, of such enormous weight that the bearer must walk in a painfully bent position, his
head thrown back and his feet forward. On reaching the house of his betrothed he makes proof
of his boldness and skill in wielding this extremely heavy standard which at this moment
seems a plaything in his hands, but may yet prove fatal to him through injury to the loins or
other parts.
This same tendency, which we find in so highly developed a degree among animals and
primitive human peoples, is also universal among the children of even the most civilized
human races, although in a less organized and more confused way. It manifests itself as
"showing-off." Sanford Bell, in his study of the emotion of love in children, finds that
"showing-off" is an essential element in the love of children in what he terms the second stage
(from the eighth to the twelfth year in girls and the fourteenth in boys). "It constitutes one of
the chief numbers in the boy's repertory of love charms, and is not totally absent from the
girl's. It is a most common sight to see the boys taxing their resources in devising means of
exposing their own excellencies, and often doing the most ridiculous and extravagant things.
Running, jumping, dancing, prancing, sparring, wrestling, turning handsprings, somersaults,

climbing, walking fences, swinging, giving yodels and yells, whistling, imitating the
movements of animals, 'taking people off,' courting danger, affecting courage are some of its
common forms.... This 'showing-off' in the boy lover is the forerunner of the skilful,
purposive, and elaborate means of self-exhibition in the adult male and the charming coquetry
in the adult female, in their love-relations." (Sanford Bell, "The Emotion of Love Between the
Sexes," American Journal Psychology, July, 1902; cf. "Showing-off and Bashfulness,"
Pedagogical Seminary, June, 1903.)
If, in the light of the previous discussion, we examine such facts as those here collected, we
may easily trace throughout the perpetual operations of the same instinct. It is everywhere the
instinctive object of the male, who is very rarely passive in the process of courtship, to assure
by his activity in display, his energy or skill or beauty, both his own passion and the passion of
the female. Throughout nature sexual conjugation only takes place after much expenditure of
energy.[34] We are deceived by what we see among highly fed domesticated animals, and
among the lazy classes of human society, whose sexual instincts are at once both unnaturally
stimulated and unnaturally repressed, when we imagine that the instinct of detumescence is
normally ever craving to be satisfied, and that throughout nature it can always be set off at a
touch whenever the stimulus is applied. So far from the instinct of tumescence naturally
needing to be crushed, it needs, on the contrary, in either sex to be submitted to the most
elaborate and prolonged processes in order to bring about those conditions which
detumescence relieves. A state of tumescence is not normally constant, and tumescence must
be obtained before detumescence is possible.[35] The whole object of courtship, of the mutual
approximation and caresses of two persons of the opposite sex, is to create the state of sexual
tumescence.
It will be seen that the most usual method of attaining tumescence—a method found among
the most various kinds of animals, from insects and birds to man—is some form of the dance.
Among the Negritos of the Philippines dancing is described by A. B. Meyer as "jumping in a
circle around a girl and stamping with the feet"; as we have seen, such a dance is, essentially, a
form of courtship that is widespread among animals. "The true cake-walk," again, Stanley Hall
remarks, "as seen in the South is perhaps the purest expression of this impulse to courtship
antics seen in man."[36] Muscular movement of which the dance is the highest and most
complex expression, is undoubtedly a method of auto-intoxication of the very greatest
potency. All energetic movement, indeed, tends to produce active congestion. In its influence
on the brain violent exercise may thus result in a state of intoxication even resembling
insanity. As Lagrange remarks, the visible effects of exercise—heightened color, bright eyes,
resolute air and walk—are those of slight intoxication, and a girl who has waltzed for a quarter
of an hour is in the same condition as if she had drunk champagne.[37] Groos regards the dance
as, above all, an intoxicating play of movement, possessing, like other methods of
intoxication,—and even apart from its relationship to combat and love,—the charm of being
able to draw us out of our everyday life and lead us into a self-created dream-world.[38] That
the dance is not only a narcotic, but also a powerful stimulant, we may clearly realize from the
experiments which show that this effect is produced even by much less complex kinds of
muscular movement. This has been clearly determined, for instance, by Féré, in the course of a
long and elaborate series of experiments dealing with the various influences that modify work
as measured by Mosso's ergograph. This investigator found that muscular movement is the

most efficacious of all stimulants in increasing muscular power.[39] It is easy to trace these
pleasurable effects of combined narcotic and stimulant motion in everyday life and it is
unnecessary to enumerate its manifestations.[40]

Dancing is so powerful an agent on the organism, as Sergi truly remarks
(Les Emotions, p. 288), because its excitation is general, because it touches
every vital organ, the higher centers no longer dominating. Primitive
dancing differs very widely from that civilized kind of dancing—finding its
extreme type in the ballet—in which energy is concentrated into the
muscles below the knee. In the finest kinds of primitive dancing all the
limbs, the whole body, take part. For instance, "the Marquisan girls,"
Herman Melville remarked in Typee, "dance all over, as it were; not only do
their feet dance, but their arms, hands, fingers,—ay, their very eyes seem to
dance in their heads. In good sooth, they so sway their floating forms, arch
their necks, toss aloft their naked arms, and glide, and swim, and whirl,"
etc.
If we turn to a very different people, we find this characteristic of primitive
dancing admirably illustrated by the missionary, Holden, in the case of
Kaffir dances. "So far as I have observed," he states, "the perfection of the
art or science consists in their being able to put every part of the body into
motion at the same time. And as they are naked, the bystander has a good
opportunity of observing the whole process, which presents a remarkably
odd and grotesque appearance,—the head, the trunk, the arms, the legs, the
hands, the feet, bones, muscles, sinews, skin, scalp, and hair, each and all in
motion at the same time, with feathers waving, tails of monkeys and wild
beasts dangling, and shields beating, accompanied with whistling, shouting,
and leaping. It would appear as though the whole frame was hung on
springing wires or cords. Dances are held in high repute, being the natural
expression of joyous emotion, or creating it when absent. There is, perhaps,
no exercise in greater accordance with the sentiments or feelings of a
barbarous people, or more fully calculated to gratify their wild and
ungoverned passions." (W. C. Holden, The Kaffir Race, 1866, p. 274.)
Dancing, as the highest and most complex form of muscular movement, is
the most potent method of obtaining the organic excitement muscular
movement yields, and thus we understand how from the earliest zoölogical
ages it has been brought to the service of the sexual instinct as a mode of
attaining tumescence. Among savages this use of dancing works
harmoniously with the various other uses which dancing possesses in
primitive times and which cause it to occupy so large and vital a part in

savage life that it may possibly even affect the organism to such an extent
as to mold the bones; so that some authorities have associated platycnemia
with dancing. As civilization advances, the other uses of dancing fall away,
but it still remains a sexual stimulant. Burton, in his Anatomy of
Melancholy, brings forward a number of quotations from old authors
showing that dancing is an incitement to love.[41]
The Catholic theologians (Debreyne, Mœchialogie, pp. 190-199) for the
most part condemn dancing with much severity. In Protestant Germany,
also, it is held that dance meetings and musical gatherings are frequent
occasions of unchastity. Thus in the Leipzig district when a girl is asked
"How did you fall?" she nearly always replies "At the dance." (Die
Geschlechtlich-Sittliche Verhältnisse im Deutschen Reiche, vol. i, p. 196.) It
leads quite as often, and no doubt oftener, to marriage. Rousseau defended
it on this account (Nouvelle Heloïse, bk. iv, letter x); dancing is, he held, an
admirable preliminary to courtship, and the best way for young people to
reveal themselves to each other, in their grace and decorum, their qualities
and defects, while its publicity is its safeguard. An International Congress
of Dancing Masters was held at Barcelona in 1907. In connection with this
Congress, Giraudet, president of the International Academy of Dancing
Masters, issued an inquiry to over 3000 teachers of dancing throughout the
world in order to ascertain the frequency with which dancing led to
marriage. Of over one million pupils of dancing, either married or engaged
to be married, it was found that in most countries more than 50 per cent.
met their conjugal partners at dances. The smallest proportion was in
Norway, with only 39 per cent., and the highest, Germany, with 97 per cent.
Intermediate are France, 83 per cent.; America, 80 per cent.; Italy, 70 per
cent.; Spain, 68 per cent.; Holland, Bulgaria, and England, 65 per cent.;
Australia and Roumania, 60 per cent., etc. Of the teachers themselves 92
per cent. met their partners at dances. (Quoted from the Figaro in Beiblatt
"Sexualreform" to Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, 1907, p. 175.)
In civilization, however, dancing is not only an incitement to love and a
preliminary to courtship, but it is often a substitute for the normal
gratification of the sexual instinct, procuring something of the pleasure and
relief of gratified love. In occasional abnormal cases this may be
consciously realized. Thus Sadger, who regards the joy of dancing as a
manifestation of "muscular eroticism," gives the case of a married

hysterical woman of 21, with genital anesthesia, but otherwise strongly
developed skin eroticism, who was a passionate dancer: "I often felt as
though I was giving myself to my partner in dancing," she said, "and was
actually having coitus with him. I have the feeling that in me dancing takes
the place of coitus."[42] Normally something of the same feeling is
experienced by many young women, who will expend a prodigious amount
of energy in dancing, thus procuring, not fatigue, but happiness and relief.
[43]
It is significant that, after sexual relations have begun, girls generally
lose much of their ardor in dancing. Even our modern dances, it is worthy
of note, are often of sexual origin; thus, the most typical of all, the waltz,
was originally (as Schaller, quoted by Groos, states) the close of a
complicated dance which "represented the romance of love, the seeking and
the fleeing, the playful sulking and shunning, and finally the jubilation of
the wedding."[44]
Not only is movement itself a source of tumescence, but even the spectacle
of movement tends to produce the same effect. The pleasure of witnessing
movement, as represented by its stimulating effect on the muscular system,
—for states of well-being are accompanied by an increase of power,—has
been found susceptible of exact measurement by Féré. He has shown that to
watch a colored disk when in motion produced stronger muscular
contractions, as measured by the dynamometer, than to watch the same disk
when motionless. Even in the absence of color a similar influence of
movement was noted, and watching a modified metronome produced a
greater increase of work with the ergograph than when working to the
rhythm of the metronome without watching it.[45] This psychological fact
has been independently discovered by advertisers, who seek to impress the
value of their wares on the public by the device of announcing them by
moving colored lights. The pleasure given by the ballet largely depends on
the same fact. Not only is dancing an excitation, but the spectacle of
dancing is itself exciting, and even among savages dances have a public
which becomes almost as passionately excited as the dancers themselves.
[46]
It is in virtue of this effect of dancing and similar movements that we so
frequently find, both among the lower animals and savage man, that to
obtain tumescence in both sexes, it is sufficient for one sex alone, usually
the male, to take the active part. This point attracted the attention of
Kulischer many years ago, and he showed how the dances of the men,

among savages, excite the women, who watch them intently though
unobtrusively, and are thus influenced in choosing their lovers. He was
probably the first to insist that in man sexual selection has taken place
mainly through the agency of dances, games, and festivals.[47]
It is now clear, therefore, why the evacuation theory of the sexual impulse
must necessarily be partial and inadequate. It leaves out of account the
whole of the phenomena connected with tumescence, and those phenomena
constitute the most prolonged, the most important, the most significant
stage of the sexual process. It is during tumescence that the whole
psychology of the sexual impulse is built up; it is as an incident arising
during tumescence and influencing its course that we must probably regard
nearly every sexual aberration. It is with the second stage of the sexual
process, when the instinct of detumescence arises, that the analogy of
evacuation can alone be called in. Even here, that analogy, though real, is
not complete, the nervous element involved in detumescence being out of
all proportion to the extent of the evacuation. The typical act of evacuation,
however, is a nervous process, and when we bear this in mind we may see
whatever truth the evacuation theory possesses. Beaunis classes the sexual
impulse with the "needs of activity," but under this head he coordinates it
with the "need of urination." That is to say, that both alike are nervous
explosions. Micturition, like detumescence, is a convulsive act, and, like
detumescence also, it is certainly connected with cerebral processes; thus in
epilepsy the passage of urine which may occur (as in a girl described by
Gowers with minor attacks during which it was emitted consciously, but
involuntarily) is really a part of the process.[48]
There appears, indeed, to be a special and intimate connection between the
explosion of sexual detumescence and the explosive energy of the bladder;
so that they may reinforce each other and to a limited extent act vicariously
in relieving each other's tension. It is noteworthy that nocturnal and diurnal
incontinence of urine, as well as "stammering" of the bladder, are all
specially liable to begin or to cease at puberty. In men and even infants,
distention of the bladder favors tumescence by producing venous
congestion, though at the same time it acts as a physical hindrance to sexual
detumescence[49]; in women—probably not from pressure alone, but from
reflex nervous action—a full bladder increases both sexual excitement and

pleasure, and I have been informed by several women that they have
independently discovered this fact for themselves and acted in accordance
with it. Conversely, sexual excitement increases the explosive force of the
bladder, the desire to urinate is aroused, and in women the sexual orgasm,
when very acute and occurring with a full bladder, is occasionally
accompanied, alike in savage and civilized life, by an involuntary and
sometimes full and forcible expulsion of urine.[50] The desire to urinate may
possibly be, as has been said, the normal accompaniment of sexual
excitement in women (just as it is said to be in mares; so that the Arabs
judge that the mare is ready for the stallion when she urinates immediately
on hearing him neigh). The association may even form the basis of sexual
obsessions.[51] I have elsewhere shown that, of all the influences which
increase the expulsive force of the bladder, sexual excitement is the most
powerful.[52] It may also have a reverse influence and inhibit contraction of
the bladder, sometimes in association with shyness, but also independently
of shyness. There is also reason to suppose that the nervous energy
expended in an explosion of the tension of the sexual organs may
sometimes relieve the bladder; it is well recognized that a full bladder is a
factor in producing sexual emissions during sleep, the explosive energy of
the bladder being inhibited and passing over into the sexual sphere.
Conversely, it appears that explosion of the bladder relieves sexual tension.
An explosion of the nervous centers connected with the contraction of the
bladder will relieve nervous tension generally; there are forms of epilepsy
in which the act of urination constitutes the climax, and Gowers, in dealing
with minor epilepsy, emphasizes the frequency of micturition, which "may
occur with spasmodic energy when there is only the slightest general
stiffness," especially in women. He adds the significant remark that it
"sometimes seems to relieve the cerebral tension,"[53] and gives the case of
a girl in whom the aura consisted mainly of a desire to urinate; if she could
satisfy this the fit was arrested; if not she lost consciousness and a severe fit
followed.
If micturition may thus relieve nervous tension generally, it is not surprising
that it should relieve the tension of the centers with which it is most
intimately connected. Sérieux records the case of a girl of 12, possessed by
an impulse to masturbation which she was unable to control, although
anxious to conquer it, who only found relief in the act of urination; this

soothed her and to some extent satisfied the sexual excitement; when the
impulse to masturbate was restrained the impulse to urinate became
imperative; she would rise four or five times in the night for this purpose,
and even urinate in bed or in her clothes to obtain the desired sexual relief.
[54] I am acquainted with a lady who had a similar, but less intense,

experience during childhood. Sometimes, especially in children, the act of
urination becomes an act of gratification at the climax of sexual pleasure,
the imitative symbol of detumescence. Thus Schultze-Malkowsky describes
a little girl of 7 who would bribe her girl companions with little presents to
play the part of horses on all fours while she would ride on their necks with
naked thighs in order to obtain the pleasurable sensation of close contact.
With one special friend she would ride facing backward, and leaning
forward to embrace her body impulsively, and at the same time pressing the
neck closely between her thighs, would urinate.[55] Féré has recorded the
interesting case of a man who, having all his life after puberty been subject
to monthly attacks of sexual excitement, after the age of 45 completely lost
the liability to these manifestations, but found himself subject, in place of
them, to monthly attacks of frequent and copious urination, accompanied by
sexual day-dreams, but by no genital excitement.[56] Such a case admirably
illustrates the compensatory relation of sexual and vesical excitation. This
mutual interaction is easily comprehensible when we recall the very close
nervous connection which exists between the mechanisms of the sexual
organs and the bladder.
Nor are such relationships found to be confined to these two centers; in a
lesser degree the more remote explosive centers are also affected; all motor
influences may spread to related muscles; the convulsion of laughter, for
instance, seems to be often in relation with the sexual center, and Groos has
suggested that the laughter which, especially in the sexually minded, often
follows allusions to the genital sphere is merely an effort to dispel nascent
sexual excitement by liberating an explosion of nervous energy in another
direction.[57] Nervous discharges tend to spread, or to act vicariously,
because the motor centers are more or less connected.[58] Of all the
physiological motor explosions, the sexual orgasm, or detumescence, is the
most massive, powerful, and overwhelming. So volcanic is it that to the
ancient Greek philosophers it seemed to be a minor kind of epilepsy. The
relief of detumescence is not merely the relief of an evacuation; it is the

discharge, by the most powerful apparatus for nervous explosion in the
body, of the energy accumulated and stored up in the slow process of
tumescence, and that discharge reverberates through all the nervous centers
in the organism.
"The sophist of Abdera said that coitus is a slight fit of epilepsy, judging it
to be an incurable disease." (Clement of Alexandria, Pædagogus, bk. ii,
chapter x.) And Cœlius Aurelianus, one of the chief physicians of antiquity,
said that "coitus is a brief epilepsy." Féré has pointed out that both these
forms of nervous storm are sometimes accompanied by similar phenomena,
by subjective sensations of sight or smell, for example; and that the two
kinds of discharge may even be combined. (Féré, Les Epileptiques, pp. 283-
84; also "Exces Vénériens et Epilepsie," Comptes-rendus de la Société de
Biologie, April 3, 1897, and the same author's Instinct Sexuel, pp. 209, 221,
and his "Priapisme Epileptique," La Médecine Moderne, February 4, 1899.)
The epileptic convulsion in some cases involves the sexual mechanism, and
it is noteworthy that epilepsy tends to appear at puberty. In modern times
even so great a physician as Boerhaave said that coitus is a "true epilepsy,"
and more recently Roubaud, Hammond, and Kowalevsky have emphasized
the resemblance between coitus and epilepsy, though without identifying
the two states. Some authorities have considered that coitus is a cause of
epilepsy, but this is denied by Christian, Strümpell, and Löwenfeld.
(Löwenfeld, Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, 1899, p. 68.) Féré has recorded
the case of a youth in whom the adoption of the practice of masturbation,
several times a day, was followed by epileptic attacks which ceased when
masturbation was abandoned. (Féré, Comptes-rendus de la Socitété de
Biologie, April 3, 1897.)
It seems unprofitable at present to attempt any more fundamental analysis
of the sexual impulse. Beaunis, in the work already quoted, vaguely
suggests that we ought possibly to connect the sexual excitation which leads
the male to seek the female with chemical action, either exercised directly
on the protoplasm of the organism or indirectly by the intermediary of the
nervous system, and especially by smell in the higher animals. Clevenger,
Spitzka, Kiernan, and others have also regarded the sexual impulse as
protoplasmic hunger, tracing it back to the presexual times when one
protozoal form absorbed another. In the same way Joanny Roux, insisting
that the sexual need is a need of the whole organism, and that "we love with

the whole of our body," compares the sexual instinct to hunger, and
distinguishes between "sexual hunger" affecting the whole system and
"sexual appetite" as a more localized desire; he concludes that the sexual
need is an aspect of the nutritive need.[59] Useful as these views are as a
protest against too crude and narrow a conception of the part played by the
sexual impulse, they carry us into a speculative region where proof is
difficult.
We are now, however, at all events, in a better position to define the
contents of the sexual impulse. We see that there are certainly, as Moll has
indicated, two constituents in that impulse; but, instead of being unrelated,
or only distantly related, we see that they are really so intimately connected
as to form two distinct stages in the same process: a first stage, in which—
usually under the parallel influence of internal and external stimuli—
images, desires, and ideals grow up within the mind, while the organism
generally is charged with energy and the sexual apparatus congested with
blood; and a second stage, in which the sexual apparatus is discharged amid
profound sexual excitement, followed by deep organic relief. By the first
process is constituted the tension which the second process relieves. It
seems best to call the first impulse the process of tumescence; the second
the process of detumescence.[60] The first, taking on usually a more active
form in the male, has the double object of bringing the male himself into the
condition in which discharge becomes imperative, and at the same time
arousing in the female a similar ardent state of emotional excitement and
sexual turgescence. The second process has the object, directly, of
discharging the tension thus produced and, indirectly, of effecting the act by
which the race is propagated.
It seems to me that this is at present the most satisfactory way in which we
can attempt to define the sexual impulse.

[1]
C. Lloyd Morgan, "Instinct and Intelligence in Animals," Nature,
February 3, 1898.

[2]

Essais, livre iii, ch. v.

[3]
Féré, "La Prédisposition dans l'étiologie des perversions
sexuelles," Revue de médecine, 1898. In his more recent work on
the evolution and dissolution of the sexual instinct Féré perhaps
slightly modified his position by stating that "the sexual appetite
is, above all, a general need of the organism based on a sensation
of fullness, a sort of need of evacuation," L'Instinct sexuel, 1899,
p. 6. Löwenfeld (Ueber die Sexuelle Konstitution, p. 30) gives a
qualified acceptance to the excretory theory, as also Rohleder
(Die Zeugung beim Menschen, p. 25).

[4]
Goltz, Centralblatt für die med. Wissenschaften, 1865, No. 19,
and 1866, No. 18; also Beiträge zur Lehre von den Funktionen
des Frosches, Berlin, 1869, p. 20.

[5]
J. Tarchanoff, "Zur Physiologie des Geschlechtsapparatus des
Frosches," Archiv für die Gesammte Physiologie, 1887, vol. xl, p.
330.

[6]
E. Steinach, "Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Physiologie der
männlicher Geschlechtsorgane insbesondere der accessorischen
Geschlechtsdrüsen," Archiv für die Gesammte Physiologie, vol.
lvi, 1894, pp. 304-338.

[7]
See, e.g., Shattock and Seligmann, "The Acquirement of
Secondary Sexual Characters," Proceedings of the Royal Society,
vol. lxxiii, 1904, p. 49.

[8]

For facts bearing on this point, see Guinard, art. "Castration,"
Richet's Dictionnaire de Physiologie. The general results of
castration are summarized by Robert Müller in ch. vii of his
Sexualbiologie; also by F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of
Reproduction, ch, ix; see also E. Pittard, "Les Skoptzy,"
L'Anthropologie, 1903, p. 463.

[9]
For an ancient discussion of this point, see Schurig,
Spermatologia, 1720, cap. ix.

[10]
J. J. Matignon, Superstition, Crime, et Misère en Chine, "Les
Eunuques du Palais Impérial de Pékin," 1901.

[11]
P. Marie, "Eunuchisme et Erotisme," Nouvelle Iconographie de la
Salpêtrière, 1906, No. 5, and Progrès médical, Jan. 26, 1907.

[12]
Pedagogical Seminary, July, 1897, p. 121.

[13]
See, for instance, the case reported in another volume of these
Studies ("Sexual Inversion"), in which castration was performed
on a sexual invert without effecting any change.

[14]
Guinard, art. "Castration," Dictionnaire de Physiologie.

[15]
M. A. Colman, Medical Standard, August, 1895; Clara Barrus,
American Journal of Insanity, April, 1895; Macnaughton-Jones,

British Gynæcological Journal, August, 1902; W. G. Bridgman,
Medical Standard, 1896; J. M. Cotterill, British Medical Journal,
April 7, 1900 (also private communication); Paul F. Mundé,
American Journal of Obstetrics, March, 1899.

[16]
See Swale Vincent, Internal Secretion and the Ductless Glands,
1912; F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of Reproduction, 1910,
ch. ix; Munzer, Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, Nov., 1910; C.
Sajous, The Internal Secretions, vol. i, 1911. The adrenal glands
have been fully and interestingly studied by Glynn, Quarterly
Journal of Medicine, Jan., 1912; the thyroid, by Ewan Waller,
Practitioner, Aug., 1912; the internal secretion of the ovary, by A.
Louise McIlroy, Proceedings Royal Society Medicine, July, 1912.
For a discussion at the Neurology Section of the British Medical
Association Meeting, 1912, see British Medical Journal, Nov. 16,
1912.

[17]
Since this was written I have come across a passage in Hampa (p.
228), by Rafael Salillas, the Spanish sociologist, which shows
that the analogy has been detected by the popular mind and been
embodied in popular language: "A significant anatomico-
physiological concordance supposes a resemblance between the
mouth and the sexual organs of a woman, between coitus and the
ingestion of food, and between foods which do not require
mastication and the spermatic ejaculation; these representations
find expression in the popular name papo given to women's
genital organs. 'Papo' is the crop of birds, and is derived from
'papar' (Latin, papare), to eat soft food such as we call pap. With
this representation of infantile food is connected the term leche
[milk] as applied to the ejaculated genital fluid." Cleland, it may
be added, in the most remarkable of English erotic novels, The
Memoirs of Fanny Hill, refers to "the compressive exsuction with
which the sensitive mechanism of that part [the vagina] thirstily
draws and drains the nipple of Love," and proceeds to compare it

to the action of the child at the breast. It appears that, in some
parts of the animal world at least, there is a real analogy of
formation between the oral and vaginal ends of the trunk. This is
notably the case in some insects, and the point has been
elaborately discussed by Walter Wesché, "The Genitalia of Both
the Sexes in Diptera, and their Relation to the Armature of the
Mouth," Transactions of the Linnean Society, second series, vol.
ix, Zoölogy, 1906.

[18]
Näcke now expresses himself very dubiously on the point; see,
e.g., Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie, 1905, p. 186.

[19]
Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis, Berlin, 1897-98.

[20]
Moll adopts the term "impulse of detumescence"
(Detumescenztrieb) instead of "impulse of ejaculation," because
in women there is either no ejaculation or it cannot be regarded as
essential.

[21]
I quote from the second edition, as issued in 1881.

[22]
This is the theory which by many has alone been seen in Darwin's
Descent of Man. Thus even his friend Wallace states
unconditionally (Tropical Nature, p. 193) that Darwin accepted a
"voluntary or conscious sexual selection," and seems to repeat the
same statement in Darwinism (1889), p. 283. Lloyd Morgan, in
his discussion of the pairing instinct in Habit and Instinct (1896),
seems also only to see this side of Darwin's statement.

[23]

In his Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,
Darwin was puzzled by the fact that, in captivity, animals often
copulate without conceiving and failed to connect that fact with
the processes behind his own theory of sexual selection.

[24]
Beaunis, Sensations Internes, ch. v, "Besoins Sexuels," 1889. It
may be noted that many years earlier Burdach (in his Physiologie
als Erfahrungswissenschaft, 1826) had recognized that the
activity of the male favored procreation, and that mental and
physical excitement seemed to have the same effect in the female
also.

[25]
It is scarcely necessary to point out that this is too extreme a
position. As J. G. Millais remarks of ducks (Natural History of
British Ducks, p. 45), in courtship "success in winning the
admiration of the female is rather a matter of persistent and active
attention than physical force," though the males occasionally fight
over the female. The ruff (Machetes pugnax) is a pugnacious bird,
as his name indicates. Yet, the reeve, the female of this species, is,
as E. Selous shows ("Sexual Selection in Birds," Zoölogist, Feb.
and May, 1907), completely mistress of the situation. "She seems
the plain and unconcerned little mistress of a numerous and
handsome seraglio, each member of which, however he flounce
and bounce, can only wait to be chosen." Any fighting among the
males is only incidental and is not a factor in selection. Moreover,
as R. Müller points out (loc. cit., p. 290), fighting would not
usually attain the end desired, for if the males expend their time
and strength in a serious combat they merely afford a third less
pugnacious male a better opportunity of running off with the
prize.

[26]
L. Tillier, L'Instinct Sexuel, 1889, pp. 74, 118, 119, 124 et seq.,
289.

[27]
K. Groos, Die Spiele der Thiere, 1896; Die Spiele der Menschen,
1899; both are translated into English.

[28]
Prof. H. E. Ziegler, in a private letter to Professor Groos, Spiele
der Thiere, p. 202.

[29]
Die Spiele der Thiere, p. 244. This had been briefly pointed out
by earlier writers. Thus, Haeckel (Gen. Morph., ii, p. 244)
remarked that fighting for females is a special or modified kind of
struggle for existence, and that it acts on both sexes.

[30]
It may be added that in the human species, as Bray remarks ("Le
Beau dans la Nature," Revue Philosophique, October, 1901, p.
403), "the hymen would seem to tend to the same end, as if nature
had wished to reinforce by a natural obstacle the moral restraint
of modesty, so that only the vigorous male could insure his
reproduction." There can be no doubt that among many animals
pairing is delayed so far as possible until maturity is reached. "It
is a strict rule amongst birds," remarks J. G. Millais (op. cit., p.
46), "that they do not breed until both sexes have attained the
perfect adult plumage." Until that happens, it seems probable, the
conditions for sexual excitation are not fully established. We
know little, says Howard (Zoölogist, 1903, p. 407), of the age at
which birds begin to breed, but it is known that "there are yearly
great numbers of individuals who do not breed, and the evidence
seems to show that such individuals are immature."

[31]
A. Marro, La Puberté, 1901, p. 464.

[32]
Lloyd Morgan, Animal Behavior, 1900, pp. 264-5. It may be
added that, on the esthetic side, Hirn, in his study (The Origins of
Art, 1900), reaches conclusions which likewise, in the main,
concord with those of Groos.

[33]
It may be noted that the marriage ceremony itself is often of the
nature of a courtship, a symbolic courtship, embodying a method
of attaining tumescence. As Crawley, who has brought out this
point, puts it, "Marriage-rites of union are essentially identical
with love charms," and he refers in illustration to the custom of
the Australian Arunta, among whom the man or woman by
making music on the bull-roarer compels a person of the opposite
sex to court him or her, the marriage being thus completed. (E.
Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 318.)

[34]
The more carefully animals are observed, the more often this is
found to be the case, even with respect to species which possess
no obvious and elaborate process for obtaining tumescence. See,
for instance, the detailed and very instructive account—too long
to quote here—given by E. Selous of the preliminaries to
intercourse practised by a pair of great crested grebes, while nest-
building. Intercourse only took place with much difficulty, after
many fruitless invitations, more usually given by the female.
("Observational Diary of the Habits of the Great Crested Grebe,"
Zöologist, September, 1901.) It is exactly the same with savages.
The observation of Foley (Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie
de Paris, November 6, 1879) that in savages "sexual erethism is
very difficult" is of great significance and certainly in accordance
with the facts. This difficulty of erethism is the real cause of
many savage practices which to the civilized person often seem
perverse; the women of the Caroline Islands, for instance, as
described by Finsch, require the tongue or even the teeth to be

applied to the clitoris, or a great ant to be applied to bite the parts,
in order to stimulate orgasm. Westermarck, after quoting a remark
of Mariner's concerning the women of Tonga,—"it must not be
supposed that these women are always easily won; the greatest
attentions and the most fervent solicitations are sometimes
requisite, even though there be no other lover in the way,"—adds
that these words "hold true for a great many, not to say all, savage
and barbarous races now existing." (Human Marriage, p. 163.)
The old notions, however, as to the sexual licentiousness of
peoples living in natural conditions have scarcely yet disappeared.
See Appendix A; "The Sexual Instinct in Savages."

[35]
In men a certain degree of tumescence is essential before coitus
can be effected at all; in women, though tumescence is not
essential to coitus, it is essential to orgasm and the accompanying
physical and psychic relief. The preference which women often
experience for prolonged coitus is not, as might possibly be
imagined, due to sensuality, but has a profound physiological
basis.

[36]
Stanley Hall, Adolescence, vol. i, p. 223.

[37]
See Lagrange's Physiology of Bodily Exercise, especially chapter
ii. It is a significant fact that, as Sergi remarks (Les Emotions, p.
330), the physiological results of dancing are identical with the
physiological results of pleasure.

[38]
Groos, Spiele der Menschen, p. 112. Zmigrodzki (Die Mutter bei
den Volkern des Arischen Stammes, p. 414 et seq.) has an
interesting passage describing the dance—especially the Russian
dance—in its orgiastic aspects.

[39]
Féré, "L'Influence sur le Travail Volontaire d'un muscle de
l'activité d'autres muscles," Nouvelles Iconographie de la
Salpêtrière, 1901.

[40]
"The sensation of motion," Kline remarks ("The Migratory
Impulse," American Journal of Psychology, October, 1898, p. 62),
"as yet but little studied from a pleasure-pain standpoint, is
undoubtedly a pleasure-giving sensation. For Aristippus the end
of life is pleasure, which he defines as gentle motion. Motherhood
long ago discovered its virtue as furnished by the cradle.
Galloping to town on the parental knee is a pleasing pastime in
every nursery. The several varieties of swings, the hammock, see-
saw, flying-jenny, merry-go-round, shooting the chutes, sailing,
coasting, rowing, and skating, together with the fondness of
children for rotating rapidly in one spot until dizzy and for
jumping from high places, are all devices and sports for
stimulating the sense of motion. In most of these modes of motion
the body is passive or semipassive, save in such motions as
skating and rotating on the feet. The passiveness of the body
precludes any important contribution of stimuli from kinesthetic
sources. The stimuli are probably furnished, as Dr. Hall and
others have suggested, by a redistribution of fluid pressure (due to
the unusual motions and positions of the body) to the inner walls
of the several vascular systems of the body."

[41]
Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii., sect. ii, mem. ii, subs. iv.

[42]
Sadger, "Haut-, Schleimhaut-, und Muskel-erotik," Jahrbuch für
psychoanalytische Forschungen, Bd. iii, 1912, p. 556.

[43]

Marro (Pubertà, p. 367 et seq.) has some observations on this
point. It was an insight into this action of dancing which led the
Spanish clergy of the eighteenth century to encourage the national
enthusiasm for dancing (as Baretti informs us) in the interests of
morality.

[44]
It is scarcely necessary to remark that a primitive dance, even
when associated with courtship, is not necessarily a sexual
pantomime; as Wallaschek, in his comprehensive survey of
primitive dances, observes, it is more usually an animal
pantomime, but nonetheless connected with the sexual instinct,
separation of the sexes, also, being no proof to the contrary.
(Wallaschek, Primitive Music, pp. 211-13.) Grosse (Anfänge der
Kunst, English translation, p. 228) has pointed out that the best
dancer would be the best fighter and hunter, and that sexual
selection and natural selection would thus work in harmony.

[45]
Féré, "Le plaisir de la vue du Mouvement," Comptes-rendus de la
Société de Biologie, November 2, 1901; also Travail et Plaisir,
ch. xxix.

[46]
Groos repeatedly emphasizes the significance of this fact (Spiele
der Menschen, pp. 81-9, 460 et seq.); Grosse (Anfänge der Kunst,
p. 215) had previously made some remarks on this point.

[47]
M. Kulischer, "Die Geschlechtliche Zuchtwahl bei den Menschen
in der Urzeit," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1876, p. 140 et seq.

[48]
Sir W. R. Gowers, Epilepsy, 2d ed., 1901, pp. 61, 138.

[49]
Guyon, Leçons Cliniques sur les Maladies des Voies Urinaires,
3d ed., 1896, vol. ii, p. 397.

[50]
See, e.g., Féré, L'Instinct Sexuel, pp. 222-23: Brantôme was
probably the first writer in modern times who referred to this
phenomenon. MacGillicuddy (Functional Disorders of the
Nervous System in Women, p. 110) refers to the case of a lady
who always had sudden and uncontrollable expulsion of urine
whenever her husband even began to perform the marital act, on
which account he finally ceased intercourse with her. Kubary
states that in Ponape (Western Carolines) the men are accustomed
to titillate the vulva of their women with the tongue until the
excitement is so intense that involuntary emission of urine takes
place; this is regarded as the proper moment for intercourse.

[51]
Thus Pitres and Régis (Transactions of the International Medical
Congress, Moscow, vol. iv, p. 19) record the case of a young girl
whose life was for some years tormented by a groundless fear of
experiencing an irresistible desire to urinate. This obsession arose
from once seeing at a theater a man whom she liked, and being
overcome by sexual feeling accompanied by so strong a desire to
urinate that she had to leave the theater. An exactly similar case in
a young woman of erotic temperament, but prudish, has been
recorded by Freud (Zur Neurosenlehre, Bd. i, p. 54). Morbid
obsessions of modesty involving the urinary sphere and appearing
at puberty are evidently based on transformed sexual emotion.
Such a case has been recorded by Marandon de Montyel
(Archives de Neurologie, vol. xii, 1901, p. 36); this lady, who was
of somewhat neuropathic temperament, from puberty onward, in
order to be able to urinate found it necessary not only to be
absolutely alone, but to feel assured that no one even knew what
was taking place.

[52]
H. Ellis, "The Bladder as a Dynamometer," American Journal of
Dermatology, May, 1902.

[53]
Sir W. Gowers, "Minor Epilepsy," British Medical Journal,
January 6, 1900; ib., Epilepsy, 2d ed., 1901, p. 106; see also H.
Ellis, art. "Urinary Bladder, Influence of the Mind on the," in
Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine.

[54]
Sérieux, Recherches Cliniques sur les Anomalies de l'Instinct
Sexuel, p. 22.

[55]
Emil Schultze-Malkowsky, "Der Sexuelle Trieb in Kindesalter,"
Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, vol. ii, part 8, p. 372.

[56]
Féré, "Note sur un Cas de Periodicité Sexuelle chez l'Homme,"
Comptes-rendus Société de Biologie, July 23, 1904.

[57]
It is a familiar fact that, in women, occasionally, a violent
explosion of laughter may be propagated to the bladder-center
and produce urination. "She laughed till she nearly wetted the
floor," I have heard a young woman in the country say, evidently
using without thought a familiar locution. Professor Bechterew
has recorded the case of a young married lady who, from
childhood, wherever she might be—in friends' houses, in the
street, in her own drawing-room—had always experienced an
involuntary and forcible emission of urine, which could not be
stopped or controlled, whenever she laughed; the bladder was
quite sound and no muscular effort produced the same result. (W.

Bechterew, Neurologisches Centralblatt, 1899.) In women these
relationships are most easily observed, partly because in them the
explosive centers are more easily discharged, and partly, it is
probable, so far as the bladder is concerned, because, although
after death the resistance to the emission of urine is notably less
in women, during life about the same amount of force is
necessary in both sexes; so that a greater amount of energy flows
to the bladder in women, and any nervous storm or disturbance is
thus specially apt to affect the bladder.

[58]
"Every pain," remarks Marie de Manacéine, "produces a number
of movements which are apparently useless: we cry out, we
groan, we move our limbs, we throw ourselves from one side to
the other, and at bottom all these movements are logical because
by interrupting and breaking our attention they render us less
sensitive to the pain. In the days before chloroform, skillful
surgeons requested their patients to cry out during the operation,
as we are told by Gratiolet, who could not explain so strange a
fact, for in his time the antagonism of movements and attention
was not recognized." (Marie de Manacéine, Archives Italiennes de
Biologie, 1894, p. 250.) This antagonism of attention by
movement is but another way of expressing the vicarious
relationship of motor discharges.

[59]
Joanny Roux, Psychologie de l'Instinct Sexuel, 1899, pp. 22-23. It
is disputed whether hunger is located in the whole organism, and
powerful arguments have been brought against the view. (W.
Cannon, "The Nature of Hunger," Popular Science Monthly,
Sept., 1912.) Thirst is usually regarded as organic (A. Mayer, La
Soif, 1901).

[60]
If there is any objection to these terms it is chiefly because they
have reference to vascular congestion rather than to the

underlying nervous charging and discharging, which is equally
fundamental, and in man more prominent than the vascular
phenomena.

LOVE AND PAIN.
I.

The Chief Key to the Relationship between Love and Pain to be Found in
Animal Courtship—Courtship a Source of Combativity and of Cruelty—
Human Play in the Light of Animal Courtship—The Frequency of Crimes
Against the Person in Adolescence—Marriage by Capture and its
Psychological Basis—Man's Pleasure in Exerting Force and Woman's
Pleasure in Experiencing it—Resemblance of Love to Pain even in Outward
Expression—The Love-bite—In what Sense Pain may be Pleasurable—The
Natural Contradiction in the Emotional Attitude of Women Toward Men—
Relative Insensibility to Pain of the Organic Sexual Sphere in Women—The
Significance of the Use of the Ampallang and Similar Appliances in Coitus
—The Sexual Subjection of Women to Men in Part Explainable as the
Necessary Condition for Sexual Pleasure.

The relation of love to pain is one of the most difficult problems, and yet
one of the most fundamental, in the whole range of sexual psychology. Why
is it that love inflicts, and even seeks to inflict, pain? Why is it that love
suffers pain, and even seeks to suffer it? In answering that question, it
seems to me, we have to take an apparently circuitous route, sometimes
going beyond the ostensible limits of sex altogether; but if we can succeed
in answering it we shall have come very near one of the great mysteries of
love. At the same time we shall have made clear the normal basis on which
rest the extreme aberrations of love.
The chief key to the relationship of love to pain is to be found by returning
to the consideration of the essential phenomena of courtship in the animal
world generally. Courtship is a play, a game; even its combats are often, to a
large extent, mock-combats; but the process behind it is one of terrible
earnestness, and the play may at any moment become deadly. Courtship
tends to involve a mock-combat between males for the possession of the

female which may at any time become a real combat; it is a pursuit of the
female by the male which may at any time become a kind of persecution; so
that, as Colin Scott remarks, "Courting may be looked upon as a refined and
delicate form of combat." The note of courtship, more especially among
mammals, is very easily forced, and as soon as we force it we reach pain.
[61] The intimate and inevitable association in the animal world of combat—

of the fighting and hunting impulses—with the process of courtship alone
suffices to bring love into close connection with pain.
Among mammals the male wins the female very largely by the display of
force. The infliction of pain must inevitably be a frequent indirect result of
the exertion of power. It is even more than this; the infliction of pain by the
male on the female may itself be a gratification of the impulse to exert
force. This tendency has always to be held in check, for it is of the essence
of courtship that the male should win the female, and she can only be won
by the promise of pleasure. The tendency of the male to inflict pain must be
restrained, so far as the female is concerned, by the consideration of what is
pleasing to her. Yet, the more carefully we study the essential elements of
courtship, the clearer it becomes that, playful as these manifestations may
seem on the surface, in every direction they are verging on pain. It is so
among animals generally; it is so in man among savages. "It is precisely the
alliance of pleasure and pain," wrote the physiologist Burdach, "which
constitutes the voluptuous emotion."
Nor is this emotional attitude entirely confined to the male. The female also
in courtship delights to arouse to the highest degree in the male the desire
for her favors and to withhold those favors from him, thus finding on her
part also the enjoyment of power in cruelty. "One's cruelty is one's power,"
Millament says in Congreve's Way of the World, "and when one parts with
one's cruelty one parts with one's power."
At the outset, then, the impulse to inflict pain is brought into courtship, and
at the same time rendered a pleasurable idea to the female, because with
primitive man, as well as among his immediate ancestors, the victor in love
has been the bravest and strongest rather than the most beautiful or the most
skilful. Until he can fight he is not reckoned a man and he cannot hope to
win a woman. Among the African Masai a man is not supposed to marry
until he has blooded his spear, and in a very different part of the world,

among the Dyaks of Borneo, there can be little doubt that the chief
incentive to head-hunting is the desire to please the women, the possession
of a head decapitated by himself being an excellent way of winning a
maiden's favor.[62] Such instances are too well known to need multiplication
here, and they survive in civilization, for, even among ourselves, although
courtship is now chiefly ruled by quite other considerations, most women
are in some degree emotionally affected by strength and courage. But the
direct result of this is that a group of phenomena with which cruelty and the
infliction of pain must inevitably be more or less allied is brought within the
sphere of courtship and rendered agreeable to women. Here, indeed, we
have the source of that love of cruelty which some have found so marked in
women. This is a phase of courtship which helps us to understand how it is
that, as we shall see, the idea of pain, having become associated with sexual
emotion, may be pleasurable to women.
Thus, in order to understand the connection between love and pain, we have
once more to return to the consideration, under a somewhat new aspect, of
the fundamental elements in the sexual impulse. In discussing the
"Evolution of Modesty" we found that the primary part of the female in
courtship is the playful, yet serious, assumption of the rôle of a hunted
animal who lures on the pursuer, not with the object of escaping, but with
the object of being finally caught. In considering the "Analysis of the
Sexual Impulse" we found that the primary part of the male in courtship is
by the display of his energy and skill to capture the female or to arouse in
her an emotional condition which leads her to surrender herself to him, this
process itself at the same time heightening his own excitement. In the
playing of these two different parts is attained in both male and female that
charging of nervous energy, that degree of vascular tumescence, necessary
for adequate discharge and detumescence in an explosion by which sperm-
cells and germ-cells are brought together for the propagation of the race. We
are now concerned with the necessary interplay of the differing male and
female rôles in courtship, and with their accidental emotional by-products.
Both male and female are instinctively seeking the same end of sexual
union at the moment of highest excitement. There cannot, therefore, be real
conflict.[63] But there is the semblance of a conflict, an apparent clash of
aim, an appearance of cruelty. Moreover,—and this is a significant moment
in the process from our present point of view,—when there are rivals for the

possession of one female there is always a possibility of actual combat, so
tending to introduce an element of real violence, of undisguised cruelty,
which the male inflicts on his rival and which the female views with
satisfaction and delight in the prowess of the successful claimant. Here we
are brought close to the zoölogical root of the connection between love and
pain.[64]
In his admirable work on play in man Groos has fully discussed the plays of
combat (Kampfspiele), which begin to develop even in childhood and
assume full activity during adolescence; and he points out that, while the
impulse to such play certainly has a wider biological significance, it still
possesses a relationship to the sexual life and to the rivalries of animals in
courtship which must not be forgotten.[65]
Nor is it only in play that the connection between love and combativity may
still be traced. With the epoch of the first sexual relationship, Marro points
out, awakes the instinct of cruelty, which prompts the youth to acts which
are sometimes in absolute contrast to his previous conduct, and leads him to
be careless of the lives of others as well as of his own life.[66] Marro
presents a diagram showing how crimes against the person in Italy rise
rapidly from the age of 16 to 20 and reach a climax between 21 and 25. In
Paris, Gamier states, crimes of blood are six times more frequent in
adolescents (aged 16 to 20) than in adults. It is the same elsewhere.[67] This
tendency to criminal violence during the age-period of courtship is a by-
product of the sexual impulse, a kind of tertiary sexual character.
In the process of what is commonly termed "marriage by capture" we have
a method of courtship which closely resembles the most typical form of
animal courtship, and is yet found in all but the highest and most artificial
stages of human society. It may not be true that, as MacLennan and others
have argued, almost every race of man has passed through an actual stage of
marriage by capture, but the phenomena in question have certainly been
extremely widespread and exist in popular custom even among the highest
races today. George Sand has presented a charming picture of such a
custom, existing in France, in her Mare au Diable. Farther away, among the
Kirghiz, the young woman is pursued by all her lovers, but she is armed
with a formidable whip, which she does not hesitate to use if overtaken by a
lover to whom she is not favorable. Among the Malays, according to early

travelers, courtship is carried on in the water in canoes with double-bladed
paddles; or, if no water is near, the damsel, stripped naked of all but a
waistband, is given a certain start and runs off on foot followed by her
lover. Vaughan Stevens in 1896 reported that this performance is merely a
sport; but Skeat and Blagden, in their more recent and very elaborate
investigations in the Malay States, find that it is a rite.
Even if we regard "marriage by capture" as simply a primitive human
institution stimulated by tribal exigencies and early social conditions, yet,
when we recall its widespread and persistent character, its close
resemblance to the most general method of courtship among animals, and
the emotional tendencies which still persist even in the most civilized men
and women, we have to recognize that we are in presence of a real
psychological impulse which cannot fail in its exercise to introduce some
element of pain into love.
There are, however, two fundamentally different theories concerning
"marriage by capture." According to the first, that of MacLennan, which,
until recently, has been very widely accepted, and to which Professor Tylor
has given the weight of his authority, there has really been in primitive
society a recognized stage in which marriages were effected by the capture
of the wife. Such a state of things MacLennan regarded as once world-wide.
There can be no doubt that women very frequently have been captured in
this way among primitive peoples. Nor, indeed, has the custom been
confined to savages. In Europe we find that even up to comparatively recent
times the abduction of women was not only very common, but was often
more or less recognized. In England it was not until Henry VII's time that
the violent seizure of a woman was made a criminal offense, and even then
the statute was limited to women possessed of lands and goods. A man
might still carry off a girl provided she was not an heiress; but even the
abduction of heiresses continued to be common, and in Ireland remained so
until the end of the eighteenth century. But it is not so clear that such raids
and abductions, even when not of a genuinely hostile character, have ever
been a recognized and constant method of marriage.
According to the second set of theories, the capture is not real, but
simulated, and may be accounted for by psychological reasons. Fustel de
Coulanges, in La Cité Antique,[68] discussing simulated marriage by capture

among the Romans, mentioned the view that it was "a symbol of the young
girl's modesty," but himself regarded it as an act of force to symbolize the
husband's power. He was possibly alluding to Herbert Spencer, who
suggested a psychological explanation of the apparent prevalence of
marriage by capture based on the supposition that, capturing a wife being a
proof of bravery, such a method of obtaining a wife would be practised by
the strongest men and be admired, while, on the other hand, he considered
that "female coyness" was "an important factor" in constituting the more
formal kinds of marriage by capture ceremonial.[69] Westermarck, while
accepting true marriage by capture, considers that Spencer's statement "can
scarcely be disproved."[70] In his valuable study of certain aspects of
primitive marriage Crawley, developing the explanation rejected by Fustel
de Coulanges, regards the fundamental fact to be the modesty of women,
which has to be neutralized, and this is done by "a ceremonial use of force,
which is half real and half make-believe." Thus the manifestations are not
survivals, but "arising in a natural way from normal human feelings. It is
not the tribe from which the bride is abducted, nor, primarily, her family
and kindred, but her sex"; and her "sexual characters of timidity,
bashfulness, and passivity are sympathetically overcome by make-believe
representations of male characteristic actions."[71]
It is not necessary for the present purpose that either of these two opposing
theories concerning the origin of the customs and feelings we are here
concerned with should be definitely rejected. Whichever theory is adopted,
the fundamental psychic element which here alone concerns us still exists
intact.[72] It may be pointed out, however, that we probably have to accept
two groups of such phenomena: one, seldom or never existing as the sole
form of marriage, in which the capture is real; and another in which the
"capture" is more or less ceremonial or playful. The two groups coexist
among the Turcomans, as described by Vambery, who are constantly
capturing and enslaving the Persians of both sexes, and, side by side with
this, have a marriage ceremonial of mock-capture of entirely playful
character. At the same time the two groups sometimes overlap, as is
indicated by cases in which, while the "capture" appears to be ceremonial,
the girl is still allowed to escape altogether if she wishes. The difficulty of
disentangling the two groups is shown by the fact that so careful an
investigator as Westermarck cites cases of real capture and mock-capture

together without attempting to distinguish between them. From our present
point of view it is quite unnecessary to attempt such a distinction. Whether
the capture is simulated or real, the man is still playing the masculine and
aggressive part proper to the male; the woman is still playing the feminine
and defensive part proper to the female. The universal prevalence of these
phenomena is due to the fact that manifestations of this kind, real or
pretended, afford each sex the very best opportunity for playing its proper
part in courtship, and so, even when the force is real, must always gratify a
profound instinct.
It is not necessary to quote examples of marriage by capture from the
numerous and easily accessible books on the evolution of marriage. (Sir A.
B. Ellis, adopting MacLennan's standpoint, presented a concise statement of
the facts in an article on "Survivals from Marriage by Capture," Popular
Science Monthly, 1891, p. 207.) It may, however, be worth while to bring
together from scattered sources a few of the facts concerning the
phenomena in this group and their accompanying emotional state, more
especially as they bear on the association of love with force, inflicted or
suffered.
In New Caledonia, Foley remarks, the successful coquette goes off with her
lover into the bush. "It usually happens that, when she is successful, she
returns from her expedition, tumbled, beaten, scratched, even bitten on the
nape and shoulders, her wounds thus bearing witness to the quadrupedal
attitude she has assumed amid the foliage." (Foley, Bulletin de la Société
d'Anthropologie, Paris, November 6, 1879.)
Of the natives of New South Wales, Turnbull remarked at the beginning of
the nineteenth century that "their mode of courtship is not without its
singularity. When a young man sees a female to his fancy he informs her
she must accompany him home; the lady refuses; he not only enforces
compliance with threats but blows; thus the gallant, according to the
custom, never fails to gain the victory, and bears off the willing, though
struggling pugilist. The colonists for some time entertained the idea that the
women were compelled and forced away against their inclinations; but the
young ladies informed them that this mode of gallantry was the custom, and
perfectly to their taste," (J. Turnbull, A Voyage Round the World, 1813, p.
98; cf. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, vol. i, p. 81.)

As regards capture of women among Central Australian tribes, Spencer and
Gillen remark: "We have never in any of these central tribes met with any
such thing, and the clubbing part of the story may be dismissed, so far as
the central area of the continent is concerned. To the casual observer what
looks like a capture (we are, of course, only speaking of these tribes) is in
reality an elopement, in which the woman is an aiding and abetting party."
(Northern Tribes of Central Australia. p. 32.)
"The New Zealand method of courtship and matrimony is a most
extraordinary one. A man sees a woman whom he fancies he should like for
a wife; he asks the consent of her father, or, if an orphan, of her nearest
relative, which, if he obtain, he carries his intended off by force, she
resisting with all her strength, and, as the New Zealand girls are generally
fairly robust, sometimes a dreadful struggle takes place; both are soon
stripped to the skin and it is sometimes the work of hours to remove the fair
prize a hundred yards. It sometimes happens that she secures her retreat into
her father's house, and the lover loses all chance of ever obtaining her." (A.
Earle, Narratives of Residence in New Zealand, 1832, p. 244.)
Among the Eskimos (probably near Smith Sound) "there is no marriage
ceremony further than that the boy is required to carry off his bride by main
force, for even among these blubber-eating people the woman only saves
her modesty by a show of resistance, although she knows years beforehand
that her destiny is sealed and that she is to become the wife of the man from
whose embraces, when the nuptial day comes, she is obliged by the
inexorable law of public opinion to free herself, if possible, by kicking and
screaming with might and main until she is safely landed in the hut of her
future lord, when she gives up the combat very cheerfully and takes
possession of her new abode. The betrothal often takes place at a very early
period of life and at very dissimilar ages." Marriage only takes place when
the lover has killed his first seal; this is the test of manhood and maturity. (J.
J. Hayes, Open Polar Sea, 1867, p. 432.)
Marriage by "capture" is common in war and raiding in central Africa. "The
women, as a rule," Johnston says, "make no very great resistance on these
occasions. It is almost like playing a game. A woman is surprised as she
goes to get water at the stream, or when she is on the way to or from the
plantation. The man has only got to show her she is cornered and that

escape is not easy or pleasant and she submits to be carried off. As a general
rule, they seem to accept very cheerfully these abrupt changes in their
matrimonial existence." (Sir H. H. Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 412.)
Among the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula in one form of wedding rite
the bridegroom is required to run seven times around an artificial mound
decorated with flowers and the emblem of the people's religion. In the event
of the bridegroom failing to catch the bride the marriage has to be
postponed. Among the Orang Laut, or sea-gipsies, the pursuit sometimes
takes the form of a canoe-race; the woman is given a good start and must be
overtaken before she has gone a certain distance. (W. W. Skeat, Journal
Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1902, p. 134; Skeat and Blagden,
Pagan Races of the Malay, vol. ii, p. 69 et seq., fully discuss the ceremony
around the mound.)
"Calmuck women ride better than the men. A male Calmuck on horseback
looks as if he was intoxicated, and likely to fall off every instant, though he
never loses his seat; but the women sit with more ease, and ride with
extraordinary skill. The ceremony of marriage among the Calmucks is
performed on horseback. A girl is first mounted, who rides off at full speed.
Her lover pursues, and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife and the
marriage is consummated upon the spot, after which she returns with him to
his tent. But it sometimes happens that the woman does not wish to marry
the person by whom she is pursued, in which case she will not suffer him to
overtake her; and we were assured that no instance occurs of a Calmuck girl
being thus caught, unless she has a partiality for her pursuer. If she dislikes
him, she rides, to use the language of English sportsmen, 'neck or nothing,'
until she has completely escaped or until the pursuer's horse is tired out,
leaving her at liberty to return, to be afterward chased by some more
favored admirer." (E. D. Clarke, Travels, 1810, vol. i, p. 333.)
Among the Bedouins marriage is arranged between the lover and the girl's
father, often without consulting the girl herself. "Among the Arabs of Sinai
the young maid comes home in the evening with the cattle. At a short
distance from the camp she is met by the future spouse and a couple of his
young friends and carried off by force to her father's tent. If she entertains
any suspicion of their designs she defends herself with stones, and often
inflicts wounds on the young men, even though she does not dislike the

lover, for, according to custom, the more she struggles, bites, kicks, cries,
and strikes, the more she is applauded ever after by her own companions."
After being taken to her father's tent, where a man's cloak is thrown over
her by one of the bridegroom's relations, she is dressed in garments
provided by her future husband, and placed on a camel, "still continuing to
struggle in a most unruly manner, and held by the bridegroom's friends on
both sides." She is then placed in a recess of the husband's tent. Here the
marriage is finally consummated, "the bride still continuing to cry very
loudly. It sometimes happens that the husband is obliged to tie his bride,
and even to beat her, before she can be induced to comply with his desires."
If, however, she really does not like her husband, she is perfectly free to
leave him next morning, and her father is obliged to receive her back
whether he wishes to or not. It is not considered proper for a widow or
divorced woman to make any resistance on being married. (J. L.
Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, 1830, p. 149 et seq.)
Among the Turcomans forays for capturing and enslaving their Persian
neighbors were once habitual. Vambery describes their "marriage
ceremonial when the young maiden, attired in bridal costume, mounts a
high-bred courser, taking on her lap the carcass of a lamb or goat, and
setting off at full gallop, followed by the bridegroom and other young men
of the party, also on horseback; she is always to strive, by adroit turns, etc.,
to avoid her pursuers, that no one approach near enough to snatch from her
the burden on her lap. This game, called kökbüri (green wolf), is in use
among all the nomads of central Asia." (A. Vambery, Travels in Central
Asia, 1864, p. 323.)
In China, a missionary describes how, when he was called upon to marry
the daughter of a Chinese Christian brought up in native customs, he was
compelled to wait several hours, as the bride refused to get up and dress
until long after the time appointed for the wedding ceremony, and then only
by force. "Extreme reluctance and dislike and fear are the true marks of a
happy and lively wedding." (A. E. Moule, New China and Old, p. 128.)
It is interesting to find that in the Indian art of love a kind of mock-combat,
accompanied by striking, is a recognized and normal method of heightening
tumescence. Vatsyayana has a chapter "On Various Manners of Striking,"
and he approves of the man striking the woman on the back, belly, flanks,

and buttocks, before and during coitus, as a kind of play, increasing as
sexual excitement increases, which the woman, with cries and groans,
pretends to bid the man to stop. It is mentioned that, especially in southern
India, various instruments (scissors, needles, etc.) are used in striking, but
this practice is condemned as barbarous and dangerous. (Kama Sutra,
French translation, iii, chapter v.)
In the story of Aladdin, in the Arabian Nights, the bride is undressed by the
mother and the other women, who place her in the bridegroom's bed "as if
by force, and, according to the custom of the newly married, she pretends to
resist, twisting herself in every direction, and seeking to escape from their
hands." (Les Mille Nuits, tr. Mardrus, vol. xi, p. 253.)
It is said that in those parts of Germany where preliminary Probenächte
before formal marriage are the rule it is not uncommon for a young woman
before finally giving herself to a man to provoke him to a physical struggle.
If she proves stronger she dismisses him; if he is stronger she yields herself
willingly. (W. Henz, "Probenächte," Sexual-Probleme, Oct., 1910, p. 743.)
Among the South Slavs of Servia and Bulgaria, according to Krauss, it is
the custom to win a woman by seizing her by the ankle and bringing her to
the ground by force. This method of wooing is to the taste of the woman,
and they are refractory to any other method. The custom of beating or being
beaten before coitus is also found among the South Slavs. (Κρυπτάδια, vol.
vi, p. 209.)
In earlier days violent courtship was viewed with approval in the European
world, even among aristocratic circles. Thus in the medieval Lai de
Graélent of Marie de France this Breton knight is represented as very
chaste, possessing a high ideal of love and able to withstand the wiles of
women. One day when he is hunting in a forest he comes upon a naked
damsel bathing, together with her handmaidens. Overcome by her beauty,
he seizes her clothes in case she should be alarmed, but is persuaded to
hand them to her; then he proceeds to make love to her. She replies that his
love is an insult to a woman of her high lineage. Finding her so proud,
Graélent sees that his prayers are in vain. He drags her by force into the
depth of the forest, has his will of her, and begs her very gently not to be
angry, promising to love her loyally and never to leave her. The damsel saw

that he was a good knight, courteous, and wise. She thought within herself
that if she were to leave him she would never find a better friend.
Brantôme mentions a lady who confessed that she liked to be "half-forced"
by her husband, and he remarks that a woman who is "a little difficult and
resists" gives more pleasure also to her lover than one who yields at once,
just as a hard-fought battle is a more notable triumph than an easily won
victory. (Brantôme, Vie des Dames Galantes, discours i.) Restif de la
Bretonne, again, whose experience was extensive, wrote in his Anti-Justine
that "all women of strong temperament like a sort of brutality in sexual
intercourse and its accessories."
Ovid had said that a little force is pleasing to a woman, and that she is
grateful to the ravisher against whom she struggles (Ars Amatoria, lib. i).
One of Janet's patients (Raymond and Janet, Les Obsessions et la
Psychasthénie, vol. ii, p. 406) complained that her husband was too good,
too devoted. "He does not know how to make me suffer a little. One cannot
love anyone who does not make one suffer a little." Another hysterical
woman (a silk fetichist, frigid with men) had dreams of men and animals
abusing her: "I cried with pain and was happy at the same time."
(Clérambault, Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, June, 1908, p. 442.)
It has been said that among Slavs of the lower class the wives feel hurt if
they are not beaten by their husbands. Paullinus, in the seventeenth century,
remarked that Russian women are never more pleased and happy than when
beaten by their husbands, and regard such treatment as proof of love. (See,
e.g., C. F. von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus, p. 69.)
Krafft-Ebing believes that this is true at the present day, and adds that it is
the same in Hungary, a Hungarian official having informed him that the
peasant women of the Somogyer Comitate do not think they are loved by
their husbands until they have received the first box on the ear. (Krafft-
Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of the tenth edition, p.
188.) I may add that a Russian proverb says "Love your wife like your soul
and beat her like your shuba" (overcoat); and, according to another Russian
proverb, "a dear one's blows hurt not long." At the same time it has been
remarked that the domination of men by women is peculiarly frequent
among the Slav peoples. (V. Schlichtegroll, op. cit., p. 23.) Cellini, in an
interesting passage in his Life (book ii, chapters xxxiv-xxxv), describes his

own brutal treatment of his model Caterina, who was also his mistress, and
the pleasure which, to his surprise, she took in it. Dr. Simon Forman, also,
the astrologist, tells in his Autobiography (p. 7) how, as a young and puny
apprentice to a hosier, he was beaten, scolded, and badly treated by the
servant girl, but after some years of this treatment he turned on her, beat her
black and blue, and ever after "Mary would do for him all that she could."
That it is a sign of love for a man to beat his sweetheart, and a sign much
appreciated by women, is illustrated by the episode of Cariharta and
Repolido, in "Rinconete and Cortadillo," one of Cervantes's Exemplary
Novels. The Indian women of South America feel in the same way, and
Mantegazza when traveling in Bolivia found that they complained when
they were not beaten by their husbands, and that a girl was proud when she
could say "He loves me greatly, for he often beats me." (Fisiologia della
Donna, chapter xiii.) The same feeling evidently existed in classic antiquity,
for we find Lucian, in his "Dialogues of Courtesans," makes a woman say:
"He who has not rained blows on his mistress and torn her hair and her
garments is not yet in love," while Ovid advises lovers sometimes to be
angry with their sweethearts and to tear their dresses.
Among the Italian Camorrista, according to Russo, wives are very badly
treated. Expression is given to this fact in the popular songs. But the women
only feel themselves tenderly loved when they are badly treated by their
husbands; the man who does not beat them they look upon as a fool. It is
the same in the east end of London. "If anyone has doubts as to the
brutalities practised on women by men," writes a London magistrate, "let
him visit the London Hospital on a Saturday night. Very terrible sights will
meet his eye. Sometimes as many as twelve or fourteen women may be
seen seated in the receiving room, waiting for their bruised and bleeding
faces and bodies to be attended to. In nine cases out of ten the injuries have
been inflicted by brutal and perhaps drunken husbands. The nurses tell me,
however, that any remarks they may make reflecting on the aggressors are
received with great indignation by the wretched sufferers. They positively
will not hear a single word against the cowardly ruffians. 'Sometimes,' said
a nurse to me, 'when I have told a woman that her husband is a brute, she
has drawn herself up and replied: "You mind your own business, miss. We
find the rates and taxes, and the likes of you are paid out of 'em to wait on
us."'" (Montagu Williams, Round London, p. 79.)

"The prostitute really loves her souteneur, notwithstanding all the
persecutions he inflicts on her. Their torments only increase the devotion of
the poor slaves to their 'Alphonses.' Parent-Duchâtelet wrote that he had
seen them come to the hospital with their eyes out of their heads, faces
bleeding, and bodies torn by the blows of their drunken lovers, but as soon
as they were healed they went back to them. Police-officers tell us that it is
very difficult to make a prostitute confess anything concerning her
souteneur. Thus, Rosa L., whom her 'Alphonse' had often threatened to kill,
even putting the knife to her throat, would say nothing, and denied
everything when the magistrate questioned her. Maria R., with her face
marked by a terrible scar produced by her souteneur, still carefully
preserved many years afterward the portrait of the aggressor, and when we
asked her to explain her affection she replied: 'But he wounded me because
he loved me.' The souteneur's brutality only increases the ill-treated
woman's love; the humiliation and slavery in which the woman's soul is
drowned feed her love." (Niceforo, Il Gergo, etc., 1897, p. 128.)
In a modern novel written in autobiographic form by a young Australian
lady the heroine is represented as striking her betrothed with a whip when
he merely attempts to kiss her. Later on her behavior so stings him that his
self-control breaks down and he seizes her fiercely by the arms. For the first
time she realizes that he loves her. "I laughed a joyous little laugh, saying
'Hal, we are quits'; when on disrobing for the night I discovered on my soft
white shoulders and arms—so susceptible to bruises—many marks, and
black. It had been a very happy day for me." (Miles Franklin, My Brilliant
Career.)
It is in large measure the existence of this feeling of attraction for violence
which accounts for the love-letters received by men who are accused of
crimes of violence. Thus in one instance, in Chicago (as Dr. Kiernan writes
to me), "a man arrested for conspiracy to commit abortion, and also
suspected of being a sadist, received many proposals of marriage and other
less modest expressions of affection from unknown women. To judge by the
signatures, these women belonged to the Germans and Slavs rather than to
the Anglo-Celts."
Neuropathic or degenerative conditions sometimes serve to accentuate or
reveal ancestral traits that are very ancient in the race. Under such

conditions the tendency to find pleasure in subjection and pain, which is
often faintly traceable even in normal civilized women, may become more
pronounced. This may be seen in a case described in some detail in the
Archivio di Psichiatria. The subject was a young lady of 19, of noble Italian
birth, but born in Tunis. On the maternal side there is a somewhat neurotic
heredity, and she is herself subject to attacks of hystero-epileptoid character.
She was very carefully, but strictly, educated; she knows several languages,
possesses marked intellectual aptitudes, and is greatly interested in social
and political questions, in which she takes the socialistic and revolutionary
side. She has an attractive and sympathetic personality; in complexion she
is dark, with dark eyes and very dark and abundant hair; the fine down on
the upper lip and lower parts of the cheeks is also much developed; the jaw
is large, the head acrocephalic, and the external genital organs of normal
size, but rather asymmetric. Ever since she was a child she has loved to
work and dream in solitude. Her dreams have always been of love, since
menstruation began as early as the age of 10, and accompanied by strong
sexual feelings, though at that age these feelings remained vague and
indefinite; but in them the desire for pleasure was always accompanied by
the desire for pain, the desire to bite and destroy something, and, as it were,
to annihilate herself. She experienced great relief after periods of "erotic
rumination," and if this rumination took place at night she would sometimes
masturbate, the contact of the bedclothes, she said, giving her the illusion of
a man. In time this vague longing for the male gave place to more definite
desires for a man who would love her, and, as she imagined, strike her.
Eventually she formed secret relationships with two or three lovers in
succession, each of these relationships being, however, discovered by her
family and leading to ineffectual attempts at suicide. But the association of
pain with love, which had developed spontaneously in her solitary dreams,
continued in her actual relations with her lovers. During coitus she would
bite and squeeze her arms until the nails penetrated the flesh. When her
lover asked her why at the moment of coitus she would vigorously repel
him, she replied: "Because I want to be possessed by force, to be hurt,
suffocated, to be thrown down in a struggle." At another time she said: "I
want a man with all his vitality, so that he can torture and kill my body." We
seem to see here clearly the ancient biological character of animal
courtship, the desire of the female to be violently subjugated by the male. In
this case it was united to sensitiveness to the sexual domination of an

intellectual man, and the subject also sought to stimulate her lovers'
intellectual tastes. (Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xx, fasc. 5-6, p. 528.)
This association between love and pain still persists even among the most
normal civilized men and women possessing well-developed sexual
impulses. The masculine tendency to delight in domination, the feminine
tendency to delight in submission, still maintain the ancient traditions when
the male animal pursued the female. The phenomena of "marriage by
capture," in its real and its simulated forms, have been traced to various
causes. But it has to be remembered that these causes could only have been
operative in the presence of a favorable emotional aptitude, constituted by
the zoölogical history of our race and still traceable even today. To exert
power, as psychologists well recognize, is one of our most primary
impulses, and it always tends to be manifested in the attitude of a man
toward the woman he loves.[73]
It might be possible to maintain that the primitive element of more or less
latent cruelty in courtship tends to be more rather than less marked in
civilized man. In civilization the opportunity of dissipating the surplus
energy of the courtship process by inflicting pain on rivals usually has to be
inhibited; thus the woman to be wooed tends to become the recipient of the
whole of this energy, both in its pleasure-giving and its pain-giving aspects.
Moreover, the natural process of courtship, as it exists among animals and
usually among the lower human races, tends to become disguised and
distorted in civilization, as well by economic conditions as by conventional
social conditions and even ethical prescription. It becomes forgotten that the
woman's pleasure is an essential element in the process of courtship. A
woman is often reduced to seek a man for the sake of maintenance; she is
taught that pleasure is sinful or shameful, that sex-matters are disgusting,
and that it is a woman's duty, and also her best policy, to be in subjection to
her husband. Thus, various external checks which normally inhibit any
passing over of masculine sexual energy into cruelty are liable to be
removed.
We have to admit that a certain pleasure in manifesting his power over a
woman by inflicting pain upon her is an outcome and survival of the
primitive process of courtship, and an almost or quite normal constituent of
the sexual impulse in man. But it must be at once added that in the normal

well-balanced and well-conditioned man this constituent of the sexual
impulse, when present, is always held in check. When the normal man
inflicts, or feels the impulse to inflict, some degree of physical pain on the
woman he loves he can scarcely be said to be moved by cruelty. He feels,
more or less obscurely, that the pain he inflicts, or desires to inflict, is really
a part of his love, and that, moreover, it is not really resented by the woman
on whom it is exercised. His feeling is by no means always according to
knowledge, but it has to be taken into account as an essential part of his
emotional state. The physical force, the teasing and bullying, which he may
be moved to exert under the stress of sexual excitement, are, he usually
more or less unconsciously persuades himself, not really unwelcome to the
object of his love.[74] Moreover, we have to bear in mind the fact—a very
significant fact from more than one point of view—that the normal
manifestations of a woman's sexual pleasure are exceedingly like those of
pain. "The outward expressions of pain," as a lady very truly writes,
—"tears, cries, etc.,—which are laid stress on to prove the cruelty of the
person who inflicts it, are not so different from those of a woman in the
ecstasy of passion, when she implores the man to desist, though that is
really the last thing she desires."[75] If a man is convinced that he is causing
real and unmitigated pain, he becomes repentant at once. If this is not the
case he must either be regarded as a radically abnormal person or as carried
away by passion to a point of temporary insanity.
The intimate connection of love with pain, its tendency to approach cruelty,
is seen in one of the most widespread of the occasional and non-essential
manifestations of strong sexual emotion, especially in women, the tendency
to bite. We may find references to love-bites in the literature of ancient as
well as of modern times, in the East as well as in the West. Plautus,
Catullus, Propertius, Horace, Ovid, Petronius, and other Latin writers refer
to bites as associated with kisses and usually on the lips. Plutarch says that
Flora, the mistress of Cnæus Pompey, in commending her lover remarked
that he was so lovable that she could never leave him without giving him a
bite. In the Arabic Perfumed Garden there are many references to love-
bites, while in the Indian Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana a chapter is devoted to
this subject. Biting in love is also common among the South Slavs.[76] The
phenomenon is indeed sufficiently familiar to enable Heine, in one of his
Romancero, to describe those marks by which the ancient chronicler states

that Edith Swanneck recognized Harold, after the Battle of Hastings, as the
scars of the bites she had once given him.
It would be fanciful to trace this tendency back to that process of devouring
to which sexual congress has, in the primitive stages of its evolution, been
reduced. But we may probably find one of the germs of the love-bite in the
attitude of many mammals during or before coitus; in attaining a firm grip
of the female it is not uncommon (as may be observed in the donkey) for
the male to seize the female's neck between his teeth. The horse sometimes
bites the mare before coitus and it is said that among the Arabs when a mare
is not apt for coitus she is sent to pasture with a small ardent horse, who
excites her by playing with her and biting her.[77] It may be noted, also, that
dogs often show their affection for their masters by gentle bites. Children
also, as Stanley Hall has pointed out, are similarly fond of biting.
Perhaps a still more important factor is the element of combat in
tumescence, since the primitive conditions associated with tumescence
provide a reservoir of emotions which are constantly drawn on even in the
sexual excitement of individuals belonging to civilization. The tendency to
show affection by biting is, indeed, commoner among women than among
men and not only in civilization. It has been noted among idiot girls as well
as among the women of various savage races. It may thus be that the
conservative instincts of women have preserved a primitive tendency that at
its origin marked the male more than the female. But in any case the
tendency to bite at the climax of sexual excitement is so common and
widespread that it must be regarded, when occurring in women, as coming
within the normal range of variation in such manifestations. The gradations
are of wide extent; while in its slight forms it is more or less normal and is
one of the origins of the kiss,[78] in its extreme forms it tends to become one
of the most violent and antisocial of sexual aberrations.
A correspondent writes regarding his experience of biting and being bitten:
"I have often felt inclination to bite a woman I love, even when not in coitus
or even excited. (I like doing so also with my little boy, playfully, as a cat
and kittens.) There seem to be several reasons for this: (1) the muscular
effect relieves me; (2) I imagine I am giving the woman pleasure; (3) I seem
to attain to a more intimate possession of the loved one. I cannot remember
when I first felt desire to be bitten in coitus, or whether the idea was first

suggested to me. I was initiated into pinching by a French prostitute who
once pinched my nates in coitus, no doubt as a matter of business; it
heightened my pleasure, perhaps by stimulating muscular movement. It
does not occur to me to ask to be pinched when I am very much excited
already, but only at an earlier stage, no doubt with the object of promoting
excitement. Apart altogether from sexual excitement, being pinched is
unpleasant to me. It has not seemed to me that women usually like to be
bitten. One or two women have bitten and sucked my flesh. (The latter does
not affect me.) I like being bitten, partly for the same reason as I like being
pinched, because if spontaneous it is a sign of my partner's amorousness
and the biting never seems too hard. Women do not usually seem to like
being bitten, though there are exceptions; 'I should like to bite you and I
should like you to bite me,' said one woman; I did so hard, in coitus, and
she did not flinch." "She is particularly anxious to eat me alive," another
correspondent writes, "and nothing gives her greater satisfaction than to tear
open my clothes and fasten her teeth into my flesh until I yell for mercy.
My experience has generally been, however," the same correspondent
continues, "that the cruelty is unconscious. A woman just grows mad with
the desire to squeeze or bite something, with a complete unconsciousness of
what result it will produce in the victim. She is astonished when she sees
the result and will hardly believe she has done it." It is unnecessary to
accumulate evidence of a tendency which is sufficiently common to be
fairly well known, but one or two quotations may be presented to show its
wide distribution. In the Kama Sutra we read: "If she is very exalted, and if
in the exaltation of her passionate transports she begins a sort of combat,
then she takes her lover by the hair, draws his head to hers, kisses his lower
lip, and then in her delirium bites him all over his body, shutting her eyes";
it is added that with the marks of such bites lovers can remind each other of
their affections, and that such love will last for ages. In Japan the maiden of
Ainu race feels the same impulse. A. H. Savage Landor (Alone with the
Hairy Ainu, 1893, p. 140) says of an Ainu girl: "Loving and biting went
together with her. She could not do the one without the other. As we sat on a
stone in the twilight she began by gently biting my fingers without hurting
me, as affectionate dogs do to their masters. She then bit my arm, then my
shoulder, and when she had worked herself up into a passion she put her
arms around my neck and bit my cheeks. It was undoubtedly a curious way
of making love, and, when I had been bitten all over, and was pretty tired of

the new sensation, we retired to our respective homes. Kissing, apparently,
was an unknown art to her."
The significance of biting, and the close relationship which, as will have to
be pointed out later, it reveals to other phenomena, may be illustrated by
some observations which have been made by Alonzi on the peasant women
of Sicily. "The women of the people," he remarks, "especially in the
districts where crimes of blood are prevalent, give vent to their affection for
their little ones by kissing and sucking them on the neck and arms till they
make them cry convulsively; all the while they say: 'How sweet you are! I
will bite you, I will gnaw you all over,' exhibiting every appearance of great
pleasure. If a child commits some slight fault they do not resort to simple
blows, but pursue it through the street and bite it on the face, ears, and arms
until the blood flows. At such moments the face of even a beautiful woman
is transformed, with injected eyes, gnashing teeth, and convulsive tremors.
Among both men and women a very common threat is 'I will drink your
blood.' It is told on ocular evidence that a man who had murdered another in
a quarrel licked the hot blood from the victim's hand." (G. Alonzi, Archivio
di Psichiatria, vol. vi, fasc. 4.) A few years ago a nurse girl in New York
was sentenced to prison for cruelty to the baby in her charge. The mother
had frequently noticed that the child was in pain and at last discovered the
marks of teeth on its legs. The girl admitted that she had bitten the child
because that action gave her intense pleasure. (Alienist and Neurologist,
August, 1901, p. 558.) In the light of such observations as these we may
understand a morbid perversion of affection such as was recorded in the
London police news some years ago (1894). A man of 30 was charged with
ill-treating his wife's illegitimate daughter, aged 3, during a period of many
months; her lips, eyes, and hands were bitten and bruised from sucking, and
sometimes her pinafore was covered with blood. "Defendant admitted he
had bitten the child because he loved it."
It is not surprising that such phenomena as these should sometimes be the
stimulant and accompaniment to the sexual act. Ferriani thus reports such a
case in the words of the young man's mistress: "Certainly he is a strange,
maddish youth, though he is fond of me and spends money on me when he
has any. He likes much sexual intercourse, but, to tell the truth, he has worn
out my patience, for before our embraces there are always struggles which
become assaults. He tells me he has no pleasure except when he sees me

crying on account of his bites and vigorous pinching. Lately, just before
going with me, when I was groaning with pleasure, he threw himself on me
and at the moment of emission furiously bit my right cheek till the blood
came. Then he kissed me and begged my pardon, but would do it again if
the wish took him." (L. Ferriani, Archivio di Psicopatie Sessuale, vol. i,
fasc. 7 and 8, 1896, p. 107.)
In morbid cases biting may even become a substitute for coitus. Thus, Moll
(Die Konträre Sexualempfindung, second edition, p. 323) records the case
of a hysterical woman who was sexually anesthetic, though she greatly
loved her husband. It was her chief delight to bite him till the blood flowed,
and she was content if, instead of coitus, he bit her and she him, though she
was grieved if she inflicted much pain. In other still more morbid cases the
fear of inflicting pain is more or less abolished.
An idealized view of the impulse of love to bite and devour is presented in
the following passage from a letter by a lady who associates this impulse
with the idea of the Last Supper: "Your remarks about the Lord's Supper in
'Whitman' make it natural to me to tell you my thoughts about that 'central
sacrament of Christianity.' I cannot tell many people because they
misunderstand, and a clergyman, a very great friend of mine, when I once
told what I thought and felt, said I was carnal. He did not understand the
divinity and intensity of human love as I understand it. Well, when one
loves anyone very much,—a child, a woman, or a man,—one loves
everything belonging to him: the things he wears, still more his hands, and
his face, every bit of his body. We always want to have all, or part, of him
as part of ourselves. Hence the expression: I could devour you, I love you
so. In some such warm, devouring way Jesus Christ, I have always felt,
loved each and every human creature. So it was that he took this mystery of
food, which by eating became part of ourselves, as the symbol of the most
intense human love, the most intense Divine love. Some day, perhaps, love
will be so understood by all that this sacrament will cease to be a
superstition, a bone of contention, an 'article' of the church, and become, in
all simplicity, a symbol of pure love."
While in men it is possible to trace a tendency to inflict pain, or the
simulacrum of pain, on the women they love, it is still easier to trace in
women a delight in experiencing physical pain when inflicted by a lover,

and an eagerness to accept subjection to his will. Such a tendency is
certainly normal. To abandon herself to her lover, to be able to rely on his
physical strength and mental resourcefulness, to be swept out of herself and
beyond the control of her own will, to drift idly in delicious submission to
another and stronger will—this is one of the commonest aspirations in a
young woman's intimate love-dreams. In our own age these aspirations
most often only find their expression in such dreams. In ages when life was
more nakedly lived, and emotion more openly expressed, it was easier to
trace this impulse. In the thirteenth century we have found Marie de France
—a French poetess living in England who has been credited with "an
exquisite sense of the generosities and delicacy of the heart," and whose
work was certainly highly appreciated in the best circles and among the
most cultivated class of her day—describing as a perfect, wise, and
courteous knight a man who practically commits a rape on a woman who
has refused to have anything to do with him, and, in so acting, he wins her
entire love. The savage beauty of New Caledonia furnishes no better
illustration of the fascination of force, for she, at all events, has done her
best to court the violence she undergoes. In Middleton's Spanish Gypsy we
find exactly the same episode, and the unhappy Portuguese nun wrote:
"Love me for ever and make me suffer still more." To find in literature more
attenuated examples of the same tendency is easy. Shakespeare, whose
observation so little escaped, has seldom depicted the adult passion of a
grown woman, but in the play which he has mainly devoted to this subject
he makes Cleopatra refer to "amorous pinches," and she says in the end:
"The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, which hurts and is desired." "I
think the Sabine woman enjoyed being carried off like that," a woman
remarked in front of Rubens's "Rape of the Sabines," confessing that such a
method of love-making appealed strongly to herself, and it is probable that
the majority of women would be prepared to echo that remark.
It may be argued that pain cannot give pleasure, and that when what would
usually be pain is felt as pleasure it cannot be regarded as pain at all. It must
be admitted that the emotional state is often somewhat complex. Moreover,
women by no means always agree in the statement of their experience. It is
noteworthy, however, that even when the pleasurableness of pain in love is
denied it is still admitted that, under some circumstances, pain, or the idea
of pain, is felt as pleasurable. I am indebted to a lady for a somewhat

elaborate discussion of this subject, which I may here quote at length: "As
regards physical pain, though the idea of it is sometimes exciting, I think
the reality is the reverse. A very slight amount of pain destroys my pleasure
completely. This was the case with me for fully a month after marriage, and
since. When pain has occasionally been associated with passion, pleasure
has been sensibly diminished. I can imagine that, when there is a want of
sensitiveness so that the tender kiss or caress might fail to give pleasure,
more forcible methods are desired; but in that case what would be pain to a
sensitive person would be only a pleasant excitement, and it could not be
truly said that such obtuse persons liked pain, though they might appear to
do so. I cannot think that anyone enjoys what is pain to them, if only from
the fact that it detracts and divides the attention. This, however, is only my
own idea drawn from my own negative experience. No woman has ever
told me that she would like to have pain inflicted on her. On the other hand,
the desire to inflict pain seems almost universal among men. I have only
met one man in whom I have never at any time been able to detect it. At the
same time most men shrink from putting their ideas into practice. A friend
of my husband finds his chief pleasure in imagining women hurt and ill-
treated, but is too tender-hearted ever to inflict pain on them in reality, even
when they are willing to submit to it. Perhaps a woman's readiness to
submit to pain to please a man may sometimes be taken for pleasure in it.
Even when women like the idea of pain, I fancy it is only because it implies
subjection to the man, from association with the fact that physical pleasure
must necessarily be preceded by submission to his will."
In a subsequent communication this lady enlarged and perhaps somewhat
modified her statements on this point:—
"I don't think that what I said to you was quite correct. Actual pain gives me
no pleasure, yet the idea of pain does, if inflicted by way of discipline and
for the ultimate good of the person suffering it. This is essential. For
instance, I once read a poem in which the devil and the lost souls in hell
were represented as recognizing that they could not be good except under
torture, but that while suffering the purifying actions of the flames of hell
they so realized the beauty of holiness that they submitted willingly to their
agony and praised God for the sternness of his judgment. This poem gave
me decided physical pleasure, yet I know that if my hand were held in a fire
for five minutes I should feel nothing but the pain of the burning. To get the

feeling of pleasure, too, I must, for the moment, revert to my old religious
beliefs and my old notion that mere suffering has an elevating influence;
one's emotions are greatly modified by one's beliefs. When I was about
fifteen I invented a game which I played with a younger sister, in which we
were supposed to be going through a process of discipline and preparation
for heaven after death. Each person was supposed to enter this state on
dying and to pass successively into the charge of different angels named
after the special virtues it was their function to instill. The last angel was
that of Love, who governed solely by the quality whose name he bore. In
the lower stages, we were under an angel called Severity who prepared us
by extreme harshness and by exacting implicit obedience to arbitrary orders
for the acquirement of later virtues. Our duties were to superintend the
weather, paint the sunrise and sunset, etc., the constant work involved
exercising us in patience and submission. The physical pleasure came in in
inventing and recounting to each other our day's work and the penalties and
hardships we had been subjected to. We never told each other that we got
any physical pleasure out of this, and I cannot therefore be sure that my
sister did so; I only imagine she did because she entered so heartily into the
spirit of the game. I could get as much pleasure by imagining myself the
angel and inflicting the pain, under the conditions mentioned; but my sister
did not like this so much, as she then had no companion in subjection. I
could not, however, thus reverse my feelings in regard to a man, as it would
appear to me unnatural, and, besides, the greater physical strength is
essential in the superior position. I can, however, by imagining myself a
man, sometimes get pleasure in conceiving myself as educating and
disciplining a woman by severe measures. There is, however, no real
cruelty in this idea, as I always imagine her liking it.
"I only get pleasure in the idea of a woman submitting herself to pain and
harshness from the man she loves when the following conditions are
fulfilled: 1. She must be absolutely sure of the man's love. 2. She must have
perfect confidence in his judgment. 3. The pain must be deliberately
inflicted, not accidental. 4. It must be inflicted in kindness and for her own
improvement, not in anger or with any revengeful feelings, as that would
spoil one's ideal of the man. 5. The pain must not be excessive and must be
what when we were children we used to call a 'tidy' pain; i.e., there must be
no mutilation, cutting, etc. 6. Last, one would have to feel very sure of one's

own influence over the man. So much for the idea. As I have never suffered
pain under a combination of all these conditions, I have no right to say that
I should or should not experience pleasure from its infliction in reality."
Another lady writes: "I quite agree that the idea of pain may be pleasurable,
but must be associated with something to be gained by it. My experience is
that it [coitus] does often hurt for a few moments, but that passes and the
rest is easy; so that the little hurt is nothing terrible, but all the same
annoying if only for the sake of a few minutes' pleasure, which is not long
enough. I do not know how my experience compares with other women's,
but I feel sure that in my case the time needed is longer than usual, and the
longer the better, always, with me. As to liking pain—no, I do not really
like it, although I can tolerate pain very well, of any kind; but I like to feel
force and strength; this is usual, I think, women being—or supposed to be
—passive in love. I have not found that 'pain at once kills pleasure.'"
Again, another lady briefly states that, for her, pain has a mental
fascination, and that such pain as she has had she has liked, but that, if it
had been any stronger, pleasure would have been destroyed.
The evidence thus seems to point, with various shades of gradation, to the
conclusion that the idea or even the reality of pain in sexual emotion is
welcomed by women, provided that this element of pain is of small amount
and subordinate to the pleasure which is to follow it. Unless coitus is
fundamentally pleasure the element of pain must necessarily be unmitigated
pain, and a craving for pain unassociated with a greater satisfaction to
follow it cannot be regarded as normal.
In this connection I may refer to a suggestive chapter on "The Enjoyment of
Pain" in Hirn's Origins of Art. "If we take into account," says Hirn, "the
powerful stimulating effect which is produced by acute pain, we may easily
understand why people submit to momentary unpleasantness for the sake of
enjoying the subsequent excitement. This motive leads to the deliberate
creation, not only of pain-sensations, but also of emotions in which pain
enters as an element. The violent activity which is involved in the reaction
against fear, and still more in that against anger, affords us a sensation of
pleasurable excitement which is well worth the cost of the passing
unpleasantness. It is, moreover, notorious that some persons have developed

a peculiar art of making the initial pain of anger so transient that they can
enjoy the active elements in it with almost undivided delight. Such an
accomplishment is far more difficult in the case of sorrow.... The creation of
pain-sensations may be explained as a desperate device for enhancing the
intensity of the emotional state."
The relation of pain and pleasure to emotion has been thoroughly discussed,
I may add, by H. R. Marshall in his Pain, Pleasure, and Æsthetics. He
contends that pleasure and pain are "general qualities, one of which must,
and either of which may, belong to any fixed element of consciousness."
"Pleasure," he considers, "is experienced whenever the physical activity
coincident with the psychic state to which the pleasure is attached involves
the use of surplus stored force." We can see, therefore, how, if pain acts as a
stimulant to emotion, it becomes the servant of pleasure by supplying it
with surplus stored force.
This problem of pain is thus one of psychic dynamics. If we realize this we
shall begin to understand the place of cruelty in life. "One ought to learn
anew about cruelty," said Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil, 229), "and
open one's eyes. Almost everything that we call 'higher culture' is based
upon the spiritualizing and intensifying of cruelty.... Then, to be sure, we
must put aside teaching the blundering psychology of former times, which
could only teach with regard to cruelty that it originated at the sight of the
suffering of others; there is an abundant, superabundant enjoyment even in
one's own suffering, in causing one's own suffering." The element of
paradox disappears from this statement if we realize that it is not a question
of "cruelty," but of the dynamics of pain.
Camille Bos in a suggestive essay ("Du Plaisir de la Douleur," Revue
Philosophique, July, 1902) finds the explanation of the mystery in that
complexity of the phenomena to which I have already referred. Both pain
and pleasure are complex feelings, the resultant of various components, and
we name that resultant in accordance with the nature of the strongest
component. "Thus we give to a complexus a name which strictly belongs
only to one of its factors, and in pain all is not painful." When pain
becomes a desired end Camille Bos regards the desire as due to three
causes: (1) the pain contrasts with and revives a pleasure which custom
threatens to dull; (2) the pain by preceding the pleasure accentuates the

positive character of the latter; (3) pain momentarily raises the lowered
level of sensibility and restores to the organism for a brief period the faculty
of enjoyment it had lost.
It must therefore be said that, in so far as pain is pleasurable, it is so only in
so far as it is recognized as a prelude to pleasure, or else when it is an actual
stimulus to the nerves conveying the sensation of pleasure. The
nymphomaniac who experienced an orgasm at the moment when the knife
passed through her clitoris (as recorded by Mantegazza) and the prostitute
who experienced keen pleasure when the surgeon removed vegetations
from her vulva (as recorded by Féré) took no pleasure in pain, but in one
case the intense craving for strong sexual emotion, and in the other the
long-blunted nerves of pleasure, welcomed the abnormally strong impulse;
and the pain of the incision, if felt at all, was immediately swallowed up in
the sensation of pleasure. Moll remarks (Konträre Sexualempfindung, third
edition, p. 278) that even in man a trace of physical pain may be normally
combined with sexual pleasure, when the vagina contracts on the penis at
the moment of ejaculation, the pain, when not too severe, being almost
immediately felt as pleasure. That there is no pleasure in the actual pain,
even in masochism, is indicated by the following statement which Krafft-
Ebing gives as representing the experiences of a masochist (Psychopathia
Sexualis English translation, p. 201): "The relation is not of such a nature
that what causes physical pain is simply perceived as physical pleasure, for
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) in the preoccupation of consciousness
with sexual emotion the idea of maltreatment remains merely a symbol,
without its quality of pain. To a certain extent there is overcompensation of
physical pain in psychic pleasure, and only the excess remains in
consciousness as psychic 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." This statement cannot be said to clear up the matter
entirely; but it is fairly evident that, when a woman says that she finds
pleasure in the pain inflicted by a lover, she means that under the special
circumstances she finds pleasure in treatment which would at other times be
felt as pain, or else that the slight real pain experienced is so quickly
followed by overwhelming pleasure that in memory the pain itself seems to
have been pleasure and may even be regarded as the symbol of pleasure.
There is a special peculiarity of physical pain, which may be well borne in
mind in considering the phenomena now before us, for it helps to account
for the tolerance with which the idea of pain is regarded. I refer to the great
ease with which physical pain is forgotten, a fact well known to all mothers,
or to all who have been present at the birth of a child. As Professor von
Tschisch points out ("Der Schmerz," Zeitschrift für Psychologie und
Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, Bd. xxvi, ht. 1 and 2, 1901), memory can
only preserve impressions as a whole; physical pain consists of a sensation
and of a feeling. But memory cannot easily reproduce the definite sensation
of the pain, and thus the whole memory is disintegrated and speedily
forgotten. It is quite otherwise with moral suffering, which persists in
memory and has far more influence on conduct. No one wishes to suffer
moral pain or has any pleasure even in the idea of suffering it.
It is the presence of this essential tendency which leads to a certain apparent
contradiction in a woman's emotions. On the one hand, rooted in the
maternal instinct, we find pity, tenderness, and compassion; on the other
hand, rooted in the sexual instinct, we find a delight in roughness, violence,
pain, and danger, sometimes in herself, sometimes also in others. The one
impulse craves something innocent and helpless, to cherish and protect; the
other delights in the spectacle of recklessness, audacity, sometimes even
effrontery.[79] A woman is not perfectly happy in her lover unless he can
give at least some satisfaction to each of these two opposite longings.
The psychological satisfaction which women tend to feel in a certain degree
of pain in love is strictly co-ordinated with a physical fact. Women possess
a minor degree of sensibility in the sexual region. This fact must not be
misunderstood. On the one hand, it by no means begs the question as to

whether women's sensibility generally is greater or less than that of men;
this is a disputed question and the evidence is still somewhat conflicting.[80]
On the other hand, it also by no means involves a less degree of specific
sexual pleasure in women, for the tactile sensibility of the sexual organs is
no index to the specific sexual sensibility of those organs when in a state of
tumescence. The real significance of the less tactile sensibility of the genital
region in women is to be found in parturition and the special liability of the
sexual region in women to injury.[81] The women who are less sensitive in
this respect would be better able and more willing to endure the risks of
childbirth, and would therefore tend to supplant those who were more
sensitive. But, as a by-product of this less degree of sensibility, we have a
condition in which physical irritation amounting even to pain may become
to normal women in the state of extreme tumescence a source of
pleasurable excitement, such as it would rarely be to normal men.

To Calmann appear to be due the first carefully made observations showing
the minor sensibility of the genital tract in women. (Adolf Calmann,
"Sensibilitütsprufungen am weiblicken Genitale nach forensichen
Gesichtspunkten," Archiv für Gynäkologie, 1898, p. 454.) He investigated
the vagina, urethra, and anus in eighteen women and found a great lack of
sensibility, least marked in anus, and most marked in vagina. [This
distribution of the insensitiveness alone indicates that it is due, as I have
suggested, to natural selection.] Sometimes a finger in the vagina could not
be felt at all. One woman, when a catheter was introduced into the anus,
said it might be the vagina or urethra, but was certainly not the anus.
(Calmann remarks that he was careful to put his questions in an intelligible
form.) The women were only conscious of the urine being drawn off when
they heard the familiar sound of the stream or when the bladder was very
full; if the sound of the stream was deadened by a towel they were quite
unconscious that the bladder had been emptied. [In confirmation of this
statement I have noticed that in a lady whose distended bladder it was
necessary to empty by the catheter shortly before the birth of her first child
—but who had, indeed, been partly under the influence of chloroform—
there was no consciousness of the artificial relief; she merely remarked that
she thought she could now relieve herself.] There was some sense of
temperature, but sense of locality, tactile sense, and judgment of size were
often widely erroneous. It is significant that virgins were just as insensitive
as married women or those who had had children. Calmann's experiments
appear to be confirmed by the experiments of Marco Treves, of Turin, on
the thermoesthesiometry of mucous membranes, as reported to the Turin
International Congress of Physiology (and briefly noted in Nature,
November 21, 1901). Treves found that the sensitivity of mucous
membranes is always less than that of the skin. The mucosa of the urethra
and of the cervix uteri was quite incapable of heat and cold sensations, and
even the cautery excited only slight, and that painful, sensation.
In further illustration of this point reference may be made to the not
infrequent cases in which the whole process of parturition and the enormous
distention of tissues which it involves proceed throughout in an almost or
quite painless manner. It is sufficient to refer to two cases reported in Paris
by Macé and briefly summarized in the British Medical Journal, May 25,
1901. In the first the patient was a primipara 20 years of age, and, until the

dilatation of the cervix was complete and efforts at expulsion had
commenced, the uterine contractions were quite painless. In the second
case, the mother, aged 25, a tripara, had previously had very rapid labors;
she awoke in the middle of the night without pains, but during micturition
the fetal head appeared at the vulva, and was soon born.
Further illustration may be found in those cases in which severe
inflammatory processes may take place in the genital canal without being
noticed. Thus, Maxwell reports the case of a young Chinese woman,
certainly quite normal, in whom after the birth of her first child the vagina
became almost obliterated, yet beyond slight occasional pain she noticed
nothing wrong until the husband found that penetration was impossible
(British Medical Journal, January 11, 1902, p. 78). The insensitiveness of
the vagina and its contrast, in this respect, with the penis—though we are
justified in regarding the penis as being, like organs of special sense,
relatively deficient in general sensibility—are vividly presented in such an
incident as the following, reported a few years ago in America by Dr. G. W.
Allen in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal: A man came under
observation with an edematous, inflamed penis. The wife, the night
previous, on advice of friends, had injected pure carbolic acid into the
vagina just previous to coitus. The husband, ignorant of the fact,
experienced untoward burning and smarting during and after coitus, but
thought little of it, and soon fell asleep. The next morning there were large
blisters on the penis, but it was no longer painful. When seen by Dr. Allen
the prepuce was retracted and edematous, the whole penis was much
swollen, and there were large, perfectly raw surfaces on either side of the
glans.
In this connection we may well bring into line a remarkable group of
phenomena concerning which much evidence has now accumulated. I refer
to the use of various appliances, fixed in or around the penis, whether
permanently or temporarily during coitus, such appliance being employed
at the woman's instigation and solely in order to heighten her excitement in
congress. These appliances have their great center among the Indonesian
peoples (in Borneo, Java, Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, the Philippines,
etc.), thence extending in a modified form through China, to become, it
appears, considerably prevalent in Russia; I have also a note of their
appearance in India. They have another widely diffused center, through

which, however, they are more sparsely scattered, among the American
Indians of the northern and more especially of the southern continents.
Amerigo Vespucci and other early travelers noted the existence of some of
these appliances, and since Miklucho-Macleay carefully described them as
used in Borneo[82] their existence has been generally recognized. They are
usually regarded merely as ethnological curiosities. As such they would not
concern us here. Their real significance for us is that they illustrate the
comparative insensitiveness of the genital canal in women, while at the
same time they show that a certain amount of what we cannot but regard as
painful stimulation is craved by women, in order to heighten tumescence
and increase sexual pleasure, even though it can only by procured by
artificial methods. It is, of course, possible to argue that in these cases we
are not concerned with pain at all, but with a strong stimulation that is felt
as purely pleasurable. There can be no doubt, however, that in the absence
of sexual excitement this stimulation would be felt as purely painful, and—
in the light of our previous discussion—we may, perhaps, fairly regard it as
a painful stimulation which is craved, not because it is itself pleasurable,
but because it heightens the highly pleasurable state of tumescence.
Borneo, the geographical center of the Indonesian world, appears also to be
the district in which these instruments are most popular. The ampallang,
palang, kambion, or sprit-sail yard, as it is variously termed, is a little rod
of bone or metal nearly two inches in length, rounded at the ends, and used
by the Kyans and Dyaks of Borneo. Before coitus it is inserted into a
transverse orifice in the penis, made by a painful and somewhat dangerous
operation and kept open by a quill. Two or more of these instruments are
occasionally worn. Sometimes little brushes are attached to each end of the
instrument. Another instrument, used by the Dyaks, but said to have been
borrowed from the Malays, is the palang anus, which is a ring or collar of
plaited palm-fiber, furnished with a pair of stiffish horns of the same wiry
material; it is worn on the neck of the glans and fits tight to the skin so as
not to slip off. (Brooke Low, "The Natives of Borneo," Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, August and November, 1892, p. 45; the
ampallang and similar instruments are described by Ploss and Bartels, Das
Weib, Bd. i, chapter xvii; also in Untrodden Fields of Anthropology, by a
French army surgeon, 1898, vol. ii, pp. 135-141; also Mantegazza, Gli
Amori degli Uomini, French translation, p. 83 et seq.) Riedel informed

Miklucho-Macleay that in the Celebes the Alfurus fasten the eyelids of
goats with the eyelashes round the corona of the glans penis, and in Java a
piece of goatskin is used in a similar way, so as to form a hairy sheath
(Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1876, pp. 22-25), while among the Batta, of
Sumatra, Hagen found that small stones are inserted by an incision under
the skin of the penis (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1891, ht. 3, p. 351).
In the Malay peninsula Stevens found instruments somewhat similar to the
ampallang still in use among some tribes, and among others formerly in
use. He thinks they were brought from Borneo. (H. V. Stevens, Zeitschrift
für Ethnologie, 1896, ht. 4, p. 181.) Bloch, who brings forward other
examples of similar devices (Beiträge zur Ætiologie der Psychopathia
Sexualis, pp. 56-58), considers that the Australian mica operation may thus
in part be explained.
Such instruments are not, however, entirely unknown in Europe. In France,
in the eighteenth century, it appears that rings, sometimes set with hard
knobs, and called "aides," were occasionally used by men to heighten the
pleasure of women in intercourse. (Dühren, Marquis de Sade, 1901, p. 130.)
In Russia, according to Weissenberg, of Elizabethsgrad, it is not uncommon
to use elastic rings set with little teeth; these rings are fastened around the
base of the glans. (Weissenberg, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1893, ht. 2, p.
135.) This instrument must have been brought to Russia from the East, for
Burton (in the notes to his Arabian Nights) mentions a precisely similar
instrument as in use in China. Somewhat similar is the "Chinese hedgehog,"
a wreath of fine, soft feathers with the quills solidly fastened by silver wire
to a ring of the same metal, which is slipped over the glans. In South
America the Araucanians of Argentina use a little horsehair brush fastened
around the penis; one of these is in the museum at La Plata; it is said the
custom may have been borrowed from the Patagonians; these instruments,
called geskels, are made by the women and the workmanship is very
delicate. (Lehmann-Nitsche, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1900, ht. 6, p. 491.)
It is noteworthy that a somewhat similar tuft of horsehair is also worn in
Borneo. (Breitenstein, 21 Jahre in India, 1899, pt. i, p. 227.) Most of the
accounts state that the women attach great importance to the gratification
afforded by such instruments. In Borneo a modest woman symbolically
indicates to her lover the exact length of the ampallang she would prefer by
leaving at a particular spot a cigarette of that length. Miklucho-Macleay

considers that these instruments were invented by women. Brooke Low
remarks that "no woman once habituated to its use will ever dream of
permitting her bedfellow to discontinue the practice of wearing it," and
Stevens states that at one time no woman would marry a man who was not
furnished with such an apparatus. It may be added that a very similar
appliance may be found in European countries (especially Germany) in the
use of a condom furnished with irregularities, or a frill, in order to increase
the woman's excitement. It is not impossible to find evidence that, in
European countries, even in the absence of such instruments, the craving
which they gratify still exists in women. Thus, Mauriac tells of a patient
with vegetations on the glans who delayed treatment because his mistress
liked him so best (art. "Végétations," Dictionnaire de Médecine et
Chirurgie pratique).
It may seem that such impulses and such devices to gratify them are
altogether unnatural. This is not so. They have a zoölogical basis and in
many animals are embodied in the anatomical structure. Many rodents,
ruminants, and some of the carnivora show natural developments of the
penis closely resembling some of those artificially adopted by man. Thus
the guinea-pigs possess two horny styles attached to the penis, while the
glans of the penis is covered with sharp spines. Some of the Caviidæ also
have two sharp, horny saws at the side of the penis. The cat, the rhinoceros,
the tapir, and other animals possess projecting structures on the penis, and
some species of ruminants, such as the sheep, the giraffe, and many
antelopes, have, attached to the penis, long filiform processes through
which the urethra passes. (F. H. A. Marshall, The Physiology of
Reproduction, pp. 246-248.)
We find, even in creatures so delicate and ethereal as the butterflies, a
whole armory of keen weapons for use in coitus. These were described in
detail in an elaborate and fully illustrated memoir by P. H. Gosse ("On the
Clasping Organs Ancillary to Generation in Certain Groups of the
Lepidoptera," Transactions of the Linnæan Society, second series, vol. ii,
Zoölogy, 1882). These organs, which Gosse terms harpes (or grappling
irons), are found in the Papilionidæ and are very beautiful and varied,
taking the forms of projecting claws, hooks, pikes, swords, knobs, and
strange combinations of these, commonly brought to a keen edge and then
cut into sharp teeth.

It is probable that all these structures serve to excite the sexual apparatus of
the female and to promote tumescence.
To the careless observer there may seem to be something vicious or
perverted in such manifestations in man. That opinion becomes very
doubtful when we consider how these tendencies occur in people living
under natural conditions in widely separated parts of the world. It becomes
still further untenable if we are justified in believing that the ancestors of
men possessed projecting epithelial appendages attached to the penis, and if
we accept the discovery by Friedenthal of the rudiment of these appendages
on the penis of the human fetus at an early stage (Friedenthal,
"Sonderformen der menschlichen Leibesbildung," Sexual-Probleme, Feb.,
1912, p. 129). In this case human ingenuity would merely be seeking to
supply an organ which nature has ceased to furnish, although it is still in
some cases needed, especially among peoples whose aptitude for erethism
has remained at, or fallen to, a subhuman level.
At first sight the connection between love and pain—the tendency of men
to delight in inflicting it and women in suffering it—seems strange and
inexplicable. It seems amazing that a tender and even independent woman
should maintain a passionate attachment to a man who subjects her to
physical and moral insults, and that a strong man, often intelligent,
reasonable, and even kind-hearted, should desire to subject to such insults a
woman whom he loves passionately and who has given him every final
proof of her own passion. In understanding such cases we have to
remember that it is only within limits that a woman really enjoys the pain,
discomfort, or subjection to which she submits. A little pain which the man
knows he can himself soothe, a little pain which the woman gladly accepts
as the sign and forerunner of pleasure—this degree of pain comes within
the normal limits of love and is rooted, as we have seen, in the experience
of the race. But when it is carried beyond these limits, though it may still be
tolerated because of the support it receives from its biological basis, it is no
longer enjoyed. The natural note has been too violently struck, and the
rhythm of love has ceased to be perfect. A woman may desire to be forced,
to be roughly forced, to be ravished away beyond her own will. But all the
time she only desires to be forced toward those things which are essentially
and profoundly agreeable to her. A man who fails to realize this has made
little progress in the art of love. "I like being knocked about and made to do

things I don't want to do," a woman said, but she admitted, on being
questioned, that she would not like to have much pain inflicted, and that she
might not care to be made to do important things she did not want to do.
The story of Griselda's unbounded submissiveness can scarcely be said to
be psychologically right, though it has its artistic rightness as an elaborate
fantasia on this theme justified by its conclusion.
This point is further illustrated by the following passage from a letter
written by a lady: "Submission to the man's will is still, and always must be,
the prelude to pleasure, and the association of ideas will probably always
produce this much misunderstood instinct. Now, I find, indirectly from
other women and directly from my own experience, that, when the point in
dispute is very important and the man exerts his authority, the desire to get
one's own way completely obliterates the sexual feeling, while, conversely,
in small things the sexual feeling obliterates the desire to have one's own
way. Where the two are nearly equal a conflict between them ensues, and I
can stand aside and wonder which will get the best of it, though I encourage
the sexual feeling when possible, as, if the other conquers, it leaves a sense
of great mental irritation and physical discomfort. A man should command
in small things, as in nine cases out of ten this will produce excitement. He
should advise in large matters, or he may find either that he is unable to
enforce his orders or that he produces a feeling of dislike and annoyance he
was far from intending. Women imagine men must be stronger than
themselves to excite their passion. I disagree. A passionate man has the best
chance, for in him the primitive instincts are strong. The wish to subdue the
female is one of them, and in small things he will exert his authority to
make her feel his power, while she knows that on a question of real
importance she has a good chance of getting her own way by working on
his greater susceptibility. Perhaps an illustration will show what I mean. I
was listening to the band and a girl and her fiancé came up to occupy two
seats near me. The girl sank into one seat, but for some reason the man
wished her to take the other. She refused. He repeated his order twice, the
second time so peremptorily that she changed places, and I heard him say: 'I
don't think you heard what I said. I don't expect to give an order three
times.'
"This little scene interested me, and I afterward asked the girl the following
questions:—

"'Had you any reason for taking one chair more than the other?'
"'No.'
"'Did Mr. ——'s insistence on your changing give you any pleasure?'
"'Yes' (after a little hesitation).
"'Why?'
"'I don't know.'
"'Would it have done so if you had particularly wished to sit in that chair; if,
for instance, you had had a boil on your cheek and wished to turn that side
away from him?'
"'No; certainly not. The worry of thinking he was looking at it would have
made me too cross to feel pleased.'
"Does this explain what I mean? The occasion, by the way, need not be
really important, but, as in this imaginary case of the boil, if it seems
important to the woman, irritation will outweigh the physical sensation."
I am well aware that in thus asserting a certain tendency in women to
delight in suffering pain—however careful and qualified the position I have
taken—many estimable people will cry out that I am degrading a whole sex
and generally supporting the "subjection of women." But the day for
academic discussion concerning the "subjection of women" has gone by.
The tendency I have sought to make clear is too well established by the
experience of normal and typical women—however numerous the
exceptions may be—to be called in question. I would point out to those who
would deprecate the influence of such facts in relation to social progress
that nothing is gained by regarding women as simply men of smaller
growth. They are not so; they have the laws of their own nature; their
development must be along their own lines, and not along masculine lines.
It is as true now as in Bacon's day that we only learn to command nature by
obeying her. To ignore facts is to court disappointment in our measure of
progress. The particular fact with which we have here come in contact is
very vital and radical, and most subtle in its influence. It is foolish to ignore
it; we must allow for its existence. We can neither attain a sane view of life

nor a sane social legislation of life unless we possess a just and accurate
knowledge of the fundamental instincts upon which life is built.

[61]
Various mammals, carried away by the reckless fury of the sexual
impulse, are apt to ill-treat their females (R. Müller,
Sexualbiologie, p. 123). This treatment is, however, usually only
an incident of courtship, the result of excess of ardor. "The
chaffinches and saffron-finches (Fringella and Sycalis) are very
rough wooers," says A. G. Butler (Zoölogist, 1902, p. 241); "they
sing vociferously, and chase their hens violently, knocking them
over in their flight, pursuing and savagely pecking them even on
the ground; but when once the hens become submissive, the
males change their tactics, and become for the time model
husbands, feeding their wives from their crop, and assisting in
rearing the young."

[62]
Cf. A. C. Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 107.

[63]
Marro considers that there may be transference of emotion,—the
impulse of violence generated in the male by his rivals being
turned against his partner,—according to a tendency noted by
Sully and illustrated by Ribot in his Psychology of the Emotions,
part i, chapter xii.

[64]
Several writers have found in the facts of primitive animal
courtship the explanation of the connection between love and
pain. Thus, Krafft-Ebing (Psychopathia Sexualis, English
translation of tenth German edition, p. 80) briefly notes that
outbreaks of sadism are possibly atavistic. Marro (La Pubertà,
1898, p. 219 et seq.) has some suggestive pages on this subject. It
would appear that this explanation was vaguely outlined by Jäger.

Laserre, in a Bordeaux thesis mentioned by Féré, has argued in
the same sense. Féré (L'Instinct Sexuel, p. 134), on grounds that
are scarcely sufficient, regards this explanation as merely a
superficial analogy. But it is certainly not a complete explanation.

[65]
Schäfer (Jahrbücher für Psychologie, Bd. ii, p. 128, and quoted
by Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis), in connection with a
case in which sexual excitement was produced by the sight of
battles or of paintings of them, remarks: "The pleasure of battle
and murder is so predominantly an attribute of the male sex
throughout the animal kingdom that there can be no question
about the close connection between this side of the masculine
character and male sexuality. I believe that I can show by
observation that in men who are absolutely normal, mentally and
physically, the first indefinite and incomprehensible precursors of
sexual excitement may be induced by reading exciting scenes of
chase and war. These give rise to unconscious longings for a kind
of satisfaction in warlike games (wrestling, etc.) which express
the fundamental sexual impulse to close and complete contact
with a companion, with a secondary more or less clearly defined
thought of conquest." Groos (Spiele der Menschen, 1899, p. 232)
also thinks there is more or less truth in this suggestion of a
subconscious sexual element in the playful wrestling combats of
boys. Freud considers (Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, p.
49) that the tendency to sexual excitement through muscular
activity in wrestling, etc., is one of the roots of sadism. I have
been told of normal men who feel a conscious pleasure of this
kind when lifted in games, as may happen, for instance, in
football. It may be added that in some parts of the world the suitor
has to throw the girl in a wrestling-bout in order to secure her
hand.

[66]
A minor manifestation of this tendency, appearing even in quite
normal and well-conditioned individuals, is the impulse among

boys at and after puberty to take pleasure in persecuting and
hurting lower animals or their own young companions. Some
youths display a diabolical enjoyment and ingenuity in torturing
sensitive juniors, and even a boy who is otherwise kindly and
considerate may find enjoyment in deliberately mutilating a frog.
In some cases, in boys and youths who have no true sadistic
impulse and are not usually cruel, this infliction of torture on a
lower animal produces an erection, though not necessarily any
pleasant sexual sensations.

[67]
Marro, La Pubertà, 1898, p. 223; Garnier, "La Criminalité
Juvenile," Comptes-rendus Congrès Internationale
d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Amsterdam, 1901, p. 296; Archivio
di Psichiatria, 1899, fasc. v-vi, p. 572.

[68]
Bk. ii, ch. ii.

[69]
Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, 1876, vol. i, p. 651.

[70]
Westermarck, Human Marriage, p. 388. Grosse is of the same
opinion; he considers also that the mock-capture is often an
imitation, due to admiration, of real capture; he does not believe
that the latter has ever been a form of marriage recognized by
custom and law, but only "an occasional and punishable act of
violence." (Die Formen der Familie, pp. 105-7.) This position is
too extreme.

[71]
Ernest Crawley, The Mystic Rose, 1902, p. 350 et seq. Van
Gennep rightly remarks that we cannot correctly say that the

woman is abducted from "her sex," but only from her "sexual
society."

[72]
A. Van Gennep (Rites de Passage, 1909, pp. 175-186) has put
forward a third theory, though also of a psychological character,
according to which the "capture" is a rite indicating the separation
of the young girl from the special societies of her childhood.
Gennep regards this rite as one of a vast group of "rites of
passage," which come into action whenever a person changes his
social or natural environment.

[73]
Féré (L'Instinct Sexuel, p. 133) appears to regard the satisfaction,
based on the sentiment of personal power, which may be
experienced in the suffering and subjection of a victim as an
adequate explanation of the association of pain with love. This I
can scarcely admit. It is a factor in the emotional attitude, but
when it only exists in the sexual sphere it is reasonable to base
this attitude largely on the still more fundamental biological
attitude of the male toward the female in the process of courtship.
Féré regards this biological element as merely a superficial
analogy, on the ground that an act of cruelty may become an
equivalent of coitus. But a sexual perversion is quite commonly
constituted by the selection and magnification of a single moment
in the normal sexual process.

[74]
The process may, however, be quite conscious. Thus, a
correspondent tells me that he not only finds sexual pleasure in
cruelty toward the woman he loves, but that he regards this as an
essential element. He is convinced that it gives the woman
pleasure, and that it is possible to distinguish by gesture,
inflection of voice, etc., an hysterical, assumed, or imagined
feeling of pain from real pain. He would not wish to give real
pain, and would regard that as sadism.

[75]
De Sade had already made the same remark, while Duchenne, of
Boulogne, pointed out that the facial expressions of sexual
passion and of cruelty are similar.

[76]
Κρυπτάδια, vol. vi, p. 208.

[77]
Daumas, Chevaux de Sahara, p. 49.

[78]
See in vol. iv of these Studies ("Sexual Selection in Man"),
Appendix A, on "The Origins of the Kiss."

[79]
De Stendhal (De l'Amour) mentions that when in London he was
on terms of friendship with an English actress who was the
mistress of a wealthy colonel, but privately had another lover.
One day the colonel arrived when the other man was present.
"This gentleman has called about the pony I want to sell," said the
actress. "I have come for a very different purpose," said the little
man, and thus aroused a love which was beginning to languish.

[80]
See Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, chapter vi, "The Senses."

[81]
This liability is emphasized by Adler, Die Mangelhafte
Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, p. 125.

[82]
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. viii, 1876, pp. 22-28.

II.

The Definition of Sadism—De Sade—Masochism to some Extent Normal
—Sacher-Masoch—No Real Line of Demarcation between Sadism and
Masochism—Algolagnia includes both Groups of Manifestations—The
Love-bite as a Bridge from Normal Phenomena to Algolagnia—The
Fascination of Blood—The Most Extreme Perversions are Linked on to
Normal Phenomena.

We thus see that there are here two separate groups of feelings: one, in the
masculine line, which delights in displaying force and often inflicts pain or
the simulacrum of pain; the other, in the feminine line, which delights in
submitting to that force, and even finds pleasure in a slight amount of pain,
or the idea of pain, when associated with the experiences of love. We see,
also, that these two groups of feelings are complementary. Within the limits
consistent with normal and healthy life, what men are impelled to give
women love to receive. So that we need not unduly deprecate the "cruelty"
of men within these limits, nor unduly commiserate the women who are
subjected to it.
Such a conclusion, however, as we have also seen, only holds good within
those normal limits which an attempt has here been made to determine. The
phenomena we have been considering are strictly normal phenomena,
having their basis in the conditions of tumescence and detumescence in
animal and primitive human courtship. At one point, however, when
discussing the phenomena of the love-bite, I referred to the facts which
indicate how this purely normal manifestation yet insensibly passes over
into the region of the morbid. It is an instance that enables us to realize how
even the most terrible and repugnant sexual perversions are still
demonstrably linked on to phenomena that are fundamentally normal. The
love-bite may be said to give us the key to that perverse impulse which has
been commonly called sadism.
There is some difference of opinion as to how "sadism" may be best
defined. Perhaps the simplest and most usual definition is that of Krafft-

Ebing, as sexual emotion associated with the wish to inflict pain and use
violence, or, as he elsewhere expresses it, "the impulse to cruel and violent
treatment of the opposite sex, and the coloring of the idea of such acts with
lustful feeling."[83] A more complete definition is that of Moll, who
describes sadism as a condition in which "the sexual impulse consists in the
tendency to strike, ill-use, and humiliate the beloved person."[84] This
definition has the advantage of bringing in the element of moral pain. A
further extension is made in Féré's definition as "the need of association of
violence and cruelty with sexual enjoyment, such violence or cruelty not
being necessarily exerted by the person himself who seeks sexual pleasure
in this association."[85] Garnier's definition, while comprising all these
points, further allows for the fact that a certain degree of sadism may be
regarded as normal. "Pathological sadism," he states, "is an impulsive and
obsessing sexual perversion characterized by a close connection between
suffering inflicted or mentally represented and the sexual orgasm, without
this necessary and sufficing condition frigidity usually remaining absolute."
[86] It must be added that these definitions are very incomplete if by

"sadism" we are to understand the special sexual perversions which are
displayed in De Sade's novels. Iwan Bloch ("Eugen Dühren"), in the course
of his book on De Sade, has attempted a definition strictly on this basis,
and, as will be seen, it is necessary to make it very elaborate: "A
connection, whether intentionally sought or offered by chance, of sexual
excitement and sexual enjoyment with the real or only symbolic (ideal,
illusionary) appearance of frightful and shocking events, destructive
occurrences and practices, which threaten or destroy the life, health, and
property of man and other living creatures, and threaten and interrupt the
continuity of inanimate objects, whereby the person who from such
occurrences obtains sexual enjoyment may either himself be the direct
cause, or cause them to take place by means of other persons, or merely be
the spectator, or, finally, be, voluntarily or involuntarily, the object against
which these processes are directed."[87] This definition of sadism as found
in De Sade's works is thus, more especially by its final clause, a very much
wider conception than the usual definition.
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis De Sade, was born in 1740 at Paris in
the house of the great Condé. He belonged to a very noble, ancient, and
distinguished Provençal family; Petrarch's Laura, who married a De Sade,

was one of his ancestors, and the family had cultivated both arms and letters
with success. He was, according to Lacroix, "an adorable youth whose
delicately pale and dusky face, lighted up by two large black [according to
another account blue] eyes, already bore the languorous imprint of the vice
which was to corrupt his whole being"; his voice was "drawling and
caressing"; his gait had "a softly feminine grace." Unfortunately there is no
authentic portrait of him. His early life is sketched in letter iv of his Aline et
Valcourt. On leaving the Collège-Louis-le-Grand he became a cavalry
officer and went through the Seven Years' War in Germany. There can be
little doubt that the experiences of his military life, working on a femininely
vicious temperament, had much to do with the development of his
perversion. He appears to have got into numerous scrapes, of which the
details are unknown, and his father sought to marry him to the daughter of
an aristocratic friend of his own, a noble and amiable girl of 20. It so
chanced that when young De Sade first went to the house of his future wife
only her younger sister, a girl of 13, was at home; with her he at once fell in
love and his love was reciprocated; they were both musical enthusiasts, and
she had a beautiful voice. The parents insisted on carrying out the original
scheme of marriage. De Sade's wife loved him, and, in spite of everything,
served his interests with Griselda-like devotion; she was, Ginisty remarks, a
saint, a saint of conjugal life; but her love was from the first only requited
with repulsion, contempt, and suspicion. There were, however, children of
the marriage; the career of the eldest—an estimable young man who went
into the army and also had artistic ability, but otherwise had no community
of tastes with his father—has been sketched by Paul Ginisty, who has also
edited the letters of the Marquise. De Sade's passion for the younger sister
continued (he idealized her as Juliette), though she was placed in a convent
beyond his reach, and at a much later period he eloped with her and spent
perhaps the happiest period of his life, soon terminated by her death. It is
evident that this unhappy marriage was decisive in determining De Sade's
career; he at once threw himself recklessly into every form of dissipation,
spending his health and his substance sometimes among refinedly
debauched nobles and sometimes among coarsely debauched lackeys. He
was, however, always something of an artist, something of a student,
something of a philosopher, and at an early period he began to write,
apparently at the age of 23. It was at this age, and only a few months after
his marriage, that on account of some excess he was for a time confined in

Vincennes. He was destined to spend 27 years of his life in prisons, if we
include the 13 years which in old age he passed in the asylum at Charenton.
His actual offenses were by no means so terrible as those he loved to dwell
on in imagination, and for the most part they have been greatly exaggerated.
His most extreme offenses were the indecent and forcible flagellation in
1768 of a young woman, Rosa Keller, who had accosted him in the street
for alms, and whom he induced by false pretenses to come to his house, and
the administration of aphrodisiacal bonbons to some prostitutes at
Marseilles. It is owing to the fact that the prime of his manhood was spent
in prisons that De Sade fell back on dreaming, study, and novel-writing.
Shut out from real life, he solaced his imagination with the perverted
visions—to a very large extent, however, founded on knowledge of the real
facts of perverted life in his time—which he has recorded in Justine (1781);
Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l'Ecole du Libertinage (1785); Aline et
Valcour ou le Roman Philosophique (1788); Juliette (1796); La Philosophie
dans le Boudoir (1795). These books constitute a sort of encyclopedia of
sexual perversions, an eighteenth century Psychopathia Sexualis, and
embody, at the same time, a philosophy. He was the first, Bloch remarks,
who realized the immense importance of the sexual question. His general
attitude may be illustrated by the following passage (as quoted by
Lacassagne): "If there are beings in the world whose acts shock all accepted
prejudices, we must not preach at them or punish them ... because their
bizarre tastes no more depend upon themselves than it depends on you
whether you are witty or stupid, well made or hump-backed.... What would
become of your laws, your morality, your religion, your gallows, your
Paradise, your gods, your hell, if it were shown that such and such fluids,
such fibers, or a certain acridity in the blood, or in the animal spirits, alone
suffice to make a man the object of your punishments or your rewards?" He
was enormously well read, Bloch points out, and his interest extended to
every field of literature: belles lettres, philosophy, theology, politics,
sociology, ethnology, mythology, and history. Perhaps his favorite reading
was travels. He was minutely familiar with the bible, though his attitude
was extremely critical. His favorite philosopher was Lamettrie, whom he
very frequently quotes, and he had carefully studied Machiavelli.
De Sade had foreseen the Revolution; he was an ardent admirer of Marat,
and at this period he entered into public life as a mild, gentle, rather bald

and gray-haired person. Many scenes of the Revolution were the
embodiment in real life of De Sade's imagination; such, for instance, were
the barbaric tortures inflicted, at the instigation of Théroigne de Méricourt,
on La Belle Bouquetière. Yet De Sade played a very peaceful part in the
events of that time, chiefly as a philanthropist, spending much of his time in
the hospitals. He saved his parents-in-law from the scaffold, although they
had always been hostile to him, and by his moderation aroused the
suspicions of the revolutionary party, and was again imprisoned. Later he
wrote a pamphlet against Napoleon, who never forgave him and had him
shut up in Charenton as a lunatic; it was a not unusual method at that time
of disposing of persons whom it was wished to put out of the way, and,
notwithstanding De Sade's organically abnormal temperament, there is no
reason to regard him as actually insane. Royer-Collard, an eminent alienist
of that period, then at the head of Charenton, declared De Sade to be sane,
and his detailed report is still extant. Other specialists were of the same
opinion. Bloch, who quotes these opinions (Neue Forschungen, etc., p.
370), says that the only possible conclusion is that De Sade was sane, but
neurasthenic, and Eulenburg also concludes that he cannot be regarded as
insane, although he was highly degenerate. In the asylum he amused
himself by organizing a theater. Lacroix, many years later, questioning old
people who had known him, was surprised to find that even in the memory
of most virtuous and respectable persons he lived merely as an "aimable
mauvais sujet." It is noteworthy that De Sade aroused, in a singular degree,
the love and devotion of women,—whether or not we may regard this as
evidence of the fascination exerted on women by cruelty. Janin remarks that
he had seen many pretty little letters written by young and charming women
of the great world, begging for the release of the "pauvre marquis."
Sardou, the dramatist, has stated that in 1855 he visited the Bicêtre and met
an old gardener who had known De Sade during his reclusion there. He told
that one of the marquis's amusements was to procure baskets of the most
beautiful and expensive roses; he would then sit on a footstool by a dirty
streamlet which ran through the courtyard, and would take the roses, one by
one, gaze at them, smell them with a voluptuous expression, soak them in
the muddy water, and fling them away, laughing as he did so. He died on
the 2d of December, 1814, at the age of 74. He was almost blind, and had
long been a martyr to gout, asthma, and an affection of the stomach. It was

his wish that acorns should be planted over his grave and his memory
effaced. At a later period his skull was examined by a phrenologist, who
found it small and well formed; "one would take it at first for a woman's
head." The skull belonged to Dr. Londe, but about the middle of the century
it was stolen by a doctor who conveyed it to England, where it may possibly
yet be found. [The foregoing account is mainly founded on Paul Lacroix,
Revue de Paris, 1837, and Curiosités de l'Histoire de France, second series,
Procès Célèbres, p. 225; Janin, Revue de Paris, 1834; Eugen Dühren (Iwan
Bloch), Der Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, third edition, 1901; id., Neue
Forschungen über den Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, 1904; Lacassagne,
Vacher l'Eventreur et les Crimes Sadiques, 1899; Paul Ginisty, La Marquise
de Sade, 1901.]
The attempt to define sadism strictly and penetrate to its roots in De Sade's
personal temperament reveals a certain weakness in the current conception
of this sexual perversion. It is not, as we might infer, both from the
definition usually given and from its probable biological heredity from
primitive times, a perversion due to excessive masculinity. The strong man
is more apt to be tender than cruel, or at all events knows how to restrain
within bounds any impulse to cruelty; the most extreme and elaborate forms
of sadism (putting aside such as are associated with a considerable degree
of imbecility) are more apt to be allied with a somewhat feminine
organization. Montaigne, indeed, observed long ago that cruelty is usually
accompanied by feminine softness.
In the same way it is a mistake to suppose that the very feminine woman is
not capable of sadistic tendencies. Even if we take into account the
primitive animal conditions of combat, the male must suffer as well as
inflict pain, and the female must not only experience subjection to the male,
but also share in the emotions of her partner's victory over his rivals. As
bearing on these points, I may quote the following remarks written by a
lady: "It is said that, the weaker and more feminine a woman is, the greater
the subjection she likes. I don't think it has anything at all to do with the
general character, but depends entirely on whether the feeling of constraint
and helplessness affects her sexually. In men I have several times noticed
that those who were most desirous of subjection to the women they loved
had, in ordinary life, very strong and determined characters. I know of
others, too, who with very weak characters are very imperious toward the

women they care for. Among women I have often been surprised to see how
a strong, determined woman will give way to a man she loves, and how
tenacious of her own will may be some fragile, clinging creature who in
daily life seems quite unable to act on her own responsibility. A certain
amount of passivity, a desire to have their emotions worked on, seems to
me, so far as my small experience goes, very common among ordinary,
presumably normal men. A good deal of stress is laid on femininity as an
attraction in a woman, and this may be so to very strong natures, but, so far
as I have seen, the women who obtain extraordinary empire over men are
those with a certain virility in their character and passions. If with this
virility they combine a fragility or childishness of appearance which
appeals to a man in another way at the same time, they appear to be
irresistible."
I have noted some of the feminine traits in De Sade's temperament and
appearance. The same may often be noted in sadists whose crimes were
very much more serious and brutal than those of De Sade. A man who
stabbed women in the streets at St. Louis was a waiter with a high-pitched,
effeminate voice and boyish appearance. Reidel, the sadistic murderer, was
timid, modest, and delicate; he was too shy to urinate in the presence of
other people. A sadistic zoöphilist, described by A. Marie, who attempted to
strangle a woman fellow-worker, had always been very timid, blushed with
much facility, could not look even children in the eyes, or urinate in the
presence of another person, or make sexual advances to women.
Kiernan and Moyer are inclined to connect the modesty and timidity of
sadists with a disgust for normal coitus. They were called upon to examine
an inverted married woman who had inflicted several hundred wounds,
mostly superficial, with forks, scissors, etc., on the genital organs and other
parts of a girl whom she had adopted from a "Home." This woman was very
prominent in church and social matters in the city in which she lived, so that
many clergymen and local persons of importance testified to her chaste,
modest, and even prudish character; she was found to be sane at the time of
the acts. (Moyer, Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1907, and private letter
from Dr. Kiernan.)
We are thus led to another sexual perversion, which is usually considered
the opposite of sadism. Masochism is commonly regarded as a peculiarly

feminine sexual perversion, in women, indeed, as normal in some degree,
and in man as a sort of inversion of the normal masculine emotional
attitude, but this view of the matter is not altogether justified, for definite
and pronounced masochism seems to be much rarer in women than sadism.
[88] Krafft-Ebing, whose treatment of this phenomenon is, perhaps, his most

valuable and original contribution to sexual psychology, has dealt very fully
with the matter and brought forward many cases. He thus defines this
perversion: "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 sexual feeling; the masochist lives in fancies in which he creates
situations of this kind, and he often attempts to realize them."[89]
In a minor degree, not amounting to a complete perversion of the sexual
instinct, this sentiment of abnegation, the desire to be even physically
subjected to the adored woman, cannot be regarded as abnormal. More than
two centuries before Krafft-Ebing appeared, Robert Burton, who was no
mean psychologist, dilated on the fact that love is a kind of slavery. "They
are commonly slaves," he wrote of lovers, "captives, voluntary servants;
amator amicæ mancipium, as Castilio terms him; his mistress's servant, her
drudge, prisoner, bondman, what not?"[90] Before Burton's time the legend
of the erotic servitude of Aristotle was widely spread in Europe, and
pictures exist of the venerable philosopher on all fours ridden by a woman
with a whip.[91] In classic times various masochistic phenomena are noted
with approval by Ovid. It has been pointed out by Moll[92] that there are
traces of masochistic feeling in some of Goethe's poems, especially "Lilis
Park" and "Erwin und Elmire." Similar traces have been found in the poems
of Heine, Platen, Hamerling, and many other poets.[93] The poetry of the
people is also said to contain many such traces. It may, indeed, be said that
passion in its more lyric exaltations almost necessarily involves some resort
to masochistic expression. A popular lady novelist in a novel written many
years ago represents her hero, a robust soldier, imploring the lady of his
love, in a moment of passionate exaltation, to trample on him, certainly
without any wish to suggest sexual perversion. If it is true that the Antonio
of Otway's Venice Preserved is a caricature of Shaftesbury, then it would

appear that one of the greatest of English statesmen was supposed to exhibit
very pronounced and characteristic masochistic tendencies; and in more
recent days masochistic expressions have been noted as occurring in the
love-letters of so emphatically virile a statesman as Bismarck.
Thus a minor degree of the masochistic tendency may be said to be fairly
common, while its more pronounced manifestations are more common than
pronounced sadism.[94] It very frequently affects persons of a sensitive,
refined, and artistic temperament. It may even be said that this tendency is
in the line of civilization. Krafft-Ebing points out that some of the most
delicate and romantic love-episodes of the Middle Ages are distinctly
colored by masochistic emotion.[95] The increasing tendency to masochism
with increasing civilization becomes explicable if we accept Colin Scott's
"secondary law of courting" as accessory to the primary law that the male is
active, and the female passive and imaginatively attentive to the states of
the excited male. According to the secondary law, "the female develops a
superadded activity, the male becoming relatively passive and imaginatively
attentive to the psychical and bodily states of the female."[96] We may
probably agree that this "secondary law of courting" does really represent a
tendency of love in individuals of complex and sensitive nature, and the
outcome of such a receptive attitude on the part of the male is undoubtedly
in well-marked cases a desire of submission to the female's will, and a
craving to experience in some physical or psychic form, not necessarily
painful, the manifestations of her activity.
When we turn from vague and unpronounced forms of the masochistic
tendency to the more definite forms in which it becomes an unquestionable
sexual perversion, we find a very eminent and fairly typical example in
Rousseau, an example all the more interesting because here the subject has
himself portrayed his perversion in his famous Confessions. It is, however,
the name of a less eminent author, the Austrian novelist, Sacher-Masoch,
which has become identified with the perversion through the fact that
Krafft-Ebing fixed upon it as furnishing a convenient counterpart to the
term "sadism." It is on the strength of a considerable number of his novels
and stories, more especially of Die Venus im Pelz, that Krafft-Ebing took
the scarcely warrantable liberty of identifying his name, while yet living,
with a sexual perversion.

Sacher-Masoch's biography has been written with intimate knowledge and
much candor by C. F. von Schlichtegroll (Sacher-Masoch und der
Masochismus, 1901) and, more indirectly, by his first wife Wanda von
Sacher-Masoch in her autobiography (Meine Lebensbeichte, 1906; French
translation, Confession de ma Vie, 1907). Schlichtegroll's book is written
with a somewhat undue attempt to exalt his hero and to attribute his
misfortunes to his first wife. The autobiography of the latter, however,
enables us to form a more complete picture of Sacher-Masoch's life, for,
while his wife by no means spares herself, she clearly shows that Sacher-
Masoch was the victim of his own abnormal temperament, and she presents
both the sensitive, refined, exalted, and generous aspects of his nature, and
his morbid, imaginative, vain aspects.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was born in 1836 at Lemberg in Galicia. He
was of Spanish, German, and more especially Slavonic race. The founder of
the family may be said to be a certain Don Matthias Sacher, a young
Spanish nobleman, in the sixteenth century, who settled in Prague. The
novelist's father was director of police in Lemberg and married Charlotte
von Masoch, a Little Russian lady of noble birth. The novelist, the eldest
child of this union, was not born until after nine years of marriage, and in
infancy was so delicate that he was not expected to survive. He began to
improve, however, when his mother gave him to be suckled to a robust
Russian peasant woman, from whom, as he said later, he gained not only
health, but "his soul"; from her he learned all the strange and melancholy
legends of her people and a love of the Little Russians which never left him.
While still a child young Sacher-Masoch was in the midst of the bloody
scenes of the revolution which culminated in 1848. When he was 12 the
family migrated to Prague, and the boy, though precocious in his
development, then first learned the German language, of which he attained
so fine a mastery. At a very early age he had found the atmosphere, and
even some of the most characteristic elements, of the peculiar types which
mark his work as a novelist.
It is interesting to trace the germinal elements of those peculiarities which
so strongly affected his imagination on the sexual side. As a child, he was
greatly attracted by representations of cruelty; he loved to gaze at pictures
of executions, the legends of martyrs were his favorite reading, and with the
onset of puberty he regularly dreamed that he was fettered and in the power

of a cruel woman who tortured him. It has been said by an anonymous
author that the women of Galicia either rule their husbands entirely and
make them their slaves or themselves sink to be the wretchedest of slaves.
At the age of 10, according to Schlichtegroll's narrative, the child Leopold
witnessed a scene in which a woman of the former kind, a certain Countess
Xenobia X., a relative of his own on the paternal side, played the chief part,
and this scene left an undying impress on his imagination. The Countess
was a beautiful but wanton creature, and the child adored her, impressed
alike by her beauty and the costly furs she wore. She accepted his devotion
and little services and would sometimes allow him to assist her in dressing;
on one occasion, as he was kneeling before her to put on her ermine
slippers, he kissed her feet; she smiled and gave him a kick which filled him
with pleasure. Not long afterward occurred the episode which so profoundly
affected his imagination. He was playing with his sisters at hide-and-seek
and had carefully hidden himself behind the dresses on a clothes-rail in the
Countess's bedroom. At this moment the Countess suddenly entered the
house and ascended the stairs, followed by a lover, and the child, who dared
not betray his presence, saw the countess sink down on a sofa and begin to
caress her lover. But a few moments later the husband, accompanied by two
friends, dashed into the room. Before, however, he could decide which of
the lovers to turn against the Countess had risen and struck him so powerful
a blow in the face with her fist that he fell back streaming with blood. She
then seized a whip, drove all three men out of the room, and in the
confusion the lover slipped away. At this moment the clothes-rail fell and
the child, the involuntary witness of the scene, was revealed to the
Countess, who now fell on him in anger, threw him to the ground, pressed
her knee on his shoulder, and struck him unmercifully. The pain was great,
and yet he was conscious of a strange pleasure. While this castigation was
proceeding the Count returned, no longer in a rage, but meek and humble as
a slave, and kneeled down before her to beg forgiveness. As the boy
escaped he saw her kick her husband. The child could not resist the
temptation to return to the spot; the door was closed and he could see
nothing, but he heard the sound of the whip and the groans of the Count
beneath his wife's blows.
It is unnecessary to insist that in this scene, acting on a highly sensitive and
somewhat peculiar child, we have the key to the emotional attitude which

affected so much of Sacher-Masoch's work. As his biographer remarks,
woman became to him, during a considerable part of his life, a creature at
once to be loved and hated, a being whose beauty and brutality enabled her
to set her foot at will on the necks of men, and in the heroine of his first
important novel, the Emissär, dealing with the Polish Revolution, he
embodied the contradictory personality of Countess Xenobia. Even the
whip and the fur garments, Sacher-Masoch's favorite emotional symbols,
find their explanation in this early episode. He was accustomed to say of an
attractive woman: "I should like to see her in furs," and, of an unattractive
woman: "I could not imagine her in furs." His writing-paper at one time was
adorned with the figure of a woman in Russian Boyar costume, her cloak
lined with ermine, and brandishing a scourge. On his walls he liked to have
pictures of women in furs, of the kind of which there is so magnificent an
example by Rubens in the gallery at Munich. He would even keep a
woman's fur cloak on an ottoman in his study and stroke it from time to
time, finding that his brain thus received the same kind of stimulation as
Schiller found in the odor of rotten apples.[97]
At the age of 13, in the revolution of 1848, young Sacher-Masoch received
his baptism of fire; carried away in the popular movement, he helped to
defend the barricades together with a young lady, a relative of his family, an
amazon with a pistol in her girdle, such as later he loved to depict. This
episode was, however, but a brief interruption of his education; he pursued
his studies with brilliance, and on the higher side his education was aided
by his father's esthetic tastes. Amateur theatricals were in special favor at
his home, and here even the serious plays of Goethe and Gogol were
performed, thus helping to train and direct the boy's taste. It is, perhaps,
however, significant that it was a tragic event which, at the age of 16, first
brought to him the full realization of life and the consciousness of his own
power. This was the sudden death of his favorite sister. He became serious
and quiet, and always regarded this grief as a turning-point in his life.
At the Universities of Prague and Graz he studied with such zeal that when
only 19 he took his doctor's degree in law and shortly afterward became a
privatdocent for German history at Graz. Gradually, however, the charms of
literature asserted themselves definitely, and he soon abandoned teaching.
He took part, however, in the war of 1866 in Italy, and at the battle of
Solferino he was decorated on the field for bravery in action by the Austrian

field-marshal. These incidents, however, had little disturbing influence on
Sacher-Masoch's literary career, and he was gradually acquiring a European
reputation by his novels and stories.
A far more seriously disturbing influence had already begun to be exerted
on his life by a series of love-episodes. Some of these were of slight and
ephemeral character; some were a source of unalloyed happiness, all the
more so if there was an element of extravagance to appeal to his Quixotic
nature. He always longed to give a dramatic and romantic character to his
life, his wife says, and he spent some blissful days on an occasion when he
ran away to Florence with a Russian princess as her private secretary. Most
often these episodes culminated in deception and misery. It was after a
relationship of this kind from which he could not free himself for four years
that he wrote Die Geschiedene Frau, Passionsgeschichte eines Idealisten,
putting into it much of his own personal history. At one time he was
engaged to a sweet and charming young girl. Then it was that he met a
young woman at Graz, Laura Rümelin, 27 years of age, engaged as a glove-
maker, and living with her mother. Though of poor parentage, with little or
no knowledge of the world, she had great natural ability and intelligence.
Schlichtegroll represents her as spontaneously engaging in a mysterious
intrigue with the novelist. Her own detailed narrative renders the
circumstances more intelligible. She approached Sacher-Masoch by letter,
adopting for disguise the name of his heroine Wanda von Dunajev, in order
to recover possession of some compromising letters which had been written
to him, as a joke, by a friend of hers. Sacher-Masoch insisted on seeing his
correspondent before returning the letters, and with his eager thirst for
romantic adventure he imagined that she was a married woman of the
aristocratic world, probably a Russian countess, whose simple costume was
a disguise. Not anxious to reveal the prosaic facts, she humored him in his
imaginations and a web of mystification was thus formed. A strong
attraction grew up on both sides and, though for some time Laura Rümelin
maintained the mystery and held herself aloof from him, a relationship was
formed and a child born. Thereupon, in 1893, they married. Before long,
however, there was disillusion on both sides. She began to detect the
morbid, chimerical, and unpractical aspects of his character, and he realized
that not only was his wife not an aristocrat, but, what was of more
importance to him, she was by no means the domineering heroine of his

dreams. Soon after marriage, in the course of an innocent romp in which the
whole of the small household took part, he asked his wife to inflict a
whipping on him. She refused, and he thereupon suggested that the servant
should do it; the wife failed to take this idea seriously; but he had it carried
out, with great satisfaction at the severity of the castigation he received.
When, however, his wife explained to him that, after this incident, it was
impossible for the servant to stay, Sacher-Masoch quite agreed and she was
at once discharged. But he constantly found pleasure in placing his wife in
awkward or compromising circumstances, a pleasure she was too normal to
share. This necessarily led to much domestic wretchedness. He had
persuaded her, against her wish, to whip him nearly every day, with whips
which he devised, having nails attached to them. He found this a stimulant
to his literary work, and it enabled him to dispense in his novels with his
stereotyped heroine who is always engaged in subjugating men, for, as he
explained to his wife, when he had the reality in his life he was no longer
obsessed by it in his imaginative dreams. Not content with this, however, he
was constantly desirous for his wife to be unfaithful. He even put an
advertisement in a newspaper to the effect that a young and beautiful
woman desired to make the acquaintance of an energetic man. The wife,
however, though she wished to please her husband, was not anxious to do
so to this extent. She went to an hotel by appointment to meet a stranger
who had answered this advertisement, but when she had explained to him
the state of affairs he chivalrously conducted her home. It was some time
before Sacher-Masoch eventually succeeded in rendering his wife
unfaithful. He attended to the minutest details of her toilette on this
occasion, and as he bade her farewell at the door he exclaimed: "How I
envy him!" This episode thoroughly humiliated the wife, and from that
moment her love for her husband turned to hate. A final separation was only
a question of time. Sacher-Masoch formed a relationship with Hulda
Meister, who had come to act as secretary and translator to him, while his
wife became attached to Rosenthal, a clever journalist later known to
readers of the Figaro as "Jacques St.-Cère," who realized her painful
position and felt sympathy and affection for her. She went to live with him
in Paris and, having refused to divorce her husband, he eventually obtained
a divorce from her; she states, however, that she never at any time had
physical relationships with Rosenthal, who was a man of fragile
organization and health. Sacher-Masoch united himself to Hulda Meister,

who is described by the first wife as a prim and faded but coquettish old
maid, and by the biographer as a highly accomplished and gentle woman,
who cared for him with almost maternal devotion. No doubt there is truth in
both descriptions. It must be noted that, as Wanda clearly shows, apart from
his abnormal sexual temperament, Sacher-Masoch was kind and
sympathetic, and he was strongly attached to his eldest child. Eulenburg
also quotes the statement of a distinguished Austrian woman writer
acquainted with him that, "apart from his sexual eccentricities, he was an
amiable, simple, and sympathetic man with a touchingly tender love for his
children." He had very few needs, did not drink or smoke, and though he
liked to put the woman he was attached to in rich furs and fantastically
gorgeous raiment he dressed himself with extreme simplicity. His wife
quotes the saying of another woman that he was as simple as a child and as
naughty as a monkey.
In 1883 Sacher-Masoch and Hulda Meister settled in Lindheim, a village in
Germany near the Taunus, a spot to which the novelist seems to have been
attached because in the grounds of his little estate was a haunted and ruined
tower associated with a tragic medieval episode. Here, after many legal
delays, Sacher-Masoch was able to render his union with Hulda Meister
legitimate; here two children were in due course born, and here the novelist
spent the remaining years of his life in comparative peace. At first, as is
usual, treated with suspicion by the peasants, Sacher-Masoch gradually
acquired great influence over them; he became a kind of Tolstoy in the rural
life around him, the friend and confidant of all the villagers (something of
Tolstoy's communism is also, it appears, to be seen in the books he wrote at
this time), while the theatrical performances which he inaugurated, and in
which his wife took an active part, spread the fame of the household in
many neighboring villages. Meanwhile his health began to break up; a visit
to Nauheim in 1894 was of no benefit, and he died March 9, 1895.
A careful consideration of the phenomena of sadism and masochism may be
said to lead us to the conclusion that there is no real line of demarcation.
Even De Sade himself was not a pure sadist, as Bloch's careful definition is
alone sufficient to indicate; it might even be argued that De Sade was really
a masochist; the investigation of histories of sadism and masochism, even
those given by Krafft-Ebing (as, indeed, Colin Scott and Féré have already
pointed out), constantly reveals traces of both groups of phenomena in the

same individual. They cannot, therefore, be regarded as opposed
manifestations. This has been felt by some writers, who have, in
consequence, proposed other names more clearly indicating the relationship
of the phenomena. Féré speaks of sexual algophily[98]; he only applies the
term to masochism; it might equally well be applied to sadism. Schrenck-
Notzing, to cover both sadism and masochism, has invented the term
algolagnia (ἄλγος, pain, and λάγνος sexually excited), and calls the former
active, the latter passive, algolagnia.[99] Eulenburg has also emphasized the
close connection between these groups of perverted sexual manifestations,
and has adopted the same terms, adding the further group of ideal
(illusionary) algolagnia, to cover the cases in which the mere
autosuggestive representation of pain, inflicted or suffered, suffices to give
sexual gratification.[100]
A brief discussion of the terms "sadism" and "masochism" has imposed
itself upon us at this point because as soon as, in any study of the
relationship between love and pain, we pass over the limits of normal
manifestations into a region which is more or less abnormal, these two
conceptions are always brought before us, and it was necessary to show on
what grounds they are here rejected as the pivots on which the discussion
ought to turn. We may accept them as useful terms to indicate two groups of
clinical phenomena; but we cannot regard them as of any real scientific
value. Having reached this result, we may continue our consideration of the
love-bite, as the normal manifestation of the connection between love and
pain which most naturally leads us across the frontier of the abnormal.
The result of the love-bite in its extreme degree is to shed blood. This
cannot be regarded as the direct aim of the bite in its normal manifestations,
for the mingled feelings of close contact, of passionate gripping, of
symbolic devouring, which constitute the emotional accompaniments of the
bite would be too violently discomposed by actual wounding and real
shedding of blood. With some persons, however, perhaps more especially
women, the love-bite is really associated with a conscious desire, even if
more or less restrained, to draw blood, a real delight in this process, a love
of blood. Probably this only occurs in persons who are not absolutely
normal, but on the borderland of the abnormal. We have to admit that this
craving has, however, a perfectly normal basis. There is scarcely any

natural object with so profoundly emotional an effect as blood, and it is
very easy to understand why this should be so.[101] Moreover, blood enters
into the sphere of courtship by virtue of the same conditions by which
cruelty enters into it; they are both accidents of combat, and combat is of
the very essence of animal and primitive human courtship, certainly its
most frequent accompaniment. So that the repelling or attracting fascination
of blood may be regarded as a by-product of normal courtship, which, like
other such by-products, may become an essential element of abnormal
courtship.[102]
Normally the fascination of blood, if present at all during sexual
excitement, remains more or less latent, either because it is weak or because
the checks that inhibit it are inevitably very powerful. Occasionally it
becomes more clearly manifest, and this may happen early in life. Féré
records the case of a man of Anglo-Saxon origin, of sound heredity so far as
could be ascertained and presenting no obvious stigmata of degeneration,
who first experienced sexual manifestations at the age of 5 when a boy
cousin was attacked by bleeding at the nose. It was the first time he had
seen such a thing and he experienced erection and much pleasure at the
sight. This was repeated the next time the cousin's nose bled and also
whenever he witnessed any injuries or wounds, especially when occurring
in males. A few years later he began to find pleasure in pinching and
otherwise inflicting slight suffering. This sadism was not, however, further
developed, although a tendency to inversion persisted.[103]
Somewhat similar may have been the origin of the attraction of blood in a
case which has been reported to me of a youth of 17, the youngest of a large
family who are all very strong and entirely normal. He is himself, however,
delicate, overgrown, with a narrow chest, a small head, and babyish
features, while mentally he is backward, with very defective memory and
scant powers of assimilation. He is intensely nervous, peevish, and subject
to fits of childish rage. He takes violent fancies to persons of his own sex.
But he appears to have only one way of obtaining sexual excitement and
gratification. It is his custom to get into a hot bath and there to produce
erection and emission, not by masturbation, but by thinking of flowing
blood. He does not associate himself with the causation of this imaginary
flow of blood; he is merely the passive but pleased spectator. He is aware of

his peculiarity and endeavors to shake it off, but his efforts to obtain normal
pleasure by thinking of a girl are vain.
I may here narrate a case which has been communicated to me of algolagnia
in a woman, combined with sexual hyperesthesia.
R. D., aged 25, married, and of good social position; she is a small and dark
woman, restless and alert in manner. She has one child.
She has practised masturbation from an early age—ever since she can
remember—by the method of external friction and pressure. From the age
of 17 she was able (and is still) to produce the orgasm almost without effort,
by calling up the image of any man who had struck her fancy. She has often
done so while seated talking to such a man, even when he is almost a
stranger; in doing it, she says, a tightening of the muscles of the thighs and
the slightest movement are sufficient. Ugly men (if not deformed), as well
as men with the reputation of being roués, greatly excite her sexually, more
especially if of good social position, though this is not essential.
At the age of 18 she became hysterical, probably, she herself believes, in
consequence of a great increase at that time of indulgence in masturbation.
The doctors, apparently suspecting her habits, urged her parents to get her
married early. She married, at the age of 20, a man about twice her own age.
As a child (and in a less degree still) she was very fond of watching dog-
fights. This spectacle produced strong sexual feelings and usually orgasm,
especially if much blood was shed during the fight. Clean cuts and wounds
greatly attract her, whether on herself or a man. She has frequently slightly
cut or scratched herself "to see the blood," and likes to suck the wound,
thinking the taste "delicious." This produces strong sexual feelings and
often orgasm, especially if at the time she thinks of some attractive man and
imagines that she is sucking his blood. The sight of injury to a woman only
very slightly affects her, and that, she thinks, only because of an involuntary
association of ideas. Nor has the sight of suffering in illness any exciting
effects, only that which is due to violence, and when there is a visible cause
for the suffering, such as cuts and wounds. (Bruises, from the absence of
blood, have only a slight effect.) The excitement is intensified if she
imagines that she has herself inflicted the injury. She likes to imagine that

the man wished to rape her, and that she fought him in order to make him
more greatly value her favor, so wounding him.
Impersonal ideas of torture also excite her. She thinks Fox's Book of
Martyrs "lovely," and the more horrible and bloody the tortures described
the greater is the sexual excitement produced. The book excites her from
the point of view of the torturer, not that of the victim. She has frequently
masturbated while reading it.
So far as practicable she has sought to carry out these ideas in her relations
with her husband. She has several times bitten him till the blood came and
sucked the bite during coitus. She likes to bite him enough to make him
wince. The pleasure is greatly heightened by thinking of various tortures,
chiefly by cutting. She likes to have her husband talk to her, and she to him,
of all the tortures they could inflict on each other. She has, however, never
actually tried to carry out these tortures. She would like to, but dares not, as
she is sure he could not endure them. She has no desire for her husband to
try them on her, although she likes to hear him talk about it.
She is at the same time fond of normal coitus, even to excess. She likes her
husband to remain entirely passive during connection, so that he can
continue in a state of strong erection for a long time. She can thus, she says,
procure for herself the orgasm a number of times in succession, even nine
or ten, quite easily. On one occasion she even had the orgasm twenty-six
times within about one and a quarter hours, her husband during this time
having two orgasms. (She is quite certain about the accuracy of this
statement.) During this feat much talk about torture was indulged in, and it
took place after a month's separation from her husband, during which she
was careful not to masturbate, so that she might have "a real good time"
when he came back. She acknowledges that on this occasion she was a
"complete wreck" for a couple of days afterward, but states that usually ten
or a dozen orgasms (or spasms, as she terms them) only make her "feel
lively." She becomes frenzied with excitement during intercourse and
insensible to everything but the pleasure of it.
She has never hitherto allowed anyone (except her husband after marriage)
to know of her sadistic impulses, nor has she carried them out with anyone,

though she would like to, if she dared. Nor has she allowed any man but her
husband to have connection with her or to take any liberties.
Outbursts of sadism may occur episodically in fairly normal persons. Thus,
Coutagne describes the case of a lad of 17—always regarded as quite
normal, and without any signs of degeneracy, even on careful examination,
or any traces of hysteria or alcoholism, though there was insanity among his
cousins—who had had occasional sexual relations for a year or two, and on
one occasion, being in a state of erection, struck the girl three times on the
breast and abdomen with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose. He was
much ashamed of his act immediately afterward, and, all the circumstances
being taken into consideration, he was acquitted by the court.[104] Here we
seem to have the obscure and latent fascination of blood, which is almost
normal, germinating momentarily into an active impulse which is distinctly
abnormal, though it produced little beyond those incisions which
Vatsyayana disapproved of, but still regarded as a part of courtship. One
step more and we are amid the most outrageous and extreme of all forms of
sexual perversion: with the heroes of De Sade's novels, who, in
exemplification of their author's most cherished ideals, plan scenes of
debauchery in which the flowing of blood is an essential element of coitus;
with the Marshall Gilles de Rais and the Hungarian Countess Bathory,
whose lust could only be satiated by the death of innumerable victims.
This impulse to stab—with no desire to kill, or even in most cases to give
pain, but only to draw blood and so either stimulate or altogether gratify the
sexual impulse—is no doubt the commonest form of sanguinary sadism.
These women-stabbers have been known in France as piqueurs for nearly a
century, and in Germany are termed Stecher or Messerstecher (they have
been studied by Näcke, "Zur Psychologie der sadistischen Messerstecher,"
Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie, Bd. 35, 1909). A case of this kind
where a man stabbed girls in the abdomen occurred in Paris in the middle of
the eighteenth century, and in 1819 or 1820 there seems to have been an
epidemic of piqueurs in Paris; as we learn from a letter of Charlotte von
Schiller's to Knebel; the offenders (though perhaps there was only one)
frequented the Boulevards and the Palais Royal and stabbed women in the
buttocks or thighs; they were never caught. About the same time similar
cases of a slighter kind occurred in London, Brussels, Hamburg, and
Munich.

Stabbers are nearly always men, but cases of the same perversion in women
are not unknown. Thus Dr. Kiernan informs me of an Irish woman, aged 40,
and at the beginning of the menopause, who, in New York in 1909, stabbed
five men with a hatpin. The motive was sexual and she told one of the men
that she stabbed him because she "loved" him.
Gilles de Rais, who had fought beside Joan of Arc, is the classic example of
sadism in its extreme form, involving the murder of youths and maidens.
Bernelle considers that there is some truth in the contention of Huysmans
that the association with Joan of Arc was a predisposing cause in
unbalancing Gilles de Rais. Another cause was his luxurious habit of life.
He himself, no doubt rightly, attached importance to the suggestions
received in reading Suetonius. He appears to have been a sexually
precocious child, judging from an obscure passage in his confessions. He
was artistic and scholarly, fond of books, of the society of learned men, and
of music. Bernelle sums him up as "a pious warrior, a cruel and keen artist,
a voluptuous assassin, an exalted mystic," who was at the same time
unbalanced, a superior degenerate, and morbidly impulsive. (The best
books on Gilles de Rais are the Abbé Bossard's Gilles de Rais, in which,
however, the author, being a priest, treats his subject as quite sane and
abnormally wicked; Huysmans's novel, La-Bas, which embodies a detailed
study of Gilles de Rais, and F. H. Bernelle's Thèse de Paris, La Psychose de
Gilles de Rais, 1910.)
The opinion has been hazarded that the history of Gilles de Rais is merely a
legend. This view is not accepted, but there can be no doubt that the sadistic
manifestations which occurred in the Middle Ages were mixed up with
legendary and folk-lore elements. These elements centered on the
conception of the werwolf, supposed to be a man temporarily transformed
into a wolf with blood-thirsty impulses. (See, e.g., articles "Werwolf" and
"Lycanthropy" in Encyclopædia Britannica.) France, especially, was
infested with werwolves in the sixteenth century. In 1603, however, it was
decided at Bordeaux, in a trial involving a werwolf, that lycanthropy was
only an insane delusion. Dumas ("Les Loup-Garous," Journal de
Psychologie Normale et Pathologique, May-June, 1907) argues that the
medieval werwolves were sadists whose crimes were largely imaginative,
though sometimes real, the predecessor of the modern Jack the Ripper. The

complex nature of the elements making up the belief in the werwolf is
emphasized by Ernest Jones, Der Alptraum, 1912.
Related to the werwolf, but distinct, was the vampire, supposed to be a dead
person who rose from the dead to suck the blood of the living during sleep.
By way of reprisal the living dug up, exorcised, and mutilated the supposed
vampires. This was called vampirism. The name vampire was then
transferred to the living person who had so treated a corpse. All profanation
of the corpse, whatever its origin, is now frequently called vampirism
(Epaulow, Vampirisme, Thèse de Lyon, 1901; id., "Le Vampire du Muy,"
Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Sept., 1903). The earliest definite
reference to necrophily is in Herodotus, who tells (bk. ii, ch. lxxxix) of an
Egyptian who had connection with the corpse of a woman recently dead.
Epaulow gives various old cases and, at full length, the case which he
himself investigated, of Ardisson, the "Vampire du Muy." W. A. F. Browne
also has an interesting article on "Necrophilism" (Journal of Mental
Science, Jan., 1875) which he regards as atavistic. When there is, in
addition, mutilation of the corpse, the condition is termed necrosadism.
There seems usually to be no true sadism in either necrosadism or
necrophilism. (See, however, Bloch, Beiträge, vol. ii, p. 284 et seq.)
It must be said also that cases of rape followed by murder are quite
commonly not sadistic. The type of such cases is represented by Soleilland,
who raped and then murdered children. He showed no sadistic perversion.
He merely killed to prevent discovery, as a burglar who is interrupted may
commit murder in order to escape. (E. Dupré, "L'Affaire Soleilland,"
Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Jan.-Feb., 1910.)
A careful and elaborate study of a completely developed sadist has been
furnished by Lacassagne, Rousset, and Papillon ("L'Affaire Reidal,"
Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Oct.-Nov., 1907). Reidal, a youth of
18, a seminarist, was a congenital sanguinary sadist who killed another
youth and was finally sent to an asylum. From the age of 4 he had
voluptuous ideas connected with blood and killing, and liked to play at
killing with other children. He was of infantile physical development, with
a pleasant, childish expression of face, very religious, and hated obscenity
and immorality. But the love of blood and murder was an irresistible
obsession and its gratification produced immense emotional relief.

Sadism generally has been especially studied by Lacassagne, Vacher
l'Eventreur et les Crimes Sadiques, 1899. Zoösadism, or sadism toward
animals, has been dealt with by P. Thomas, "Le Sadisme sur les Animaux,"
Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Sept., 1903. Auto-sadism, or "auto-
erotic cruelty," that is to say, injuries inflicted on a person by himself with a
sexual motive, has been investigated by G. Bach (Sexuelle Verrirungen des
Menschen und der Nature, p. 427); this condition seems, however, a form of
algolagnia more masochistic than sadistic in character.
With regard to the medico-legal aspects, Kiernan ("Responsibility in Active
Algophily," Medicine, April, 1903) sets forth the reasons in favor of the full
and complete responsibility of sadists, and Harold Moyer comes to the
same conclusion ("Is Sexual Perversion Insanity?" Alienist and Neurologist,
May, 1907). See also Thoinot's Medico-legal Aspects of Moral Offenses
(edited by Weysse, 1911), ch. xviii. While we are probably justified in
considering the sadist as morally not insane in the technical sense, we must
remember that he is, for the most part, highly abnormal from the outset. As
Gaupp points out (Sexual-Probleme, Oct., 1909, p. 797), we cannot measure
the influences which create the sadist and we must not therefore attempt to
"punish" him, but we are bound to place him in a position where he will not
injure society.
It is enough here to emphasize the fact that there is no solution of continuity
in the links that bind the absolutely normal manifestations of sex with the
most extreme violations of all human law. This is so true that in saying that
these manifestations are violations of all human law we cannot go on to
add, what would seem fairly obvious, that they are violations also of all
natural law. We have but to go sufficiently far back, or sufficiently far
afield, in the various zoölogical series to find that manifestations which,
from the human point of view, are in the extreme degree abnormally
sadistic here become actually normal. Among very various species
wounding and rending normally take place at or immediately after coitus; if
we go back to the beginning of animal life in the protozoa sexual
conjugation itself is sometimes found to present the similitude, if not the
actuality, of the complete devouring of one organism by another. Over a
very large part of nature, as it has been truly said, "but a thin veil divides
love from death."[105]

There is, indeed, on the whole, a point of difference. In that abnormal
sadism which appears from time to time among civilized human beings it is
nearly always the female who becomes the victim of the male. But in the
normal sadism which occurs throughout a large part of nature it is nearly
always the male who is the victim of the female. It is the male spider who
impregnates the female at the risk of his life and sometimes perishes in the
attempt; it is the male bee who, after intercourse with the queen, falls dead
from that fatal embrace, leaving her to fling aside his entrails and calmly
pursue her course.[106] If it may seem to some that the course of our inquiry
leads us to contemplate with equanimity, as a natural phenomenon, a certain
semblance of cruelty in man in his relations with woman, they may, if they
will, reflect that this phenomenon is but a very slight counterpoise to that
cruelty which has been naturally exerted by the female on the male long
even before man began to be.

[83]
Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth
German edition, pp. 80, 209. It should be added that the object of
the sadistic impulse is not necessarily a person of the opposite
sex.

[84]
A. Moll, Die Konträre Sexualempfindung, third edition, 1899, p.
309.

[85]
Féré, L'Instinct Sexuel, p. 133.

[86]
P. Garnier, "Des Perversions Sexuelles," Thirteenth International
Congress of Medicine, Section of Psychiatry, Paris, 1900.

[87]

E. Dühren, Der Marquis de Sade und Seine Zeit, third edition,
1901, p. 449.

[88]
See, for instance, Bloch's Beiträge zur Ætiologie der
Psychopathia Sexualis, part ii, p. 178.

[89]
Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth
German edition, p. 115. Stefanowsky, who also discussed this
condition (Archives de l'Anthropologie Criminelle, May, 1892,
and translation, with notes by Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist,
Oct., 1892), termed it passivism.

[90]
Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, section 2, mem. iii, subs, 1.

[91]
"Aristoteles als Masochist," Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, Bd. ii,
ht. 2.

[92]
Die Konträre Sexualempfindung, third edition, p. 277. Cf. C. F.
von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus, p. 120.

[93]
See C. F. von Schlichtegroll, loc. cit., p. 124 et seq.

[94]
Iwan Bloch considers that it is the commonest of all sexual
perversions, more prevalent even than homosexuality.

[95]

It has no doubt been prominent in earlier civilization. A very
pronounced masochist utterance may be found in an ancient
Egyptian love-song written about 1200 B.C.: "Oh! were I made
her porter, I should cause her to be wrathful with me. Then when I
did but hear her voice, the voice of her anger, a child shall I be for
fear." (Wiedemann, Popular Literature in Ancient Egypt, p. 9.)
The activity and independence of the Egyptian women at the time
may well have offered many opportunities to the ancient Egyptian
masochist.

[96]
Colin Scott, "Sex and Art," American Journal of Psychology, vol.
vii, No. 2, p. 208.

[97]
It must not be supposed that the attraction of fur or of the whip is
altogether accounted for by such a casual early experience as in
Sacher-Masoch's case served to evoke it. The whip we shall have
to consider briefly later on. The fascination exerted by fur,
whether manifesting itself as love or fear, would appear to be very
common in many children, and almost instinctive. Stanley Hall,
in his "Study of Fears" (American Journal of Psychology, vol.
viii, p. 213) has obtained as many as 111 well-developed cases of
fear of fur, or, as he terms it, doraphobia, in some cases appearing
as early as the age of 6 months, and he gives many examples. He
remarks that the love of fur is still more common, and concludes
that "both this love and fear are so strong and instinctive that they
can hardly be fully accounted for without recourse to a time when
association with animals was far closer than now, or perhaps
when our remote ancestors were hairy." (Cf. "Erotic Symbolism,"
iv, in the fifth volume of these Studies.)

[98]
Féré, L'Instinct Sexuel, p. 138.

[99]

Schrenck-Notzing, Zeitschrift für Hypnotismus, Bd. ix, ht. 2,
1899.

[100]
Eulenburg, Sadismus und Masochismus, second edition, 1911, p.
5.

[101]
I have elsewhere dealt with this point in discussing the special
emotional tone of red (Havelock Ellis, "The Psychology of Red,"
Popular Science Monthly, August and September, 1900).

[102]
It is probable that the motive of sexual murders is nearly always
to shed blood, and not to cause death. Leppmann (Bulletin
Internationale de Droit Pénal, vol. vi, 1896, p. 115) points out
that such murders are generally produced by wounds in the neck
or mutilation of the abdomen, never by wounds of the head. T.
Claye Shaw, who terms the lust for blood hemothymia, has
written an interesting and suggestive paper ("A Prominent Motive
in Murder," Lancet, June 19, 1909) on the natural fascination of
blood. Blumröder, in 1830, seems to have been the first who
definitely called attention to the connection between lust and
blood.

[103]
Féré, Revue de Chirurgie, March 10, 1905.

[104]
H. Coutagne, "Cas de Perversion Sanguinaire de l'Instinct
Sexuel," Annales Médico-Psychologiques, July and August, 1893.
D. S. Booth (Alienist and Neurologist, Aug., 1906) describes the
case of a man of neurotic heredity who slightly stabbed a woman
with a penknife when on his way to a prostitute.

[105]
Kiernan appears to have been the first to suggest the bearing of
these facts on sadism, which he would regard as the abnormal
human form of phenomena which may be found at the very
beginning of animal life, as, indeed, the survival or atavistic
reappearance of a primitive sexual cannibalism. See his
"Psychological Aspects of the Sexual Appetite," Alienist and
Neurologist, April, 1891, and "Responsibility in Sexual
Perversion," Chicago Medical Recorder, March, 1892. Penta has
also independently developed the conception of the biological
basis of sadism and other sexual perversions (I Pervertimenti
Sessuali, 1893). It must be added that, as Remy de Gourmont
points out (Promenades Philosophiques, 2d series, p. 273), this
sexual cannibalism exerted by the female may have, primarily, no
erotic significance: "She eats him because she is hungry and
because when exhausted he is an easy prey."

[106]
In the chapter entitled "Le Vol Nuptial" of his charming book on
the life of bees Maeterlinck has given an incomparable picture of
the tragic courtship of these insects.

III.

Flagellation as a Typical Illustration of Algolagnia—Causes of Connection
between Sexual Emotion and Whipping—Physical Causes—Psychic
Causes probably more Important—The Varied Emotional Associations of
Whipping—Its Wide Prevalence.

The whole problem of love and pain, in its complementary sadistic and
masochistic aspects, is presented to us in connection with the pleasure
sometimes experienced in whipping, or in being whipped, or in witnessing
or thinking about scenes of whipping. The association of sexual emotion

with bloodshed is so extreme a perversion, it so swiftly sinks to phases that
are obviously cruel, repulsive, and monstrous in an extreme degree, that it is
necessarily rare, and those who are afflicted by it are often more or less
imbecile. With whipping it is otherwise. Whipping has always been a
recognized religious penance; it is still regarded as a beneficial and
harmless method of chastisement; there is nothing necessarily cruel,
repulsive, or monstrous in the idea or the reality of whipping, and it is
perfectly easy and natural for an interest in the subject to arise in an
innocent and even normal child, and thus to furnish a germ around which,
temporarily at all events, sexual ideas may crystallize. For these reasons the
connection between love and pain may be more clearly brought out in
connection with whipping than with blood.
There is, by no means, any necessary connection between flagellation and
the sexual emotions. If there were, this form of penance would not have
been so long approved or at all events tolerated by the Church.[107]
As a matter of fact, indeed, it was not always approved or even tolerated.
Pope Adrian IV in the eighth century forbade priests to beat their penitents,
and at the time of the epidemic of flagellation in the thirteenth century,
which was highly approved by many holy men, the abuses were yet so
frequent that Clement VI issued a bull against these processions. All such
papal prohibitions remained without effect. The association of religious
flagellation with perverted sexual motives is shown by its condemnation in
later ages by the Inquisition, which was accustomed to prosecute the priests
who, in prescribing flagellation as a penance, exerted it personally, or
caused it to be inflicted on the stripped penitent in his presence, or made a
woman penitent discipline him, such offences being regarded as forms of
"solicitation."[108] There seems even to be some reason to suppose that the
religious flagellation mania which was so prevalent in the later Middle
Ages, when processions of penitents, male and female, eagerly flogged
themselves and each other, may have had something to do with the
discovery of erotic flagellation,[109] which, at all events in Europe, seems
scarcely to have been known before the sixteenth century. It must, in any
case, have assisted to create a predisposition. The introduction of
flagellation as a definitely recognized sexual stimulant is by Eulenburg, in
his interesting book, Sadismus und Masochismus, attributed to the Arabian

physicians. It would appear to have been by the advice of an Arabian
physician that the Duchess Leonora Gonzaga, of Mantua, was whipped by
her mother to aid her in responding more warmly to her husband's embraces
and to conceive.
Whatever the precise origin of sexual flagellation in Europe, there can be no
doubt that it soon became extremely common, and so it remains at the
present day. Those who possess a special knowledge of such matters declare
that sexual flagellation is the most frequent of all sexual perversions in
England.[110] This belief is, I know, shared by many people both inside and
outside England. However this may be, the tendency is certainly common. I
doubt if it is any or at all less common in Germany, judging by the large
number of books on the subject of flagellation which have been published
in German. In a catalogue of "interesting books" on this and allied subjects
issued by a German publisher and bookseller, I find that, of fifty-five
volumes, as many as seventeen or eighteen, all in German, deal solely with
the question of flagellation, while many of the other books appear to deal in
part with the same subject.[111] It is, no doubt, true that the large part which
the rod has played in the past history of our civilization justifies a
considerable amount of scientific interest in the subject of flagellation, but
it is clear that the interest in these books is by no means always scientific,
but very frequently sexual.
It is remarkable that, while the sexual associations of whipping, whether in
slight or in marked degrees, are so frequent in modern times, they appear to
be by no means easy to trace in ancient times. "Flagellation," I find it stated
by a modern editor of the Priapeia, "so extensively practised in England as
a provocation to venery, is almost entirely unnoticed by the Latin erotic
writers, although, in the Satyricon of Petronius (ch. cxxxviii), Encolpius, in
describing the steps taken by Œnothea to undo the temporary impotence to
which he was subjected, says: 'Next she mixed nasturtium-juice with
southern wood, and, having bathed my foreparts, she took a bunch of green
nettles, and gently whipped my belly all over below the navel.'" It appears
also that many ancient courtesans dedicated to Venus as ex-votos a whip, a
bridle, or a spur as tokens of their skill in riding their lovers. The whip was
sometimes used in antiquity, but if it aroused sexual emotions they seem to
have passed unregarded. "We naturally know nothing," Eulenburg remarks
(Sadismus und Masochismus, p. 72), "of the feelings of the priestess of

Artemis at the flagellation of Spartan youths; or what emotions inspired the
priestess of the Syrian goddess under similar circumstances; or what the
Roman Pontifex Maximus felt when he castigated the exposed body of a
negligent vestal (as described by Plutarch) behind a curtain, and the
'plagosus Orbilius' only practised on children."
It was at the Renaissance that cases of abnormal sexual pleasure in
flagellation began to be recorded. The earliest distinct reference to a
masochistic flagellant seems to have been made by Pico della Mirandola,
toward the end of the fifteenth century, in his Disputationes Adversus
Astrologiam Divinatricem, bk. iii, ch. xxvii. Cœlius Rhodiginus in 1516,
again, narrated the case of a man he knew who liked to be severely
whipped, and found this a stimulant to coitus. Otto Brunfels, in his
Onomasticon (1534), art. "Coitus," refers to another case of a man who
could not have intercourse with his wife until he had been whipped. Then, a
century later, in 1643, Meibomius wrote De Usu Flagrorum in re Venerea,
the earliest treatise on this subject, narrating various cases. Numerous old
cases of pleasure in flagellation and urtication were brought together by
Schurig in 1720 in his Spermatologia, pp. 253-258.
The earliest definitely described medical case of sadistic pleasure in the
sight of active whipping which I have myself come across belongs to the
year 1672, and occurs in a letter in which Nesterus seeks the opinion of
Garmann. He knows intimately, he states, a very learned man—whose
name, for the honor he bears him, he refrains from mentioning—who,
whenever in a school or elsewhere he sees a boy unbreeched and birched,
and hears him crying out, at once emits semen copiously without any
erection, but with great mental commotion. The same accident frequently
happens to him during sleep, accompanied by dreams of whipping.
Nesterus proceeds to mention that this "laudatus vir" was also extremely
sensitive to the odor of strawberries and other fruits, which produced
nausea. He was evidently a neurotic subject. (L. C. F. Garmanni et Aliorum
Virorum Clarissimorum, Epistolarum Centuria, Rostochi et Lipsiæ, 1714.)
In England we find that toward the end of the sixteenth century one of
Marlowe's epigrams deals with a certain Francus who before intercourse
with his mistress "sends for rods and strips himself stark naked," and by the
middle of the seventeenth century the existence of an association between

flagellation and sexual pleasure seems to have been popularly recognized.
In 1661, in a vulgar "tragicomedy" entitled The Presbyterian Lash, we find:
"I warrant he thought that the tickling of the wench's buttocks with the rod
would provoke her to lechery." That whipping was well known as a sexual
stimulant in England in the eighteenth century is sufficiently indicated by
the fact that in one of Hogarth's series representing the "Harlot's Progress" a
birch rod hangs over the bed. The prevalence of sexual flagellation in
England at the end of that century and the beginning of the nineteenth is
discussed by Dühren (Iwan Bloch) in his Geschlechtsleben in England
(1901-3), especially vol. ii, ch. vi.
While, however, the evidence regarding sexual flagellation is rare, until
recent times whipping as a punishment was extremely common. It is even
possible that its very prevalence, and the consequent familiarity with which
it was regarded, were unfavorable to the development of any mysterious
emotional state likely to act on the sexual sphere, except in markedly
neurotic subjects. Thus, the corporal chastisement of wives by husbands
was common and permitted. Not only was this so to a proverbial extent in
eastern Europe, but also in the extreme west and among a people whose
women enjoyed much freedom and honor. Cymric law allowed a husband
to chastise his wife for angry speaking, such as calling him a cur; for giving
away property she was not entitled to give away; or for being found in
hiding with another man. For the first two offenses she had the option of
paying him three kine. When she accepted the chastisement she was to
receive "three strokes with a rod of the length of her husband's forearm and
the thickness of his long finger, and that wheresoever he might will,
excepting on the head"; so that she was to suffer pain only, and not injury.
(R. B. Holt, "Marriage Laws and Customs of the Cymri," Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, August-November, 1898, p. 162.)
"The Cymric law," writes a correspondent, "seems to have survived in
popular belief in the Eastern and Middle States of the United States. In
police-courts in New York, for example, it has been unsuccessfully pleaded
that a man is entitled to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.
In Pennsylvania actual acquittals have been rendered."
Among all classes children were severely whipped by their parents and
others in authority over them. It may be recalled that in the twelfth century

when Abelard became tutor to Heloise, then about 18 years of age, her
uncle authorized him to beat her, if negligent in her studies. Even in the
sixteenth century Jeanne d'Albert, who became the mother of Henry IV of
France, at the age of 13½ was married to the Duke of Cleves, and to
overcome her resistance to this union the Queen, her mother, had her
whipped to such an extent that she thought she would die of it. The whip on
this occasion was, however, only partially successful, for the Duke never
succeeded in consummating the marriage, which was, in consequence,
annulled. (Cabanès brings together numerous facts regarding the prevalence
of flagellation as a chastisement in ancient France in the interesting chapter
on "La Flagellation a la Cour et à la Ville" in his Indiscretions de l'Histoire,
1903.)
As to the prevalence of whipping in England evidence is furnished by
Andrews, in the chapter on "Whipping and Whipping Posts," in his book on
ancient punishments. It existed from the earliest times and was administered
for a great variety of offenses, to men and women alike, for vagrancy, for
theft, to the fathers and mothers of illegitimate children, for drunkenness,
for insanity, even sometimes for small-pox. At one time both sexes were
whipped naked, but from Queen Elizabeth's time only from the waist
upward. In 1791 the whipping of female vagrants ceased by law. (W.
Andrews, Bygone Punishments, 1899.)
It must, however, be remarked that law always lags far behind social feeling
and custom, and flagellation as a common punishment had fallen into
disuse or become very perfunctory long before any change was made in the
law, though it is not absolutely extinct, even by law, today. There is even an
ignorant and retrograde tendency to revive it. Thus, even in severe
Commonwealth days, the alleged whipping with rods of a servant-girl by
her master, though with no serious physical injury, produced a great public
outcry, as we see by the case of the Rev. Zachary Crofton, a distinguished
London clergyman, who was prosecuted in 1657 on the charge of whipping
his servant-girl, Mary Cadman, because she lay in bed late in the morning
and stole sugar. This incident led to several pamphlets. In The Presbyterian,
Lash or Noctroff's Maid Whipt (1661), a satire on Crofton, we read: "It is
not only contrary to Gospel but good manners to take up a wench's
petticoats, smock and all"; and in the doggerel ballad of "Bo-Peep," which
was also written on the same subject, it is said that Crofton should have left

his wife to chastise the maid. Crofton published two pamphlets, one under
his own name and one under that of Alethes Noctroff (1657), in which he
elaborately dealt with the charge as both false and frivolous. In one passage
he offers a qualified defense of such an act: "I cannot but bewail the
exceeding rudeness of our times to suffer such foolery to be prosecuted as
of some high and notorious crime. Suppose it were (as it is not) true, may
not some eminent congregational brother be found guilty of the same act? Is
it not much short of drinking an health naked on a signpost? May it not be
as theologically defended as the husband's correction of his wife?" This
passage, and the whole episode, show that feeling in regard to this matter
was at that time in a state of transition.
Flagellation as a penance, whether inflicted by the penitent himself or by
another person, was also extremely common in medieval and later days.
According to Walsingham ("Master of the Rolls' Collection," vol. i, p. 275),
in England, in the middle of the fourteenth century, penitents, sometimes
men of noble birth, would severely flagellate themselves, even to the
shedding of blood, weeping or singing as they did so; they used cords with
knots containing nails.
At a later time the custom of religious flagellation was more especially
preserved in Spain. The Countess d'Aulnoy, who visited Spain in 1685, has
described the flagellations practised in public at Madrid. After giving an
account of the dress worn by these flagellants, which corresponds to that
worn in Spain in Holy Week at the present time by the members of the
Cofradias, the face concealed by the high sugar-loaf head-covering, she
continues: "They attach ribbons to their scourges, and usually their
mistresses honor them with their favors. In gaining public admiration they
must not gesticulate with the arm, but only move the wrist and hand; the
blows must be given without haste, and the blood must not spoil the
costume. They make terrible wounds on their shoulders, from which the
blood flows in streams; they march through the streets with measured steps;
they pass before the windows of their mistresses, where they flagellate
themselves with marvelous patience. The lady gazes at this fine sight
through the blinds of her room, and by a sign she encourages him to flog
himself, and lets him understand how much she likes this sort of gallantry.
When they meet a good-looking woman they strike themselves in such a

way that the blood goes on to her; this is a great honor, and the grateful lady
thanks them.... All this is true to the letter."
The Countess proceeds to describe other and more genuine penitents, often
of high birth, who may be seen in the street naked above the waist, and with
naked feet on the rough and sharp pavement; some had swords passed
through the skin of their body and arms, others heavy crosses that weighed
them down. She remarks that she was told by the Papal Nuncio that he had
forbidden confessors to impose such penances, and that they were due to
the devotion of the penitents themselves. (Relation du Voyage d'Espagne,
1692, vol. ii, pp. 158-164.)
The practice of public self-flagellation in church during Lent existed in
Spain and Portugal up to the early years of the nineteenth century.
Descriptions of it will often be met with in old volumes of travel. Thus, I
find a traveler through Spain in 1786 describing how, at Barcelona, he was
present when, in Lent, at a Miserere in the Convent Church of San Felipe
Neri on Friday evening the doors were shut, the lights put out, and in
perfect darkness all bared their backs and applied the discipline, singing
while they scourged themselves, ever louder and harsher and with ever
greater vehemence until in twenty minutes' time the whole ended in a deep
groan. It is mentioned that at Malaga, after such a scene, the whole church
was in the morning sprinkled with blood. (Joseph Townsend, A Journey
through Spain in 1786, vol. i, p. 122; vol. iii, p. 15.)
Even to our own day religious self-flagellation is practised by Spaniards in
the Azores, in the darkened churches during Lent, and the walls are often
spotted and smeared with blood at this time. (O. H. Howarth, "The Survival
of Corporal Punishment," Journal Anthropological Institute, Feb., 1889.) In
remote districts of Spain (as near Haro in Rioja) there are also brotherhoods
who will flagellate themselves on Good Friday, but not within the church.
(Dario de Regoyos, España Negra, 1899, p. 72.)
When we glance over the history of flagellation and realize that, though
whipping as a punishment has been very widespread and common, there
have been periods and lands showing no clear knowledge of any sexual
association of whipping, it becomes clear that whipping is not necessarily
an algolagnic manifestation. It seems evident that there must be special

circumstances, and perhaps a congenital predisposition, to bring out
definitely the relationship of flagellation to the sexual impulse. Thus,
Löwenfeld considers that only about 1 per cent, of people can be sexually
excited by flagellation of the buttocks,[112] and Näcke also is decidedly of
opinion that there can be no sexual pleasure in flagellation without
predisposition, which is rare.[113] On these grounds many are of opinion that
physical chastisement, provided it is moderate, seldom applied, and only to
children who are quite healthy and vigorous, need not be absolutely
prohibited.[114] But, however rare and abnormal a sexual response to actual
flagellation may be in adults, we shall see that the general sexual
association of whipping in the minds of children, and frequently of their
elders, is by; no means rare and scarcely abnormal.
What is the cause of the connection between sexual emotion and whipping?
A very simple physical cause has been believed by some to account fully
for the phenomena. It is known that strong stimulation of the gluteal region
may, especially under predisposing conditions, produce or heighten sexual
excitement, by virtue of the fact that both regions are supplied by branches
of the same nerve.
There is another reason why whipping should exert a sexual influence. As
Féré especially has pointed out, in moderate amount it has a tonic effect,
and as such has a general beneficial result in stimulating the whole body.
This fact was, indeed, recognized by the classic physicians, and Galen
regarded flagellation as a tonic.[115] Thus, not only must it be said that
whipping, when applied to the gluteal region, has a direct influence in
stimulating the sexual organs, but its general tonic influence must naturally
extend to the sexual system.
It is possible that we must take into account here a biological factor, such as
we have found involved in other forms of sadism and masochism. In this
connection a lady writes to me: "With regard to the theory which connects
the desire for whipping with the way in which animals make love, where
blows or pressure on the hindquarters are almost a necessary preliminary to
pleasure, have you ever noticed the way in which stags behave? Their does
seem as timid as the males are excitable, and the blows inflicted on them by
the horns of their mates to reduce them to submission must be, I should
think, an exact equivalent to being beaten with a stick."

It is remarkable that in some cases the whip would even appear to have a
psychic influence in producing sexual excitement in animals accustomed to
its application as a stimulant to action. Thus, Professor Cornevin, of Lyons,
describes the case of a Hungarian stallion, otherwise quite potent, in whom
erection could only be produced in the presence of a mare in heat when a
whip was cracked near him, and occasionally applied gently to his legs.
(Cornevin, Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, January, 1896.)
Here, undoubtedly, we have a definite anatomical and physiological
relationship which often serves as a starting-point for the turning of the
sexual feelings in this direction, and will sometimes support the perversion
when it has otherwise arisen. But this relationship, even if we regard it as a
fairly frequent channel by which sexual emotion is aroused, will not suffice
to account for most, or even many, of the cases in which whipping exerts a
sexual fascination. In many, if not most, cases it is found that the idea of
whipping asserts its sexual significance quite apart from any personal
experience, even in persons who have never been whipped;[116] not seldom
also in persons who have been whipped and who feel nothing but
repugnance for the actual performance, attractive as it may be in
imagination.
It is evident that we have to seek the explanation of this phenomenon
largely in psychic causes. Whipping, whether inflicted or suffered, tends to
arouse, vaguely but massively, the very fundamental and primitive emotions
of anger and fear, which, as we have seen, have always been associated
with courtship, and it tends to arouse them at an age when the sexual
emotions have not become clearly defined, and under circumstances which
are likely to introduce sexual associations. From their earliest years children
have been trained to fear whipping, even when not actually submitted to it,
and an unjust punishment of this kind, whether inflicted on themselves or
others, frequently arouses intense anger, nervous excitement, or terror in the
sensitive minds of children.[117] Moreover, as has been pointed out to me by
a lady who herself in early life was affected by the sexual associations of
whipping, a child only sees the naked body of elder children when
uncovered for whipping, and its sexual charm may in part be due to this
cause. We further have to remark that the spectacle of suffering itself is, to
some extent and under some circumstances, a stimulant of sexual emotion.
It is evident that a number of factors contribute to surround whipping at a

very early age with powerful emotional associations, and that these
associations are of such a character that in predisposed subjects they are
very easily led into a sexual channel.[118] Various lines of evidence support
this conclusion. Thus, from several reliable quarters I learn that the sight of
a boy being caned at school may produce sexual excitement in the boys
who look on. The association of sexual emotion with whipping is, again,
very liable to show itself in schoolmasters, and many cases have been
recorded in which the flogging of boys, under the stress of this impulse, has
been carried to extreme lengths. An early and eminent example is furnished
by Udall, the humanist, at one time headmaster of Eton, who was noted for
his habit of inflicting frequent corporal punishment for little or no cause,
and who confessed to sexual practices with the boys under his care.[119]
Sanitchenko has called attention to the case of a Russian functionary, a
school inspector, who every day had some fifty pupils flogged in his
presence, as evidence of a morbid pleasure in such scenes. Even when no
sexual element can be distinctly traced, scenes of whipping sometimes exert
a singular fascination on some persons of sensitive emotional temperament.
A friend, a clergyman, who has read many novels tells me that he has been
struck by the frequency with which novelists describe such scenes with
much luxury of detail; his list includes novels by well-known religious
writers of both sexes. In some of these cases there is reason to believe that
the writers felt this sexual association of whipping.
It is natural that an interest in whipping should be developed very early in
childhood, and, indeed, it enters very frequently into the games of young
children, and constitutes a much relished element of such games, more
especially among girls. I know of many cases in which young girls between
6 and 12 years of age took great pleasure in games in which the chief point
consisted in unfastening each other's drawers and smacking each other, and
some of these girls, when they grew older, realized that there was an
element of sexual enjoyment in their games. It has indeed, it seems, always
been a child's game, and even an amusement of older persons, to play at
smacking each other's nates. In The Presbyter's Lash in 1661 a young
woman is represented as stating that she had done this as a child, and in
ancient France it was a privileged custom on Innocents' Day (December
28th) to smack all the young people found lying late in bed; it was a custom
which, as Clement Marot bears witness, was attractive to lovers.

If we turn to the histories I have brought together in Appendix B we find
various references to whipping more or less clearly connected with the
rudimentary sexual feelings of childhood.
I am acquainted with numerous cases in which the idea of whipping, or the
impulse to whip or be whipped, distinctly exists, though usually, when
persisting to adult life, only in a rudimentary form. History I in the
Appendix B presents a well-marked instance. I may quote the remarks in
another case of a lady regarding her early feelings: "As a child the idea of
being whipped excited me, but only in connection with a person I loved,
and, moreover, one who had the right to correct me. On one occasion I was
beaten with the back of a brush, and the pain was sufficient to overcome
any excitement; so that, ever after, this particular form of whipping left me
unaffected, though the excitement still remained connected with forms of
which I had no experience."
Another lady states that when a little girl of 4 or 5 the servants used to
smack her nates with a soft brush to amuse themselves (undoubtedly, as she
now believes, this gave them a kind of sexual pleasure); it did not hurt her,
but she disliked it. Her father used to whip her severely on the nates at this
age and onward to the age of 13, but this never gave her any pleasure.
When, however, she was about 9 she began in waking dreams to imagine
that she was whipping somebody, and would finish by imagining that she
was herself being whipped. She would make up stories of which the climax
was a whipping, and felt at the same time a pleasurable burning sensation in
her sexual parts; she used to prolong the preliminaries of the story to
heighten the climax; she felt more pleasure in the idea of being whipped
than of whipping, although she never experienced any pleasure from an
actual whipping. These day-dreams were most vivid when she was at
school, between the ages of 11 and 14. They began to fade with the growth
of affection for real persons. But in dreams, even in adult life, she
occasionally experienced sexual excitement accompanied by images of
smacking.
Another correspondent, this time a man, writes: "I experienced the
connection between sexual excitement and whipping long before I knew
what sexuality meant or had any notion regarding the functions of the

sexual organs. What I now know to be distinct sexual feeling used to occur
whenever the idea of whipping arose or the mention of whipping was made
in a way to arrest my attention. I well remember the strange, mysterious
fascination it had, even apart from any actual physical excitement. I have
been told by many men and a few women that it was the same with them.
Even now the feeling exists sometimes, especially when reading about
whipping."
The following confession, which I find recorded by a German
manufacturer's wife, corresponds with those I have obtained in England:
"When about 5 years old I was playing with a little girl friend in the park.
Our governesses sat on a bench talking. For some reason—perhaps because
we had wandered away too far and failed to hear a call to return—my friend
aroused the anger of the governess in charge of her. That young lady,
therefore, took her aside, raised her dress, and vigorously smacked her with
the flat hand. I looked on fascinated, and possessed by an inexplicable
feeling to which I naïvely gave myself up. The impression was so deep that
the scene and the persons concerned are still clearly present to my mind,
and I can even recall the little details of my companion's underclothing."
When sexual associations are permanently brought into play through such
an early incident it is possible that a special predisposition exists.
(Gesellschaft und Geschlecht, Bd. ii, ht. 4, p. 120.)
It would certainly seem that we must look upon this association as coming
well within the normal range of emotional life in childhood, although after
puberty, when the sexual feelings become clearly defined, the attraction of
whipping normally tends to be left behind as a piece of childishness, only
surviving in the background of consciousness, if at all, to furnish a vaguely
sexual emotional tone to the subject of whipping, but not affecting conduct,
sometimes only emerging in erotic dreams.
This, however, is not invariably the case in persons who are organically
abnormal. In such cases, and especially, it would seem, in highly sensitive
and emotional children, the impress left by the fact or the image of
whipping may be so strong that it affects not only definitely, but
permanently, the whole subsequent course of development of the sexual
impulse. Régis has recorded a case which well illustrates the circumstances
and hereditary conditions under which the idea of whipping may take such

firm root in the sexual emotional nature of a child as to persist into adult
life; at the same time the case shows how a sexual perversion may, in an
intelligent person, take on an intellectual character, and it also indicates a
rational method of treatment.
Jules P., aged 22, of good heredity on father's side, but bad on that of
mother, who is highly hysterical, while his grandmother was very impulsive
and sometimes pursued other women with a knife. He has one brother and
one sister, who are somewhat morbid and original. He is himself healthy,
intelligent, good looking, and agreeable, though with slightly morbid
peculiarities. At the age of 4 or 5 he suddenly opened a door and saw his
sister, then a girl of 14 or 15, kneeling, with her clothes raised and her head
on her governess's lap, at the moment of being whipped for some offense.
This trivial incident left a profound impression on his mind, and he recalls
every detail of it, especially the sight of his sister's buttocks,—round, white,
and enormous as they seemed to his childish eyes,—and that momentary
vision gave a permanent direction to the whole of his sexual life. Always
after that he desired to touch and pat his sister's gluteal regions. He shared
her bed, and, though only a child, acquired great skill in attaining his ends
without attracting her attention, lifting her night-gown when she slept and
gently caressing the buttocks, also contriving to turn her over on to her
stomach and then make a pillow of her hips. This went on until the age of 7,
when he began to play with two little girls of the neighborhood, the eldest
of whom was 10; he liked to take the part of the father and whip them. The
older girl was big for her age, and he would separate her drawers and smack
her with much voluptuous emotion; so that he frequently sought
opportunities to repeat the experience, to which the girl willingly lent
herself, and they were constantly together in dark corners, the girl herself
opening her drawers to enable him to caress her thighs and buttocks with
his hand until he became conscious of an erection. Sometimes he would
gently use a whip. On one occasion she asked him if he would not now like
to see her in front, but he declined.
One day, when 8 or 9 years old, being with a boy companion, he came upon
a picture of a monk being flagellated, and thereupon persuaded his
companion to let himself be whipped; the boy enjoyed the experience,
which was therefore often repeated. Jules P. himself, however, never took
the slightest pleasure in playing the passive part. These practices were

continued even after the friend became a conscript, when, however, they
became very rare. Only once or twice has he ever done anything of this kind
to girls who were strangers to him. Nor has he ever masturbated or had any
desire for sexual intercourse. He contents himself with the pleasure of being
occasionally able to witness scenes of whipping in public places—parks
and gardens—or of catching glimpses of the thighs and buttocks of young
girls or, if possible, women.
His principal enjoyment is in imagination. From the first he has loved to
invent stories in which whippings were the climax, and at 13 such stories
produced the first spontaneous emission. Thus, he imagines, for instance, a
young girl from the country who comes up to Paris by train; on the way a
lady is attracted by her, takes an interest in her, brings her home to dinner,
and at last can no longer resist the temptation to take the girl in her arms
and whip her amorously. He writes out these scenes and illustrates them
with drawings, many of which Régis reproduces. He has even written
comedies in which whipping plays a prominent part. He has, moreover,
searched public libraries for references to flagellation, inserted queries in
the Intermédiare des Chercheurs et des Curieux, and thus obtained a
complete bibliography of flagellation which is of considerable value. Régis
is acquainted with these Archives de la Fessée, and states that they are
carried on with great method and care. He is especially interested in the
whipping of women by women. He considers that the pleasure of whippings
should always be shared by the person whipped, and he is somewhat
concerned to find that he has an increasing inclination to imagine an
element of cruelty in the whipping. Emissions are somewhat frequent.
According to the latest information, he is much better; he has entered into
sexual relationship with a woman who is much in love with him, and to
whom he has confided his peculiarities. With her aid and suggestions he has
been able to have intercourse with her, at the moment of coitus whipping
her with a harmless India-rubber tube. (E. Régis, "Un Cas de Perversion
Sexuelle, a forme Sadique," Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelles, July,
1899.)
In a case also occurring in a highly educated man (narrated by Marandon de
Montyel) a doctor of laws, brilliantly intellectual and belonging to a family
in which there had been some insanity, when at school at the age of 11, saw
for the first time a schoolfellow whipped on the nates, and experienced a

new pleasure and emotion. He was never himself whipped at school, but
would invent games with his sisters and playfellows in which whipping
formed an essential part. At the age of 13 he teased a young woman, a cook,
until she seized him and whipped him. He put his arms around her and
experienced his first voluptuous spasm of sex. The love of flagellation
temporarily died out, however, and gave place to masturbation and later to a
normal attraction to women. But at the age of 32 the old ideas were aroused
anew by a story his mistress told him. He suffered from various obsessions
and finally committed suicide. (Marandon de Montyel, "Obsessions et Vie
Sexuelle," Archives de Neurologie, Oct., 1904.)
In a case that has been reported to me, somewhat similar ideas played a
part. The subject is a tall, well-developed man, aged 28, delicate in
childhood, but now normal in health and physical condition, though not
fond of athletics. His mental ability is much above the average, especially
in scientific directions; he was brought up in narrow and strict religious
views, but at an early age developed agnostic views of his own.
From the age of 6, and perhaps earlier, he practised masturbation almost
every night. This was a habit which he carried on in all innocence. It was as
invariable a preliminary, he states, to going to sleep as was lying down, and
at this period he would have felt no hesitation in telling all about it had the
question been asked. At the age of 12 or 13 he recognized the habit as
abnormal, and fear of ridicule then caused him to keep silence and to avoid
observation. In carrying it out he would lie on his stomach with the penis
directed downward, and not up, and the thumb resting on the region above
the root of the penis. There was desire for micturition after the act, and
when that was satisfied sound sleep followed. When he realized that the
habit was abnormal he began to make efforts to discontinue it, and these
efforts have been continued up to the present. The chief obstacle has been
the difficulty of sleep without carrying out the practice. Emissions first
began to occur at the age of 13 and at first caused some alarm. During the
six following years indulgence was irregular, sometimes occurring every
other night and sometimes with a week's intermission. Then at the age of 19
the habit was broken for a year, during which nocturnal emissions took
place during sleep about every three weeks. Since this, shorter periods of
non-indulgence have occurred, these periods always coinciding with
unusual mental or physical strain, as of examinations. He has some degree

of attraction for women; this is strongest during cessation from
masturbation and tends to disappear when the habit is resumed. He has
never had sexual intercourse because he prefers his own method of
gratification and feels great abhorrence for professional prostitutes; he
could not afford to marry. Any indecency or immorality, except (he
observes) his own variety, disgusts him.
At the earliest period no mental images accompanied the act of
masturbation. At about the age of 8, however, sexual excitement began to be
constantly associated with ideas of being whipped. At or soon after this age
only the fear of disgrace prevented him from committing serious childish
offenses likely to be punished by a good whipping. Parents and masters,
however, seem to have used corporal punishment very sparingly.
At first this desire was for whipping in general, without reference to the
operator. Soon after the age of 10, however, he began to wish that certain
boy friends should be the operators. At about the same time definite desire
arose for closer contact with these friends and later for definite indecent
acts which, however, the subject failed to specify; he probably meant
mutual masturbation. These desires were under control, and the fear of
ridicule seems to have been the chief restraining cause. At about the age of
15 he began to realize that such acts might be considered morally bad and
wrong, and this led to reticence and careful concealment. Up to the age of
20 there were four definite attachments to persons of his own sex. There
was a tendency, sometimes, to regard women as possible whippers, and this
became stronger at 22, the images of the two sexes then mingling in his
thoughts of flagellation. Latterly the mental accompaniments of
masturbation have been less personal, lapsing into the mental picture of
being whipped by an unknown and vague somebody. When definite it has
always been a man, and preferably of the type of a schoolmaster. His desire
has been for punishment by whips, canes, or birches, especially upon the
buttocks. He has always shrunk from the thought of the production of blood
or bruises. He wishes, in mental contemplation, for a punishment
sufficiently severe to make him anxious to stop it, and yet not able to stop
it. He also takes pleasure in the idea of being tied up so as to be unable to
move.
He has at times indulged in self-whipping, of no great severity.

In the preceding case we see a tendency to erotic self-flagellation which in a
minor degree is not uncommon. Occasionally it becomes highly developed.
Max Marcuse has presented such a case in elaborate detail (Zeitschrift für
die Gesamte Neurologie, 1912, ht. 3, fully summarized in Sexual-Probleme,
Nov., 1912, pp. 815-820). This is the case of a Catholic priest of highly
neurotic heredity, who spontaneously began to whip himself at the age of
12, this self-flagellation being continued and accompanied by masturbation
after the age of 15. Other associated perversions were Narcissism and nates
fetichism, as well as homosexual phantasies. He experienced a certain
pleasure (with erection, not ejaculation) in punishing his boy pupils. It is
not uncommon for all forms of erotic flagellation to be associated with a
homosexual element. I have elsewhere brought forward a case of this kind
(the case of A. F., vol. ii of these Studies).
Significant is Rousseau's account of the origin of his own masochistic
pleasure in whipping at the age of 8: "Mademoiselle Lambercier showed
toward me a mother's affection and also a mother's authority, which she
sometimes carried so far as to inflict on us the usual punishment of children
when we had deserved it. For a long time she was content with the threat,
and that threat of a chastisement which for me was quite new seemed very
terrible; but after it had been executed I found the experience less terrible
than the expectation had been; and, strangely enough, this punishment
increased my affection for her who had inflicted it. It needed all my
affection and all my natural gentleness to prevent me from seeking a
renewal of the same treatment by deserving it, for I had found in the pain
and even in the shame of it an element of sensuality which left more desire
than fear of receiving the experience again from the same hand. It is true
that, as in all this a precocious sexual element was doubtless mixed, the
same chastisement if inflicted by her brother would not have seemed so
pleasant." He goes on to say that the punishment was inflicted a second
time, but that that time was the last, Mademoiselle Lambercier having
apparently noted the effects it produced, and, henceforth, instead of
sleeping in her room, he was placed in another room and treated by her as a
big boy. "Who would have believed," he adds, "that this childish
punishment, received at the age of 8 from the hand of a young woman of
30, would have determined my tastes, my desires, my passions, for the rest
of my life?" He remarks that this strange taste drove him almost to

madness, but maintained the purity of his morals, and the joys of love
existed for him chiefly in imagination. (J. J. Rousseau, Les Confessions,
partie i, livre i.) It will be seen how all the favoring conditions of fear,
shame, and precocious sexuality were here present in an extremely sensitive
child destined to become the greatest emotional force of his century, and
receptive to influences which would have had no permanent effect on any
ordinary child. (When, as occasionally happens, the first sexual feelings are
experienced under the stimulation of whipping in normal children, no
permanent perversion necessarily follows; Moll mentions that he knows
such cases, Zeitschrift für Pädagogie, Psychiatrie, und Pathologie, 1901.) It
may be added that it is, perhaps, not fanciful to see a certain inevitableness
in the fact that on Rousseau's highly sensitive and receptive temperament it
was a masochistic germ that fell and fructified, while on Régis's subject,
with his more impulsive ancestral antecedents, a sadistic germ found
favorable soil.
It may be noted that in Régis's sadistic case the little girl who was the boy's
playmate found scarcely less pleasure in the passive part of whipping than
he found in the active. There is ample evidence to show that this is very
often the case, and that the attractiveness of the idea of being whipped often
even arises spontaneously in children. Lombroso (La Donna Delinquente,
p. 404) refers to a girl of 7 who had voluptuous pleasure in being whipped,
and Hammer (Monatschrift für Harnkrankheiten, 1906, p. 398) speaks of a
young girl who similarly experienced pleasure in punishment by whipping.
Krafft-Ebing records the case of a girl of between 6 and 8 years of age,
never at that time having been whipped or seen anyone else whipped, who
spontaneously acquired—how she did not know—the desire to be
castigated in this manner. It gave her very great pleasure to imagine a
woman friend doing this to her. She never desired to be whipped by a man,
though there was no trace of inversion, and she never masturbated until the
age of 24, when a marriage engagement was broken off. At the age of 10
this longing passed away before it was ever actually realized. (Krafft-Ebing,
Psychopathia Sexualis, eighth edition, p. 136.)
In the case of another young woman described by Krafft-Ebing—where
there was neurasthenia with other minor morbid conditions in the family,
but the girl herself appears to have been sound—the desire to be whipped
existed from a very early age. She traced it to the fact that when she was 5

years old a friend of her father's playfully placed her across his knees and
pretended to whip her. Since then she has always longed to be caned, but to
her great regret the wish has never been realized. She longs to be the slave
of a man whom she loves: "Lying in fancy before him, he puts one foot on
my neck while I kiss the other. I revel in the idea of being whipped by him
and imagine different scenes in which he beats me. I take the blows as so
many tokens of love; he is at first extremely kind and tender, but then in the
excess of his love he beats me. I fancy that to beat me for love's sake gives
him the highest pleasure." Sometimes she imagines that she is his slave, but
not his female slave, for every woman may be her husband's slave. She is of
proud and independent nature in all other matters, and to imagine herself a
man who consents to be a slave gives her a more satisfying sense of
humiliation. She does not understand that these manifestations are of a
sexual nature. (Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of
tenth edition, p. 189.)
Sometimes a woman desires to take the active part in whipping. Thus
Marandon de Montyel records the case of a girl of 19, hereditarily
neuropathic (her father was alcoholic), but very intelligent and good-
hearted, who had never been whipped or seen anyone whipped. At this age,
however, she happened to visit a married friend who was just about to
punish her boy of 9 by whipping him with a wet towel. The girl spectator
was much interested, and though the boy screamed and struggled she
experienced a new sensation she could not define. "At every stroke," she
said, "a strange shiver went through all my body from my brain to my
heels." She would like to have whipped him herself and felt sorry when it
was over. She could not forget the scene and would dream of herself
whipping a boy. At last the desire became irresistible and she persuaded a
boy of 12, whom she was very fond of, and who was much attached to her,
to let her whip him on the naked nates. She did this so ferociously that he at
last fainted. She was overcome by grief and remorse. (Marandon de
Montyel, Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Jan., 1906, p. 30.)
Although masochism in a pronounced degree may be said to be rare in
women, the love of active flagellation, and sadistic impulses generally are
not uncommon among them. Bloch believes they are especially common
among English women. Cases occur from time to time of extreme
harshness, cruelty, degrading punishment, and semi-starvation inflicted

upon children. The accused are most usually women, and when a man and
woman in conjunction are accused it appears generally to have been the
woman who played the more active part. But it is rarely demonstrated in
these cases that the cruelty exercised had a definite sexual origin. There is
nothing, for instance, to indicate true sadism in the famous English case in
the eighteenth century of Mrs. Brownrigg (Bloch, Geschlechtsleben in
England, vol. ii, p. 425). It may well be, however, in many of these cases
that the real motive is sexual, although latent and unconscious. The normal
sexual impulse in women is often obscured and disguised, and it would not
be surprising if the perverse instinct is so likewise.
It is noteworthy that a passion for whipping may be aroused by contact with
a person who desires to be whipped. This is illustrated by the following case
which has been communicated to me: "K. is a Jew, about 40 years of age,
apparently normal. Nothing is known of his antecedents. He is a
manufacturer with several shops. S., an Englishwoman, aged 25, entered his
service; she is illegitimate, believed to have been reared in a brothel kept by
her mother, is prepossessing in appearance. On entering K.'s service S. was
continually negligent and careless. This so provoked K. that on one
occasion he struck her. She showed great pleasure and confessed that her
blunder had been deliberately intended to arouse him to physical violence.
At her suggestion K. ultimately consented to thrash her. This operation took
place in K.'s office, S. stripping for the purpose, and the leather driving
band from a sewing-machine was used. S. manifested unmistakable
pleasure during the flagellation, and connection occurred after it. These
thrashings were repeated at frequent intervals, and K. found a growing
liking for the operation on his own part. Once, at the suggestion of S., a girl
of 13 employed by K. was thrashed by both K. and S. alternately. The child
complained to her parents and K. made a money payment to them to avoid
scandal, the parents agreeing to keep silence. Other women (Jewish
tailoresses) employed by K. were subsequently thrashed by him. He asserts
that they enjoyed the experience. Mrs. K., discovering her husband's
infatuation for S., commenced divorce proceedings. S. consented to leave
the country at K.'s request, but returned almost immediately and was kept in
hiding until the decree was granted. The mutual infatuation of K. and S.
continues, though K. asserts that he cares less for her than formerly.
Flagellation has, however, now become a passion with him, though he

declares that the practice was unknown to him before he met S. His great
fear is that he will kill S. during one of these operations. He is convinced
that S. is not an isolated case, and that all women enjoy flagellation. He
claims that the experiences of the numerous women whom he has now
thrashed bear out this opinion; one of them is a wealthy woman separated
from her husband, and is now infatuated with K."
Flagellation, more especially in its masochistic form, is sometimes
associated with true inversion. Moll presents the case of a young inverted
woman of 26, showing, indeed, many other minor sexual anomalies, who is
sexually excited when beaten with a switch. A whip would not do, and the
blows must only be on the nates; she cannot imagine being beaten by a
small woman. She has often in this way been beaten by a friend, who
should be naked at the time, and must submit afterward to cunnilinctus.
(Moll, Konträre Sexualempfindung third edition, p. 568.)
In the preceding case there were no masochistic ideas; it is likely that in
such a case beating is desired largely on account of that purely physical
effect to which attention has already been called. In the same way self-
beating with a switch or whip has sometimes been spontaneously
discovered as a method of self-excitement preliminary to masturbation. I
am acquainted with a lady of much intellectual ability, sexually normal,
who made this discovery at the age of 18, and practised it for a time.
Professor Reverdin, also, speaks of the case of a young girl under his care
who, after having exhausted all the resources of her intelligence, finally
discovered that the climax of enjoyment was best reached by violently
whipping her own buttocks and thighs. She had invented for this purpose a
whip composed of twelve cords each of which terminated in a large
chestnut-burr provided with its spines. (A. Reverdin, Revue Médicale de la
Suisse Romande, January 20, 1888, p. 17.)

[107]
The discipline or scourge was classed with fasting as a method of
mastering the flesh and of penance. See, e.g., Lea, History of
Auricular Confession, vol. ii, p. 122. For many centuries bishops
and priests used themselves to apply the discipline to their
penitents. At first it was applied to the back; later, especially in

the case of female penitents, it was frequently applied to the
nates. Moreover, partial or complete nudity came to be frequently
demanded, the humiliation thereby caused being pleasant in the
sight of God.

[108]
Dulaure, Des Divinités Génératrices, ch. xv; Lea, History of
Sacerdotal Celibacy, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 278; Kiernan, "Asceticism
as an Auto-erotism," Alienist and Neurologist, Aug., 1911.

[109]
This is the opinion of Löwenfeld, Ueber die Sexuelle
Konstitution, p. 43.

[110]
Thus, Dühren (Iwan Bloch) remarks (Der Marquis de Sade und
Seine Zeit, 1901, p. 211): "It is well known that England is today
the classic land of sexual flagellation." See the same author's
Geschlechtsleben in England, vol. ii, ch. vi. In America it appears
also to be common, and Kiernan mentions that in advertisements
of Chicago "massage shops" there often appears the
announcement: "Flagellation a Specialty." The reports of police
inspectors in eighteenth century France show how common
flagellation then was in Paris. It may be added that various men of
distinguished intellectual ability of recent times and earlier are
reported as addicted to passive flagellation; this was the case with
Helvétius.

[111]
A full bibliography of flagellation would include many hundred
items. The more important works on this subject, in connection
with the sexual impulse, are enumerated by Eulenburg, in his
Sadismus und Masochismus. An elaborate history of flagellation
generally is now being written by Georg Collas, Geschichte des
Flagellantismus, vol. i, 1912.

[112]
Löwenfeld, Ueber die Sexuelle Konstitution, p. 43.

[113]
Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie, 1909, p. 361. He brings
forward the evidence of a reliable and cultured man who at one
time sought to obtain the pleasures of passive sexual flagellation.
But in spite of his expectation and good will the only result was to
disperse every trace of sexual desire.

[114]
E.g., Kiefer, Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft, Aug., 1908.

[115]
Féré, Revue de Médecine, August, 1900. In this paper Féré brings
together many interesting facts concerning flagellation in ancient
times.

[116]
Schmidt-Heuert (Monatschrift für Harnkrankheiten, 1906, ht. 7)
argues that it is not so much the actual use of the rod as playful,
threatening and mysterious suggestions playing around it which
nowadays gives it sexual fascination.

[117]
Moll (Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis, Bd. 1, p. 18)
points out that these emotions frequently suffice to cause sexual
emissions in schoolboys.

[118]
As Eulenburg truly points out, the circumstances attending the
whipping of a woman may be sexually attractive, even in the
absence of any morbid impulse. Such circumstances are "the sight

of naked feminine charms and especially—in the usual mode of
flagellation—of those parts which possess for the sexual epicure a
peculiar esthetic attraction; the idea of treating a loved, or at all
events desired, person as a child, of having her in complete
subjection and being able to dispose of her despotically; and
finally the immediate results of whipping: the changes in skin-
color, the to and fro movements which simulate or anticipate the
initial phenomena of coitus." (Eulenburg, Sexuale Neuropathie, p.
121.)

[119]
See the article on Udall in the Dictionary of National Biography.

IV.

The Impulse to Strangle the Object of Sexual Desire—The Wish to be
Strangled—Respiratory Disturbance the Essential Element in this Group of
Phenomena—The Part Played by Respiratory Excitement in the Process of
Courtship—Swinging and Suspension—The Attraction Exerted by the Idea
of being Chained and Fettered.

There is another impulse which it may be worth while to consider briefly
here, for the sake of the light it throws on the relationship between love and
pain. I allude to the impulse to strangle the object of sexual desire, and to
the corresponding craving to be strangled. Cases have been recorded in
which this impulse was so powerful that men have actually strangled
women at the moment of coitus.[120] Such cases are rare; but, as a mere
idea, the thought of strangling a woman appears to be not infrequently
associated with sexual emotion. We must probably regard it as, in the main,
—with whatever subsidiary elements,—an aspect of that physical seizure,
domination, and forcible embrace of the female which is one of the
primitive elements of courtship.[121]

The corresponding idea—the pleasurable connection of the thought of being
strangled with sexual emotion—appears to occur still more frequently,
perhaps especially in women. Here we seem to have, as in the case of
whipping, a combination of a physical with a psychic element. Not only is
the idea attractive, but, as a matter of fact, strangulation, suffocation, or any
arrest of respiration, even when carried to the extent of producing death,
may actually provoke emission, as is observed after death by hanging.[122] It
is noteworthy that, as Eulenburg remarks, the method of treating diseases of
the spinal cord by suspension—a method much in vogue a few years ago—
often produced sexual excitement.[123] In brothels, it is said, some of the
clients desire to be suspended vertically by a cord furnished with pads.[124]
A playful attempt to throttle her on the part of her lover is often felt by a
woman as pleasurable, though it may not necessarily produce definite
sexual excitement. Sometimes, however, this feeling becomes so strong that
it must be regarded as an actual perversion, and I have been told of a
woman who is indifferent to the ordinary sexual embrace; her chief longing
is to be throttled, and she will do anything to have her neck squeezed by her
lover till her eyeballs bulge.[125]
"I think if I could be left my present feelings," a lady writes, "and be
changed into a male imbecile,—that is, given a man's strength, but
deprived, to a large extent, of reasoning power,—I might very likely act in
the apparently cruel way they do. And this partly because many of their
actions appeal to me on the passive side. The idea of being strangled by a
person I love does. The great sensitiveness of one's throat and neck come in
here as well as the loss of breath. Once when I was about to be separated
from a man I cared for I put his hands on my throat and implored him to kill
me. It was a moment of madness, which helps me to understand the feelings
of a person always insane. Even now that I am cool and collected I know
that if I were deeply in love with a man who I thought was going to kill me,
especially in that way, I would make no effort to save myself beforehand,
though, of course, in the final moments nature would assert herself without
my volition. What makes the horror of such cases in insanity is the fact of
the love being left out. But I think I find no greater difficulty in picturing
the mental attitude of a sadistic lunatic than that of a normal man who gets
pleasure out of women for whom he has no love."

The imagined pleasure of being strangled by a lover brings us to a group of
feelings which would seem to be not unconnected with respiratory
elements. I refer to the pleasurable excitement experienced by some in
suspension, swinging, restraint, and fetters. Strangulation is the extreme and
most decided type of this group of imagined or real situations, in all of
which a respiratory disturbance seems to be an essential element.[126]
In explaining these phenomena we have to remark that respiratory
excitement has always been a conspicuous part of the whole process of
tumescence and detumescence, of the struggles of courtship and of its
climax, and that any restraint upon respiration, or, indeed, any restraint
upon muscular and emotional activity generally, tends to heighten the state
of sexual excitement associated with such activity.
I have elsewhere, when studying the spontaneous solitary manifestation of
the sexual instinct (Auto-erotism, in vol. i of these Studies), referred to the
pleasurably emotional, and sometimes sexual, effects of swinging and
similar kinds of movement. It is possible that there is a certain significance
in the frequency with which the eighteenth-century French painters, who
lived at a time when the refinements of sexual emotion were carefully
sought out, have painted women in the act of swinging. Fragonard mentions
that in 1763 a gentleman invited him into the country, with the request to
paint his mistress, especially stipulating that she should be depicted in a
swing. The same motive was common among the leading artists of that
time. It may be said that this attitude was merely a pretext to secure a vision
of ankles, but that result could easily have been attained without the aid of
the swing.
I may here quote, as bearing on this and allied questions, a somewhat
lengthy communication from a lady to whom I am indebted for many subtle
and suggestive remarks on the whole of this group of manifestations:—
"With regard to the connection between swinging and suspension, perhaps
the physical basis of it is the loss of breath. Temporary loss of breath with
me produces excitement. Swinging at a height or a fall from a height would
cause loss of breath; in a state of suspension the imagination would suggest
the idea of falling and the attendant loss of breath. People suffering from
lung disease are often erotically inclined, and anesthetics affect the

breathing. Men also seem to like the idea of suspension, but from the active
side. One man used to put his wife on a high swinging shelf when she
displeased him, and my husband told me once he would like to suspend me
to a crane we were watching at work, though I have never mentioned my
own feeling on this point to him. Suspension is often mentioned in
descriptions of torture. Beatrice Cenci was hung up by her hair and the
recently murdered Queen of Korea was similarly treated. In Tolstoi's My
Husband and I the girl says she would like her husband to hold her over a
precipice. That passage gave me great pleasure.[127]
"The idea of slipping off an inclined plane gives me the same sensation. I
always feel it on seeing Michael Angelo's 'Night,' though the slipping look
displeases me artistically. I remember that when I saw the 'Night' first I did
feel excited and was annoyed, and it seemed to me it was the slipping-off
look that gave it; but I think I am now less affected by that idea. Certain
general ideas seem to excite one, but the particular forms under which they
are presented lose their effect and have to be varied. The sentence
mentioned in Tolstoi leaves me now quite cold, but if I came across the
same idea elsewhere, expressed differently, then it would excite me. I am
very capricious in the small things, and I think women are so more than
men. The idea of slipping down a plank formerly produced excitement with
me; now it has a less vivid effect, though the idea of loss of breath still
produces excitement. The idea of the plank does not now affect me unless
there is a certain amount of drapery. I think, therefore, that the feeling must
come in part from the possibility of the drapery catching on some roughness
of the surface of the slope, and so producing pressure on the sexual organs.
The effect is still produced, however, even without any clothing, if the slope
is supposed to end in a deep drop, so that the idea of falling is strongly
presented. I cannot recollect any early associations that would tend to
explain these feelings, except that jumping from a height, which I used
frequently to do as a child, has a tendency to create excitement.
"With me, I may add, it is when I cannot express myself, or am trying to
understand what I feel is beyond my grasp, that the first stage of sexual
excitement results. For instance, I never get excited in thinking over sexual
questions, because my ideas, correct or incorrect, are fairly clear and
definite. But I often feel sexually excited over that question of the
inheritance of acquired characteristics, not because I can't decide between

the two sets of evidence, but because I don't feel confident of having fully
grasped the true significance of either. This feeling of want of power,
mental or physical, always has the same effect. I feel it if my eyes are
blindfolded or my hands tied. I don't like to see the Washington Post dance,
in which the man stands behind the woman and holds her hands, on that
account. If he held her wrists the feeling would be stronger, as her apparent
helplessness would be increased. The nervous irritability that is caused by
being under restraint seems to manifest itself in that way, while in the case
of mental disability the excitement, which should flow down a mental
channel, being checked, seems to take a physical course instead.
"Possibly this would help to explain masochistic sexual feelings. A physical
cause working in the present would be preferable as an explanation to a
psychological cause to be traced back through heredity to primitive
conditions. I believe such feelings are very common in men as well as in
women, only people do not care to admit them, as a rule."
The idea of being chained and fettered appears to be not uncommonly
associated with pleasurable sexual feelings, for I have met with numerous
cases in both men and women, and it not infrequently coexists with a
tendency to inversion. It often arises at a very early age, and it is of
considerable interest because we cannot account for its frequency by any
chance association nor by any actual experiences. It would appear to be a
purely psychic fantasia founded on the elementary physical fact that
restraint of emotion, like suspension, produces a heightening of emotion. In
any case the spontaneous character of such ideas and emotions in children
of both sexes suffices to show that they must possess a very definite organic
basis.
In one of the histories (X) contained in Appendix B at the end of the present
volume a lady describes how, as a child, she reveled in the idea of being
chained and tortured, these ideas appearing to rise spontaneously. In another
case, that of A. N. (for the most part reproduced in "Erotic Symbolism," in
vol. v of these Studies), whose ideals are inverted and who is also affected
by boot-fetichism, the idea of fetters is very attractive. In this case self-
excitement was produced at a very early age, without the use of the hands,
by strapping the legs together. We can, however, scarcely explain away the
idea of fetters in this case as merely the result of an early association, for it

may well be argued that the idea led to this method of self-excitement. "The
mere idea of fetters," this subject writes, "produces the greatest excitement,
and the sight of pictures representing such things is a temptation. The
reading of books dealing with prison life, etc., anywhere where physical
restraint is treated of, is a temptation. The temptation is aggravated when
the picture represents the person booted. I suppose all this will have been
intensified in my case by my practices as a child. But why should a child of
6 do such things unless it were a natural instinct in him? Nobody showed
me; I have never mentioned such things to anyone. I used to read historical
romances for the pleasure of reading of people being put in prison, in
fetters, and tortured, and always envied them. I feel now that I should like
to undergo the sensation. If I could get anyone to humor me without losing
their self-respect, I should jump at the opportunity. I have been most
powerfully excited by visiting an old Australian convict-ship, where all the
means of restraint are shown; I have been attracted to it night after night,
wanting, but not daring to ask, to be allowed to have a practical
experience."
Stcherbak, of Warsaw, has recorded a case which resembles that of A. N.,
but there was no inversion and the attraction of fetters was active rather
than passive; the subject desired to fetter and not to be fettered. It is
possible that this difference is not fundamental, though Stcherbak regards
the case as one of fetichism of sadistic origin ("Contribution à l'Etude des
Perversions Sexuelles," Archives de Neurologie, Oct., 1907). The subject
was a highly intelligent though neurasthenic youth, who from the age of 5
had been deeply interested in criminals who were fettered and sent to
prison. The fate of Siberian prisoners was a frequent source of prolonged
meditations. It was the fettering which alone interested him, and he spent
much time in trying to imagine the feelings of the fettered prisoners, and he
often imagined that he was himself a prisoner in fetters. (This seems to
indicate that the impulse was in its origin masochistic as much as sadistic,
and better described as algolagnia than as sadism.) He delighted in stories
and pictures of fettered persons. At the age of 15 the sex of the fettered
person became important and he was interested chiefly in fettered women.
A new element also appeared; he was attracted to well-dressed women and
especially to those wearing elegant shoes, delighting to imagine them
fettered. He fastened his own feet together with chains, attempting to walk

about his room in this condition, but experienced comparatively little
pleasure in this way. At the age of 15 he met a lady 10 years older than
himself and of great intelligence. As he began to know her more intimately
she allowed him to take liberties with her; he fastened her hands behind her
back, and this caused him a violent but delicious emotion which he had
never experienced before. Next time he fastened her feet together as well as
her hands; as he did so her shoes slightly touched his sexual organs; this
caused erection and ejaculation, accompanied by the most acute sexual
pleasure he had ever felt. He had no wish to see her naked or to uncover
himself, and as long as this relationship lasted he had no abnormal thoughts
at other times, or in connection with other people. He never masturbated,
and his sexual dreams were of fettered men or women. Stcherbak discusses
the case at length and considers that it is essentially an example of sadism,
on the ground that the impulse of fettering was prompted by the desire to
humiliate. There is, however, no evidence of any such desire, and, as a
matter of fact, no humiliation was effected. The primary and fundamental
element in this and similar cases is an almost abstract sexual fascination in
the idea of restraint, whether endured, inflicted, or merely witnessed or
imagined; the feet become the chief focus of this fascination, and the basis
on which a foot-fetichism or shoe-fetichism tends to arise, because restraint
of the feet produces a more marked effect than restraint of the hands.

[120]
An attenuated and symbolic form of this impulse is seen in the
desire to strangle birds with the object of stimulating or even
satisfying sexual desire. Prostitutes are sometimes acquainted
with men who bring a live pigeon with them to be strangled just
before intercourse. Lanphear, of St. Louis (Alienist and
Neurologist, May, 1907, p. 204) knew a woman, having learned
masturbation in a convent school, who was only excited and not
satisfied by coitus with her husband, and had to rise from bed,
catch and caress a chicken, and finally wring its neck, whereupon
orgasm occurred.

[121]

Even young girls, however, may experience pleasure in the
playful attempt to strangle. Thus a lady speaking of herself at the
time of puberty, when she was in the habit of masturbating, writes
(Sexual-Probleme, Aug., 1909, p. 636): "I acquired a desire to
seize people, especially girls, by the throat, and I enjoyed their
way of screaming out."

[122]
Godard observed that when animals are bled, or felled, as well as
strangled, there is often abundant emission, rich in spermatozoa,
but without erection, though accompanied by the same
movements of the tail as during copulation. Robin (art.
"Fécondation," Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences
Médicales), who quotes this observation, has the following
remarks on this subject: "Ejaculation occurring at the moment
when the circulation, maintained artificially, stops is a fact of
significance. It shows how congestive conditions—or inversely
anemic conditions—constitute organic states sufficient to set in
movement the activity of the nerve-centers, as is the case for
muscular contractility.... Everything leads us to believe that at the
moment when the motor nervous action takes place the
corresponding sensitive centers also come into play." It must be
added that Minovici, in his elaborate study of death by hanging
("Etude sur la Pendaison," Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle,
1905, especially p. 791 et seq.), concludes that the turgescence of
penis and flow of spermatic fluid (sometimes only prostatic
secretion) usually observed in these cases is purely passive and
generally, though not always, of post-mortem occurrence. There
is, therefore, no sexual pleasure in death by hanging, and persons
who have been rescued at the last moment have experienced no
voluptuous sensations. This was so even in the case, referred to
by Minovici, of a man who hanged himself solely with the object
of producing sexual pleasure.

[123]
Eulenburg, Sexuale Neuropathie, p. 114.

[124]
Bernaldo de Quirós and Llanos Aguilaniedo (La Mala Vida en
Madrid, p. 294) knew the case of a man who found pleasure in
lying back on an inclined couch while a prostitute behind him
pulled at a slipknot until he was nearly suffocated; it was the only
way in which he could attain sexual gratification.

[125]
Arrest of respiration, it may be noted, may accompany strong
sexual excitement, as it may some other emotional states; one
recalls passages in the Arabian Nights in which we are told of
ladies who at the sight of a very beautiful youth "felt their reason
leave them, yearned to embrace the marvelous youth, and ceased
breathing." Inhibited respiration is indeed, as Stevens shows
("Study of Attention," American Journal of Psychology, Oct.,
1905), a characteristic of all active attention.

[126]
The exact part played by the respiration and even the circulation
in constituting emotional states is still not clear, although various
experiments have been made; see, e.g., Angell and Thompson, "A
Study of the Relations between Certain Organic Processes and
Consciousness," Psychological Review, January, 1899. A
summary statement of the relations of the respiration and
circulation to emotional states will be found in Külpe's Outlines
of Psychology, part i, section 2, § 37.

[127]
The words alluded to by my correspondent are as follows: "I
needed a struggle; what I needed was that feeling should guide
life, and not that life should guide feeling. I wanted to go with
him to the edge of an abyss and say: 'Here a step and I will throw
myself over; and here a motion and I have gone to destruction';
and for him, turning pale, to seize me in his strong arms, hold me
back over it till my heart grew cold within me, and then carry me

away wherever he pleased." The whole of the passage in which
these lines occur is of considerable psychological interest. In one
English translation the story is entitled Family Happiness.

V.

Pain, and Not Cruelty, the Essential Element in Sadism and Masochism—
Pain Felt as Pleasure—Does the Sadist Identify Himself with the Feelings
of his Victim?—The Sadist often a Masochist in Disguise—The Spectacle
of Pain or Struggle as a Sexual Stimulant.

In the foregoing rapid survey of the great group of manifestations in which
the sexual emotions come into intimate relationship with pain, it has
become fairly clear that the ordinary division between "sadism" and
"masochism," convenient as these terms may be, has a very slight
correspondence with facts. Sadism and masochism may be regarded as
complementary emotional states; they cannot be regarded as opposed states.
[128] Even De Sade himself, we have seen, can scarcely be regarded as a

pure sadist. A passage in one of his works expressing regret that sadistic
feeling is rare among women, as well as his definite recognition of the fact
that the suffering of pain may call forth voluptuous emotions, shows that he
was not insensitive to the charm of masochistic experience, and it is evident
that a merely blood-thirsty vampire, sane or insane, could never have
retained, as De Sade retained, the undying devotion of two women so
superior in heart and intelligence as his wife and sister-in-law. Had De Sade
possessed any wanton love of cruelty, it would have appeared during the
days of the Revolution, when it was safer for a man to simulate blood-
thirstiness, even if he did not feel it, than to show humanity. But De Sade
distinguished himself at that time not merely by his general philanthropic
activities, but by saving from the scaffold, at great risk to himself, those
who had injured him. It is clear that, apart from the organically morbid twist
by which he obtained sexual satisfaction in his partner's pain,—a craving
which was, for the most part, only gratified in imaginary visions developed
to an inhuman extent under the influence of solitude,—De Sade was simply,

to those who knew him, "un aimable mauvais sujet" gifted with exceptional
intellectual powers. Unless we realize this we run the risk of confounding
De Sade and his like with men of whom Judge Jeffreys was the sinister
type.
It is necessary to emphasize this point because there can be no doubt that
De Sade is really a typical instance of the group of perversions he
represents, and when we understand that it is pain only, and not cruelty, that
is the essential in this group of manifestations we begin to come nearer to
their explanation. The masochist desires to experience pain, but he
generally desires that it should be inflicted in love; the sadist desires to
inflict pain, but in some cases, if not in most, he desires that it should be felt
as love. How far De Sade consciously desired that the pain he sought to
inflict should be felt as pleasure it may not now be possible to discover,
except by indirect inference, but the confessions of sadists show that such a
desire is quite commonly essential.
I am indebted to a lady for the following communication on the foregoing
aspect of this question: "I believe that, when a person takes pleasure in
inflicting pain, he or she imagines himself or herself in the victim's place.
This would account for the transmutability of the two sets of feelings. This
might be particularly so in the case of men. A man may not care to lower his
dignity and vanity by putting himself in subjection to a woman, and he
might fear she would feel contempt for him. By subduing her and
subjecting her to passive restraint he would preserve, even enhance, his own
power and dignity, while at the same time obtaining a reflected pleasure
from what he imagined she was feeling.
"I think that when I get pleasure out of the idea of subduing another it is this
reflected pleasure I get. And if this is so one could thus feel more kindly to
persons guilty of cruelty, which has hitherto always seemed the one
unpardonable sin. Even criminals, if it is true that they are themselves often
very insensitive, may, in the excitement of the moment, imagine that they
are only inflicting trifling pain, as it would be to them, and that their
victim's feelings are really pleasurable. The men I have known most given
to inflicting pain are all particularly tender-hearted when their passions are
not in question. I cannot understand how (as in a case mentioned by Krafft-
Ebing) a man could find any pleasure in binding a girl's hands except by

imagining what he supposed were her feelings, though he would probably
be unconscious that he put himself in her place.
"As a child I exercised a good deal of authority and influence over my
youngest sister. It used to give me considerable pleasure to be somewhat
arbitrary and severe with her, but, though I never admitted it to myself or to
her, I knew instinctively that she took pleasure in my treatment. I used to
give her childish lessons, over which I was very strict. I invented
catechisms and chapters of the Bible in which elder sisters were exhorted to
keep their juniors under discipline, and younger sisters were commanded to
give implicit submission and obedience. Some parts of the Imitation lent
themselves to this sort of parody, which never struck me as in any way
irreverent. I used to give her arbitrary orders to 'exercise her in obedience,'
as I told her, and I used to punish her if she disobeyed me. In all this I was,
though only half consciously, guided through my own feelings as to what I
should have liked in her place. For instance, I would make her put down her
playthings and come and repeat a lesson; but, though she was in appearance
having her will subdued to mine, I always chose a moment when I foresaw
she would soon be tired of play. There was sufficient resistance to make
restraint pleasurable, not enough to render it irksome. In my punishments I
acted on a similar principle. I used to tie her hands behind her (like the man
in Krafft-Ebing's case), but only for a few moments; I once shut her in a
sort of cupboard-room, also for a very short time. On two or three occasions
I completely undressed her, made her lie down on the bed, tied her hands
and feet to the bedstead, and gave her a slight whipping. I did not wish to
hurt her, only to inflict just enough pain to produce the desire to move or
resist. My pleasure, a very keen one, came from the imagined excitement
produced by the thwarting of this desire. (Are not your own words—that
'emotion' is 'motion in a more or less arrested form'—an epigrammatic
summary of all this, though in a somewhat different connection?) I did not
undress her from any connection of nakedness with sexual feeling, but
simply to enhance her feeling of helplessness and defenselessness under my
hands. If I were a man and the woman I loved were refractory I should
undress her before finding fault with her. A woman's dress symbolizes to
her the protection civilization affords to the weak and gives her a fictitious
strength. Naked, she is face to face with primitive conditions, her weakness
opposed to the man's power. Besides, the sense of shame at being naked

under the eyes of a man who regarded her with displeasure would extend
itself to her offense and give him a distinct, though perhaps unfair,
advantage. I used the bristle side of a brush to chastise her with, as
suggesting the greatest amount of severity with the least possible pain. In
fact, my idea was to produce the maximum of emotion with the minimum
of actual discomfort.
"You must not, however, suppose that at the time I reasoned about it at all in
this way. I was very fond of her, and honestly believed I was doing it for her
good. Had I realized then, as I do now, that my sole aim and object was
physical pleasure, I believe my pleasure would have ceased; in any case I
should not have felt justified in so treating her. Do I at all persuade you that
my pleasure was a reflection of hers? That it was, I think, is clear from the
fact that I only obtained it when she was willing to submit. Any real
resistance or signs that I was overpassing the boundary of pleasure in her
and urging on pain without excitement caused me to desist and my own
pleasure to cease.
"I disclaim all altruism in my dealings with my sister. What occurs appears
to me to be this: A situation appeals to one in imagination and one at once
desires to transfer it to the realms of fact, being one's self one of the
principal actors. If it is the passive side which appeals to one, one would
prefer to be passive; but if that is not obtainable then one takes the active
part as next best. In either case, however, it is the realization of the
imagined situation that gives the pleasure, not the other person's pleasure as
such, although his or her supposed pleasure creates the situation. If I were a
man it would afford me great delight to hold a woman over a precipice,
even if she disliked it. The idea appeals to me so strongly that I could not
help imagining her pleasure, though I might know she got none, and even
though she made every demonstration of fear and dislike of it. The situation
so often imagined would have become a fact. It seems to me I have to say a
thing is and is not in the same breath, but the confusion is only in the words.
"Let me give you another example: I have a tame pigeon which has a great
affection for me. It sits on my shoulder and squats down with its wings out
as birds do when courting, pecking me to make me take notice of it, and
flickering its wings. I like to hold it so that it can't move its wings, because I

imagine this increases its excitement. If it struggles, or seems to dislike my
holding it, I let it go.
"In an early engagement (afterward broken off) my fiancé used to take an
evident pleasure in telling me how he would punish me if I disobeyed him
when we were married. Though we had but little in common mentally, I
was frequently struck with the similarity between his ideas and what my
own had been in regard to my sister. He used his authority over me most
capriciously. On one occasion he would not let me have any supper at a
dance. On another he objected to my drinking black coffee. No day passed
without a command or prohibition on some trifling point. Whenever he saw,
though, that I really disliked the interference or made any decided
resistance, which happened very seldom, he let me have my own way at
once. I cannot but think, when I recall the various circumstances, that he got
a certain pleasure, as I had done with my sister, by an almost unconscious
transference of my feelings to himself.
"I find, too, that, when I want a man to say or do to me what would cause
me pleasure and he does not gratify me, I feel an intense longing to change
places, to be the man and make him, as the woman, feel what I want to feel.
Combined with this is a sense of irritation at not being gratified and a desire
to punish him for my deprivation, for his stupidity in not saying or doing
the right thing. I don't feel any anger at a man not caring for me, but only
for not divining my feelings when he does care.
"Now let me take another case: that of the man who used to experience
pleasure when surprising a woman making water. (Cf. Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle, Nov. 15, 1900.) Here the woman's
embarrassment appears to be a factor; but it seems to me there must be
more than this, as confusion might be produced in so many other ways, as if
she were found bathing, or undressed, though it might not be so acute. In
reality, I fancy she would be checked in what she was doing, and that the
man, perhaps unconsciously, imagined this check and a resulting
excitement. That such a check does sometimes produce excitement I know
from experience in traveling. If the bladder is not emptied before
connection the pleasure is often more intense. Long before I understood
these things at all I was struck by this quotation: 'Cette volupté que
ressentent les bords de la mer, d'être toujours pleins sans jamais déborder?'

What would be the effect on a man of a sudden check at the supreme
moment of sexual pleasure? In reality, I suppose, pain, as the nerves would
be at their full tension and unable to respond to any further stimulus; but, in
imagination, one's nerves are not at their highest tension, and one imagines
an increase or, at any rate, a prolongation of the pleasurable sensations.
Something of all this, some vague reflection of the woman's possible
sensations, seems to enter in the man's feelings in surprising the woman. In
any case his pleasure in her confusion seems to me a reflection of her
feelings, for the sense of shame and embarrassment before a man is very
exciting, and doubly so if one realizes that the man enjoys it. Ouida speaks
of the 'delicious shame' experienced by 'Folle Farine.'
"It seems to me that whenever we are affected by another's emotion we do
practically, though unconsciously, put ourselves in his place; but we are not
always able to gauge accurately its intensity or to allow for differences
between ourselves and another, and, in the case of pain, it is doubly
difficult, as we can never recall the pain itself, but only the mental effects
upon us of the pain. We cannot even recall the feeling of heat when we are
cold, or vice versâ, with any degree of vividness.
"A woman tells me of a man who frequently asks her if she would not like
him to whip her. He is greatly disappointed when she says she gets no
pleasure from it, as it would give him so much to do it. He cannot believe
she experiences none, because he would enjoy being whipped so keenly if
he were a girl. In another case the man thinks the woman must enjoy
suffering, because he would get intense pleasure from inflicting it! Why is
this, unless he would like it if a woman, and confuses in his mind the two
personalities? All the men I know who are sadistically inclined admit that if
they were women they would like to be harshly treated.
"Of course, I quite see there may be many complications; a man's natural
anger at resistance may come in, and also simple, not sexual, pleasure in
acts of crushing, etc. I always feel inclined to crush anything very soft or a
person with very pretty thick hair, to rub together two shining surfaces, two
bits of satin, etc., apart from any feelings of excitement. My explanation
only refers to that part of sadism which is sexual enjoyment of another's
pain."

That the foregoing view holds good as regards the traces of sadism found
within the normal limits of sexual emotion has already been stated. We may
also believe that it is true in many genuinely perverse cases. In this
connection reference may be made to an interesting case, reported by Moll,
of a married lady 23 years of age, with pronounced sadistic feelings. She
belongs to a normal family and is herself apparently quite healthy, a tall and
strongly built person, of feminine aspect, fond of music and dancing, of
more than average intelligence. Her perverse inclinations commenced
obscurely about the age of 14, when she began to be dominated by the
thought of the pleasure it would be to strike and torture a man, but were not
clearly defined until the age of 18, while at an early age she was fond of
teasing and contradicting men, though she never experienced the same
impulse toward women. She has never, except in a very slight degree,
actually carried her ideas into practice, either with her husband or anyone
else, being restrained, she says, by a feeling of shame. Coitus, though
frequently practised, gives her no pleasure, seems, indeed, somewhat
disgusting to her, and has never produced orgasm. Her own ideas, also,
though very pleasurable to her, have not produced definite sexual
excitement, except on two or three occasions, when they had been
combined with the influence of alcohol. She frankly regrets that modern
social relationship makes it impossible for her to find sexual satisfaction in
the only way in which such satisfaction would be possible to her.
Her chief delight would be to torture the man she was attached to in every
possible way; to inflict physical pain and mental pain would give her equal
pleasure. "I would bite him till the blood came, as I have often done to my
husband. At that moment all sympathy for him would disappear." She
frequently identifies her imaginary lover with a real man to whom she feels
that she could be much more attracted than she is to her husband. She
imagines to herself that she makes appointments with this lover, and that
she reaches the rendezvous in her carriage, but only after her lover has been
waiting for her a very long time in the cold. Then he must feel all her
power, he must be her slave with no will of his own, and she would torture
him with various implements as seemed good to her. She would use a rod, a
riding-whip, bind him and chain him, and so on. But it is to be noted that
she declares "this could, in general, only give me enjoyment if the man
concerned endured such torture with a certain pleasure. He must, indeed,

writhe with pain, but at the same time be in a state of sexual ecstasy,
followed by satisfaction." His pleasure must not, however, be so great that it
overwhelms his pain; if it did, her own pleasure would vanish, and she has
found witty her husband that when in kissing him her bites have given him
much pleasure she has at once refrained.
It is further noteworthy that only the pain she herself had inflicted would
give her pleasure. If the lover suffered pain from an accident or a wound
she is convinced that she would be full of sympathy for him. Outside her
special sexual perversion she is sympathetic and very generous. (Moll,
Konträre Sexualempfindung, 1899, pp. 507-510.)
This case is interesting as an uncomplicated example of almost purely ideal
sadism. It is interesting to note the feelings of the sadist subject toward her
imaginary lover's feelings. It is probably significant that, while his pleasure
is regarded as essential, his pain is regarded as even more essential, and the
resulting apparent confusion may well be of the very essence of the whole
phenomenon. The pleasure of the imaginary lover must be secured or the
manifestation passes out of the sexual sphere; but his pleasure must, at all
costs, be conciliated with his pain, for in the sadist's eyes the victim's pain
has become a vicarious form of sexual emotion. That, at the same time, the
sadist desires to give pleasure rather than pain finds confirmation in the fact
that he often insists on pleasure being feigned even though it is not felt.
Some years ago a rich Jewish merchant became notorious for torturing girls
with whom he had intercourse; his performances acquired for him the title
of "l'homme qui pique," and led to his prosecution. It was his custom to
spend some hours in sticking pins into various parts of the girl's body, but it
was essential that she should wear a smiling face throughout the
proceedings. (Hamon, La France Sociale et Politique, 1891, p. 445 et seq.)
We have thus to recognize that sadism by no means involves any love of
inflicting pain outside the sphere of sexual emotion, and is even compatible
with a high degree of general tender-heartedness. We have also to recognize
that even within the sexual sphere the sadist by no means wishes to exclude
the victim's pleasure, and may even regard that pleasure as essential to his
own satisfaction. We have, further, to recognize that, in view of the close
connection between sadism and masochism, it is highly probable that in

some cases the sadist is really a disguised masochist and enjoys his victim's
pain because he identifies himself with that pain.
But there is a further group of cases, and a very important group, on
account of the light it throws on the essential nature of these phenomena,
and that is the group in which the thought or the spectacle of pain acts as a
sexual stimulant, without the subject identifying himself clearly either with
the inflicter or the sufferer of the pain. Such cases are sometimes classed as
sadistic; but this is incorrect, for they might just as truly be called
masochistic. The term algolagnia might properly be applied to them (and
Eulenburg now classes them as "ideal algolagnia"), for they reveal an
undifferentiated connection between sexual excitement and pain not
developed into either active or passive participation. Such feelings may
arise sporadically in persons in whom no sadistic or masochistic perversion
can be said to exist, though they usually appear in individuals of neurotic
temperament. Casanova describes an instance of this association which
came immediately under his own eyes at the torture and execution of
Damiens in 1757.[129] W. G. Stearns knew a man (having masturbated and
had intercourse to excess) who desired to see his wife delivered of a child,
and finally became impotent without this idea. He witnessed many
deliveries and especially obtained voluptuous gratification at the delivery of
a primipara when the suffering was greatest.[130] A very trifling episode
may, however, suffice. In one case known to me a man, neither sadistic nor
masochistic in his tendencies, when sitting looking out of his window saw a
spider come out of its hole to capture and infold a fly which had just been
caught in its web; as he watched the process he became conscious of a
powerful erection, an occurrence which had never taken place under such
circumstances before.[131] Under favoring conditions some incident of this
kind at an early age may exert a decisive influence on the sexual life.
Tambroni, of Ferrara, records the case of a boy of 11 who first felt
voluptuous emotions on seeing in an illustrated journal the picture of a man
trampling on his daughter; ever afterward he was obliged to evoke this
image in masturbation or coitus.[132] An instructive case has been recorded
by Féré. In this case a lady of neurotic heredity on one side, and herself
liable to hysteria, experienced her first sexual crisis at the age of 13, not
long after menstruation had become established, and when she had just
recovered from an attack of chorea. Her old nurse, who had remained in the

service of the family, had a ne'er-do-well son who had disappeared for some
years and had just now suddenly returned and thrown himself, crying and
sobbing, at the knees of his mother, who thrust him away. The young girl
accidentally witnessed this scene. The cries and the sobs provoked in her a
sexual excitement she had never experienced before. She rushed away in
surprise to the next room, where, however, she could still hear the sobs, and
soon she was overcome by a sexual orgasm. She was much troubled at this
occurrence, and at the attraction which she now experienced for a man she
had never seen before and whom she had always looked upon as a
worthless vagabond. Shortly afterward she had an erotic dream concerning
a man who sobbed at her knees. Later she again saw the nurse's son, but
was agreeably surprised to find that, though a good-looking youth, he no
longer caused her any emotion, and he disappeared from her mind, though
the erotic dreams concerning an unknown sobbing man still occurred rather
frequently. During the next ten years she suffered from various disorders of
more or less hysterical character, and, although not disinclined to the idea of
marriage, she refused all offers, for no man attracted her. At the age of 23,
when staying in the Pyrenees, she made an excursion into Spain, and was
present at a bull-fight. She was greatly excited by the charges of the bull,
especially when the charge was suddenly arrested.[133] She felt no interest
in any of the men who took part in the performance or were present; no man
was occupying her imagination. But she experienced sexual sensations and
accompanying general exhilaration, which were highly agreeable. After one
bull had charged successively several times the orgasm took place. She
considered the whole performance barbarous, but could not resist the desire
to be present at subsequent bull-fights, a desire several times gratified,
always with the same results, which were often afterward repeated in
dreams. From that time she began to take an interest in horse-races, which
she now found produced the same effect, though not to the same degree,
especially when there was a fall. She subsequently married, but never
experienced sexual satisfaction except under these abnormal circumstances
or in dreams.[134]
As the foregoing case indicates, horses, and especially running or struggling
horses, sometimes have the same effect in stimulating the sexual emotions,
especially on persons predisposed by neurotic heredity, as we have found
that the spectacle of pain possesses. A medical correspondent in New

Zealand tells me of a patient of his own, a young carpenter of 26, not in
good health, who had never masturbated or had connection with a woman.
He lived in a room overlooking a livery-stable yard where was kept, among
other animals, a large black horse. Nearly every night he had a dream in
which he seemed to be pursuing this large black horse, and when he caught
it, which he invariably did, there was a copious emission. A holiday in the
country and tonic treatment dispelled the dreams and reduced the nocturnal
emissions to normal frequency. Féré has recorded a case of a boy, of
neuropathic heredity, who, when 14 years of age, was one day about to
practise mutual masturbation with another boy of his own age. They were
seated on a hillside overlooking a steep road, and at this moment a heavy
wagon came up the road drawn by four horses, which struggled painfully
up, encouraged by the cries and the whip of the driver. This sight increased
the boy's sexual excitement, which reached its climax when one of the
horses suddenly fell. He had never before experienced such intense
excitement, and always afterward a similar spectacle of struggling horses
produced a similar effect.[135]
In this connection reference may be made to the frequency with which
dreams of struggling horses occur in connection with disturbance or disease
of the heart. In such cases it is clear that the struggling horses seem to
dream-consciousness to embody and explain the panting struggles to which
the heart is subjected. They become, as it were, a visual symbol of the
cardiac oppression. In much the same way, it would appear, under the
influence of sexual excitement, in which cardiac disturbance is one of the
chief constituent elements, the struggling horses became a sexual symbol,
and, having attained that position, they are henceforth alone adequate to
produce sexual excitement.

[128]
This opinion appears to be in harmony with the conclusions of
Eulenburg, who has devoted special study to De Sade, and points
out that the ordinary conception of "sadism" is much too narrow.
(Eulenburg, Sexuale Neuropathie, 1895, p. 110 et seq.)

[129]

Casanova, Mémoires, vol. viii, pp. 74-76. Goncourt in his
Journal, under date of April, 1862 (vol. ii, p. 27), tells a story of
an Englishman who engaged a room overlooking a scaffold where
a murderer was to be hanged, proposing to take a woman with
him and to avail himself of the excitement aroused by the scene.
This scheme was frustrated by the remission of the death penalty.

[130]
Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1907, p. 204.

[131]
This spectacle of the spider and the fly seems indeed to be
specially apt to exert a sexual influence. I have heard of a
precisely similar case in a man of intellectual distinction, and
another in a lady who acknowledged to a feeling of "exquisite
pleasure," on one occasion, at the mere sound of the death agony
of a fly in a spider's web.

[132]
Quoted by Obici and Marchesini, Le Amicizie di Collegio, p. 245.

[133]
It may be noted that we have already several times encountered
this increase of excitement produced by arrest of movement. The
effect is produced whether the arrest is witnessed or is actually
experienced. "A man can increase a woman's excitement," a lady
writes, "by forbidding her to respond in any way to his caresses. It
is impossible to remain quite passive for more than a few
seconds, but, during these few, excitement is considerably
augmented." In a similar way I have been told of a man of
brilliant intellectual ability who very seldom has connection with
a woman without getting her to compress with her hand the base
of the urethral canal to such an extent as to impede the passage of
the semen. On withdrawal of the hand copious emission occurs,
but it is the shock of the arrest caused by the constriction which

gives him supreme pleasure. He has practised this method for
years without evil results.

[134]
Féré, "Le Sadisme aux Courses de Taureaux," Revue de médecine,
August, 1900.

[135]
Féré, L'Instinct sexuel, p. 255.

VI.

Why is Pain a Sexual Stimulant?—It is the Most Effective Method of
Arousing Emotion—Anger and Fear the Most Powerful Emotions—Their
Biological Significance in Courtship—Their General and Special Effects in
Stimulating the Organism—Grief as a Sexual Stimulant—The
Physiological Mechanism of Fatigue Renders Pain Pleasurable.

We have seen that the distinction between "sadism" and "masochism"
cannot be maintained; not only was even De Sade himself something of a
masochist and Sacher-Masoch something of a sadist, but between these two
extreme groups of phenomena there is a central group in which the
algolagnia is neither active nor passive. "Sadism" and "masochism" are
simply convenient clinical terms for classes of manifestations which quite
commonly occur in the same person. We have further found that—as might
have been anticipated in view of the foregoing result—it is scarcely correct
to use the word "cruelty" in connection with the phenomena we have been
considering. The persons who experience these impulses usually show no
love of cruelty outside the sphere of sexual emotion; they may even be very
intolerant of cruelty. Even when their sexual impulses come into play they
may still desire to secure the pleasure of the persons who arouse their
sexual emotions, even though it may not be often true that those who desire
to inflict pain at these moments identify themselves with the feelings of
those on whom they inflict it. We have thus seen that when we take a

comprehensive survey of all these phenomena a somewhat general formula
will alone cover them. Our conclusion so far must be that under certain
abnormal circumstances pain, more especially the mental representation of
pain, acts as a powerful sexual stimulant.
The reader, however, who has followed the discussion to this point will be
prepared to take the next and final step in our discussion and to reach a
more definite conclusion. The question naturally arises: By what process
does pain or its mental representation thus act as a sexual stimulant? The
answer has over and over again been suggested by the facts brought
forward in this study. Pain acts as a sexual stimulant because it is the most
powerful of all methods for arousing emotion.
The two emotions most intimately associated with pain are anger and fear.
The more masculine and sthenic emotion of anger, the more passive and
asthenic emotion of fear, are the fundamental animal emotions through
which, on the psychic side, the process of natural selection largely works.
Every animal in some degree owes its survival to the emotional reaction of
anger against weaker rivals, to the emotional reaction of fear against
stronger rivals. To this cause we owe it that these two emotions are so
powerfully and deeply rooted in the whole zoölogical series to which we
belong. But anger and fear are not less fundamental in the sexual life.
Courtship on the male's part is largely a display of combativity, and even
the very gestures by which the male seeks to appeal to the female are often
those gestures of angry hostility by which he seeks to intimidate enemies.
On the female's part courtship is a skillful manipulation of her own fears,
and, as we have seen elsewhere, when studying the phenomena of modesty,
that fundamental attitude of the female in courtship is nothing but an
agglomeration of fears.
The biological significance of the emotions is now well recognized. "In
general," remarks one of the shrewdest writers on animal psychology, "we
may say that emotional states are, under natural conditions, closely
associated with behavior of biological value—with tendencies that are
beneficial in self-preservation and race preservation—with actions that
promote survival, and especially with the behavior which clusters round the
pairing and parental instincts. The value of the emotions in animals is that
they are an indirect means of furthering survival." (Lloyd Morgan, Animal

Behavior, p. 293.) Emotional aptitudes persist not only by virtue of the fact
that they are still beneficial, but because they once were; that is to say, they
may exist as survivals. In this connection I may quote from a suggestive
paper on "Teasing and Bullying," by F. L. Burk; at the conclusion of this
study, which is founded on a large body of data concerning American
children, the author asks: "Accepting for the moment the theories of
Spencer and Ribot upon the transmission of rudimentary instincts, is it
possible that the movements which comprise the chief elements of bullying,
teasing, and the egotistic impulses in general of the classes cited—pursuing,
throwing down, punching, striking, throwing missiles, etc.—are, from the
standpoint of consciousness, broken neurological fragments, which are
parts of old chains of activity involved in the pursuit, combat, capture,
torture, and killing of men and enemies?... Is not this hypothesis of
transmitted fragments of instincts in accord with the strangely anomalous
fact that children are at one moment seemingly cruel and at the next
affectionate and kind, vibrating, as it were, between two worlds, egotistic
and altruistic, without conscious sense of incongruity?" (F. L. Burk,
"Teasing and Bullying," Pedagogical Seminary, April, 1897.)
The primitive connection of the special emotions of anger and fear with the
sexual impulse has been well expressed by Colin Scott in his remarkable
study of "Sex and Art": "If the higher forms of courting are based on
combat, among the males at least anger must be intimately associated with
love. And below both of these lies the possibility of fear. In combat the
animal is defeated who is first afraid. Competitive exhibition of prowess
will inspire the less able birds with a deterring fear. Young grouse and
woodcock do not enter the lists with the older birds, and sing very quietly. It
is the same with the very oldest birds. Audubon says that the old maids and
bachelors of the Canada goose move off by themselves during the courting
of the younger birds. In order to succeed in love, fear must be overcome in
the male as well as in the female. Courage is the essential male virtue, love
is its outcome and reward. The strutting, crowing, dancing, and singing of
male birds and the preliminary movements generally of animals must gorge
the neuromotor and muscular systems with blood and put them in better
fighting trim. The effects of this upon the feelings of the animal himself
must be very great. Hereditary tendencies swell his heart. He has 'the joy
that warriors feel.' He becomes regardless of danger, and sometimes almost

oblivious of his surroundings. This intense passionateness must react
powerfully on the whole system, and more particularly on those parts which
are capable, such as the brain, of using up a great surplus of blood, and on
the naturally erethic functions of sex. The flood of anger or fighting instinct
is drained off by the sexual desires, the antipathy of the female is overcome,
and sexual union successfully ensues.... Courting and combat shade into
one another, courting tending to take the place of the more basal form of
combat. The passions which thus come to be associated with love are those
of fear and anger, both of which, by arousing the whole nature and
stimulating the nutritive sources from which they flow, come to increase the
force of the sexual passion to which they lead up and in which they
culminate and are absorbed," (Colin Scott, "Sex and Art," American Journal
of Psychology, vol. vii, No. 2, pp. 170 and 215.)
It must be remembered that fear is an element liable to arise in all courtship
on one side or the other. It is usually on the side of the female, but not
invariably. Among spiders, for instance, it is usually the male who feels
fear, and very reasonably, for he is much weaker than the female.
"Courtship by the male spider" says T. H. Montgomery ("The Courtship of
Araneads," American Naturalist, March, 1910, p. 166), "results from a
combination of the state of desire for and fear of the female." It is by his
movements of fear that he advertises himself to the female as a male, and it
is by the same movements that he is unconsciously impelled to display
prominently his own ornamentation.
We are thus brought to those essential facts of primitive courtship with
which we started. But we are now able to understand more clearly how it is
that alien emotional states became abnormally associated with the sexual
life. Normally the sexual impulse is sufficiently reinforced by the ordinary
active energies of the organism which courtship itself arouses, energies
which, while they may be ultimately in part founded on anger and fear,
rarely allow these emotions to be otherwise than latent. Motion, it may be
said, is more prominent than emotion.
Even normally a stimulant to emotional activities is pleasurable, just as
motion itself is pleasurable. It may even be useful, as was noted long ago by
Erasmus Darwin; he tells of a friend of his who, when painfully fatigued by
riding, would call up ideas arousing indignation, and thus relieve the

fatigue, the indignation, as Darwin pointed out, increasing muscular
activity.[136]
It is owing to this stimulating action that discomfort, even pain, may be
welcomed on account of the emotional waves they call up, because they
"lash into movement the dreary calm of the sea's soul," and produce that
alternation of pain and enjoyment for which Faust longed. Groos, who
recalls this passage in his very thorough and profound discussion of the
region wherein tragedy has its psychological roots, points out that it is the
overwhelming might of the storm itself, and not the peace of calm after the
storm, which appeals to us. In the same way, he observes, even surprise and
shock may also be pleasurable, and fear, though the most depressing of
emotional states, by virtue of the joy produced by strong stimuli is felt as
attractive; we not only experience an impulse of pleasure in dominating our
environment, but also have pleasure in being dominated and rendered
helpless by a higher power.[137] Hirn, again, in his work on the origins of
art, has an interesting chapter on "The Enjoyment of Pain," a phenomenon
which he explains by its resultant reactions in increase of outward activity,
of motor excitement. Anger, he observes elsewhere, is "in its active stage a
decidedly pleasurable emotion. Fear, which in its initial stage is paralyzing
and depressing, often changes in time when the first shock has been
relieved by motor reaction.... Anger, fear, sorrow, notwithstanding their
distinctly painful initial stage, are often not only not avoided, but even
deliberately sought."[138]
In the ordinary healthy organism, however, although the stimulants of
strong emotion may be vaguely pleasurable, they do not have more than a
general action on the sexual sphere, nor are they required for the due action
of the sexual mechanism. But in a slightly abnormal organism—whether the
anomaly is due to a congenital neuropathic condition, or to a possibly
acquired neurasthenic condition, or merely to the physiological inadequacy
of childhood or old age—the balance of nervous energy is less favorable for
the adequate play of the ordinary energies in courtship. The sexual impulse
is itself usually weaker, even when, as often happens, its irritability assumes
the fallacious appearance of strength. It has become unusually sensitive to
unusual stimuli and also, it is possible,—perhaps as a result of those
conditions,—more liable to atavistic manifestations. An organism in this

state becomes peculiarly apt to seize on the automatic sources of energy
generated by emotion. The parched sexual instinct greedily drinks up and
absorbs the force it obtains by applying abnormal stimuli to its emotional
apparatus. It becomes largely, if not solely, dependent on the energy thus
secured. The abnormal organism in this respect may become as dependent
on anger or fear, and for the same reason, as in other respects it may
become dependent on alcohol.
We see the process very well illustrated by the occasional action of the
emotion of anger. In animals the connection between love and anger is so
close that even normally, as Groos points out, in some birds the sight of an
enemy may call out the gestures of courtship.[139] As Krafft-Ebing remarks,
both love and anger "seek their object, try to possess themselves of it, and
naturally exhaust themselves in a physical effect on it; both throw the
psychomotor sphere into the most intense excitement, and by means of this
excitement reach their normal expression."[140] Féré has well remarked that
the impatience of desire may itself be regarded as a true state of anger, and
Stanley Hall, in his admirable study of anger, notes that "erethism of the
breasts or sexual parts" was among the physical manifestations of anger
occurring in some of his cases, and in one case a seminal emission
accompanied every violent outburst.[141] Thus it is that anger may be used
to reinforce a weak sexual impulse, and cases have been recorded in which
coitus could only be performed when the man had succeeded in working
himself up into an artificial state of anger.[142] On the other hand, Féré has
recorded a case in which the sexual excitement accompanying delayed
orgasm was always transformed into anger, though without any true sadistic
manifestations.[143]
As a not unexpected complementary phenomenon to this connection of
anger and sexual emotion in the male, it is sometimes found that the
spectacle of masculine anger excites pleasurable emotion in women. The
case has been recorded of a woman who delighted in arousing anger for the
pleasure it gave her, and who advised another woman to follow her example
and excite her husband's anger, as nothing was so enjoyable as to see a man
in a fury of rage[144]; Lombroso mentions a woman who was mostly frigid,
but experienced sexual feelings when she heard anyone swearing; and a
medical friend tells me of a lady considerably past middle age who

experienced sexual erethism after listening to a heated argument between
her husband and a friend on religious topics. The case has also been
recorded of a masochistic man who found sexual satisfaction in
masturbating while a woman, by his instructions, addressed him in the
lowest possible terms of abuse.[145] Such a feeling doubtless underlies that
delight in teasing men which is so common among young women. Stanley
Hall, referring to the almost morbid dread of witnessing manifestations of
anger felt by many women, remarks: "In animals, females are often
described as watching with complacency the conflict of rival males for their
possession, and it seems probable that the intense horror of this state, which
many females report, is associated more or less unconsciously with the
sexual rage which has followed it."[146] The dread may well be felt at least
as much as regards the emotional state in themselves as in the males.
Even when the emotion aroused is disgust it may still act as a sexual
stimulant. Stcherbak has narrated the instructive case of a very intelligent
and elegant married lady of rather delicate constitution, an artist of some
talent, who never experienced any pleasure in sexual intercourse, but ever
since sexual feelings first began to be manifested at all (at the age of 18) has
only experienced them in relation to disgusting things. Anything that is
repulsive, like vomit, etc., causes vague but pleasurable feelings which she
gradually came to recognize as sexual. The sight of a crushed frog will
cause very definite sexual sensations. She has had many admirers and she
has observed that a declaration of love by a disagreeable or even repulsive
man sexually excites her, though she has no desire for sexual intercourse
with him.[147]
After all that has gone before it is easy to see how the emotion of fear may
act in an analogous manner to anger. Just as anger may reinforce the active
forms of the sexual impulse to which it is allied, so fear may reinforce the
passive forms of that impulse. The following observations, written by a
lady, very well show how we may thus explain the sexual attractiveness of
whipping: "The fascination of whipping, which has always greatly puzzled
me, seems to be a sort of hankering after the stimulus of fear. In a wild state
animals live in constant fear. In civilized life one but rarely feels it. A
woman's pleasure in being afraid of a husband or lover may be an
equivalent of a man's love of adventure; and the fear of children for their

parents may be the dawning of the love of adventure. In a woman this
desire of adventure receives a serious check when she begins to realize
what she might be subjected to by a man if she gratified it. Excessive fear is
demoralizing, but it seems to me that the idea of being whipped gives a
sense of fear which is not excessive. It is almost the only kind of pain
(physical) which is inflicted on children or women by persons whom they
can love and trust, and with a moral object. Any other kind of bodily ill
treatment suggests malignity and may rouse resentment, and, in extreme
cases, an excess of fear which goes beyond the limits of pleasurable
excitement. Given a hereditary feeling of this sort, I think it is helped by the
want of actual experience, as the association with excitement is freed from
the idea of pain as such." In his very valuable and suggestive study of fears,
Stanley Hall, while recognizing the evil of excessive fear, has emphasized
the emotional and even the intellectual benefits of fear, and the great part
played by fear in the evolution of the race as "the rudimentary organ on the
full development and subsequent reduction of which many of the best
things in the soul are dependent." "Fears that paralyze some brains," he
remarks, "are a good tonic for others. In some form and degree all need it
always. Without the fear apparatus in us, what a wealth of motive would be
lost!"[148]
It is on the basis of this tonic influence of fear that in some morbidly
sensitive natures fear acts as a sexual stimulant. Cullerre has brought
together a number of cases in both men and women, mostly neurasthenic, in
which fits of extreme anxiety and dread, sometimes of a religious character
and often in highly moral people, terminate in spontaneous orgasm or in
masturbation.[149]
Professor Gurlitt mentions that his first full sexual emission took place in
class at school, when he was absorbed in writing out the life of Aristides
and very anxious lest he should not be able to complete it within the set
time.[150]
Dread and anxiety not only excite sexual emotion, but in the more extreme
morbid cases they may suppress and replace it. Terror, say Fliess, is
transmuted coitus, and Freud believes that the neurosis of anxiety always
has a sexual cause, while Ballet, Capgras, Löwenfeld, and others, though

not regarding a sexual traumatism as the only cause, still regard it as
frequent.
It is worthy of note that not only fear, but even so depressing an emotion as
grief, may act as a sexual stimulant, more especially in women. This fact is
not sufficiently recognized, though probably everyone can recall instances
from his personal knowledge, such cases being generally regarded as
inexplicable. It is, however, not more surprising that grief should be
transformed into sexual emotion than that (as in a case recorded by Stanley
Hall) it should manifest itself as anger. In any case we have to bear in mind
the frequency of this psychological transformation in the presence of cases
which might otherwise seem to call for a cynical interpretation.
The case has been recorded of an English lady of good social position who
fell in love with an undertaker at her father's funeral and insisted on
marrying him. It is known that some men have been so abnormally excited
by the funeral trappings of death that only in such surroundings have they
been able to effect coitus. A case has been recorded of a physician of
unimpeachable morality who was unable to attend funerals, even of his own
relatives, on account of the sexual excitement thus aroused. Funerals,
tragedies at the theater, pictures of martyrdom, scenes of execution, and
trials at the law-courts have been grouped together as arousing pleasure in
many people, especially women. (C. F. von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch
und der Masochismus, pp. 30-31.) Wakes and similar festivals may here
find their psychological basis, and funerals are an unquestionable source of
enjoyment among some people, especially of so-called "Celtic" race. The
stimulating reaction after funerals is well known to many, and Leigh Hunt
refers to this (in his Autobiography) as affecting the sincerely devoted
friends who had just cremated Shelley.
It may well be, as Kiernan has argued (Alienist and Neurologist, 1891; ibid.,
1902, p. 263), that in the disturbance of emotional balance caused by grief
the primitive instincts become peculiarly apt to respond to stimulus, and
that in the aboulia of grief the mind is specially liable to become the prey to
obsessions.
"When my child died at the age of 6 months," a correspondent writes, "I
had a violent paroxysm of weeping and for some days I could not eat. When

I kissed the dead boy for the last time (I had never seen a corpse before) I
felt I had reached the depths of misery and could never smile or have any
deep emotions again. Yet that night, though my thoughts had not strayed to
sexual subjects since the child's death, I had a violent erection. I felt
ashamed to desire carnal things when my dead child was still in the house,
and explained to my wife. She was sympathetic, for her idea was that our
common grief had intensified my love for her. I feel convinced, however,
that my desire was the result of a stimulus propagated to the sexual centers
from the centers affected by my grief, the transference of my emotion from
one set of nerves to another. I do not perhaps express my meaning clearly."
How far the emotional influence of grief entered into the following episode
it is impossible to say, for here it is probable that we are mainly concerned
with one of those almost irresistible impulses by which adolescent girls are
sometimes overcome. The narrative is from the lips of a reliable witness, a
railway guard, who, some thirty years ago, when a youth of 18, in
Cornwall, lodged with a man and woman who had a daughter of his own
age. Some months later, when requiring a night's lodging, he called at the
house, and was greeted warmly by the woman, who told him her husband
had just died and that she and her daughter were very nervous and would be
glad if he would stay the night, but that as the corpse occupied the other
bedroom he would have to share their bed ("We don't think very much of
that among us," my informant added). He agreed, and went to bed, and
when, a little later, the two women also came to bed, the girl, at her own
suggestion, lay next to the youth. Nothing happened during the night, but in
the morning, when the mother went down to light the fire, the daughter
immediately threw off the bedclothes, exposing her naked person, and
before the youth had realized what was happening she had drawn him over
on to her. He was so utterly surprised that nothing whatever happened, but
the incident made a life-long impression on him.
In this connection reference may be made to the story of the Ephesian
matron in Petronius; the story of the widow, overcome by grief, who
watches by her husband's tomb, and very speedily falls into the arms of the
soldier who is on guard. This story, in very various forms, is found in China
and India, and has occurred repeatedly in European literature during the last
two thousand years. The history of the wanderings of this story has been
told by Grisebach (Eduard Grisebach, Die Treulose Witwe, third edition,

1877). It is not probable, however, that all the stories of this type are
actually related; in any case it would seem that their vitality is due to the
fact that they have been found to show a real correspondence to life; one
may note, for instance, the curious tone of personal emotion with which
George Chapman treated this theme in his play, Widow's Tears.
It may be added that, in explaining the resort to pain as an emotional
stimulus, we have to take into account not only the biological and
psychological considerations here brought forward, but also the abnormal
physiological conditions under which stimuli usually felt as painful come
specially to possess a sexually exciting influence. The neurasthenic and
neuropathic states may be regarded as conditions of more or less permanent
fatigue. It is true that under the conditions we are considering there may be
an extreme sensitiveness to stimuli not usually felt as of sexual character, a
kind of hyperesthesia; but hyperesthesia, it has well been said, is nothing
but the beginning of anesthesia.[151] Sergeant Bertrand, the classical
example of necrophily,[152] began to masturbate at the age of 9, stimulating
a sexual impulse which may have been congenitally feeble by
accompanying thoughts of ill-treating women. It was not till subsequently
that he began to imagine that the women were corpses. The sadistic
thoughts were only incidents in the emotional evolution, and the real object
throughout was to procure strong emotion and not to inflict cruelty. Some
observations of Féré's as to the conditions which influence the amount of
muscular work accomplished with the ergograph are instructive from the
present point of view: "Although sensibility diminishes in the course of
fatigue," Féré found that "there are periods during which the excitability
increases before it disappears. As fatigue increases, the perception of the
intercurrent excitation is retarded; an odor is perceived as exciting before it
is perceived as a differentiated sensation; the most fetid odors arouse
feelings of well-being before being perceived as odors, and their painful
quality only appears afterward, or is not noticed at all." And after recording
a series of results with the ergograph obtained under the stimulus of
unpleasant odors he remarks: "We are thus struck by two facts: the
diminution of work during painful excitation, and its increase when the
excitation has ceased. When the effects following the excitation have
disappeared the diminution is more rapid than in the ordinary state. When
the fatigue is manifested by a notable diminution, if the same excitation is

brought into action again, no diminution is produced, but a more or less
durable increase, exactly as though there had been an agreeable excitation.
Moreover, the stimulus which appears painful in a state of repose loses that
painful character either partially or completely when acting on the same
subject in a more and more fatigued state." Féré defines a painful stimulus
as a strong excitation which causes displays of energy which the will cannot
utilize; when, as a result of diminished sensibility, the excitants are
attenuated, the will can utilize them, and so there is no pain.[153] These
experiments had no reference to the sexual instinct, but it will be seen at
once that they have an extremely significant bearing on the subject before
us, for they show us the mechanism of the process by which in an abnormal
organism pain becomes a sexual stimulant.

[136]
Erasmus Darwin, Zoönomia, vol. i, p. 496.

[137]
K. Groos, Spiele der Menschen, pp. 200-210.

[138]
Hirn, Origins of Art, p. 54. Reference may here perhaps be made
to the fact that unpleasant memories persist in women more than
in men (American Journal of Psychology, 1899, p. 244). This had
already been pointed out by Coleridge. "It is a remark that I have
made many times," we find it said in one of his fragments (Anima
Poetæ, p. 89), "and many times, I guess, shall repeat, that women
are infinitely fonder of clinging to and beating about, hanging
upon and keeping up, and reluctantly letting fall any doleful or
painful or unpleasant subject, than men of the same class and
rank."

[139]
Groos, Spiele der Thiere, p. 251. Maeder (Jahrbuch für
Psychoanalytische Forschungen, 1909, vol. i, p. 149) mentions an

epileptic girl of 22 who masturbates when she is in a rage with
anyone.

[140]
Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, English translation of tenth
edition, p. 78.

[141]
Stanley Hall, "A Study of Anger," American Journal of
Psychology, July, 1899, p. 549.

[142]
Krafft-Ebing refers to such a case as recorded by Schulz,
Psychopathia Sexualis, p. 78.

[143]
Féré, L'Instinct sexuel, p. 213.

[144]
C. F. von Schlichtegroll, Sacher-Masoch und der Masochismus,
p. 31.

[145]
Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xv, p. 120. Mention may also be
made of the cases (described as hysterical mixoscopia by
Kiernan, Alienist and Neurologist, May, 1903) in which young
women address to themselves anonymous letters of an abusive
and disgusting character, and show them to others.

[146]
Stanley Hall, loc. cit., p. 587.

[147]

Archives de Neurologie, Oct., 1907.

[148]
G. Stanley Hall, "A Study of Fears," American Journal of
Psychology, vol. viii, No. 2.

[149]
A. Cullerre, "De l'Excitation Sexuelle dans les Psychopathies
Anxieuses," Archives de Neurologie, Feb., 1905.

[150]
L. Gurlitt (Die Neue Generation, July, 1909). Moll (Sexualleben
des Kindes, p. 84) also give examples of the connection between
anxiety and sexual excitement. Freud (Der Wahn und die Traüme
in Jensen's Gradiva, p. 52) considers that in dream-interpretation
we may replace "terror" by "sexual excitement." In noting the
general sexual effects of fear, we need not strictly separate the
group of cases in which the sexual effects are physical only, and
fail to be circuited through the brain.

[151]
See the article on "Neurasthenia" by Rudolf Arndt in Tuke's
Dictionary of Psychological Medicine.

[152]
Lunier, Annales Médico-psychologiques, 1849, p. 153.

[153]
Féré, Comptes-rendus de la Société de Biologie, December 15
and 22, 1900; id., Année Psychologique, seventh year, 1901, pp.
82-129; more especially the same author's Travail et Plaisir,
1904.

VII.

Summary of Results Reached—The Joy of Emotional Expansion—The
Satisfaction of the Craving for Power—The Influence of Neurasthenic and
Neuropathic Conditions—The Problem of Pain in Love Largely Constitutes
a Special Case of Erotic Symbolism.

It may seem to some that in our discussion of the relationships of love and
pain we have covered a very wide field. This was inevitable. The subject is
peculiarly difficult and complex, and if we are to gain a real insight into its
nature we must not attempt to force the facts to fit into any narrow and
artificial formulas of our own construction. Yet, as we have unraveled this
seemingly confused mass of phenomena it will not have escaped the careful
reader that the apparently diverse threads we have disentangled run in a
parallel and uniform manner; they all have a like source and they all
converge to a like result. We have seen that the starting-point of the whole
group of manifestations must be found in the essential facts of courtship
among animal and primitive human societies. Pain is seldom very far from
some of the phases of primitive courtship; but it is not the pain which is the
essential element in courtship, it is the state of intense emotion, of
tumescence, with which at any moment, in some shape or another, pain
may, in some way or another, be brought into connection. So that we have
come to see that in the phrase "love and pain" we have to understand by
"pain" a state of intense emotional excitement with which pain in the
stricter sense may be associated, but is by no means necessarily associated.
It is the strong emotion which exerts the irresistible fascination in the lover,
in his partner, or in both. The pain is merely the means to that end. It is the
lever which is employed to bring the emotional force to bear on the sexual
impulse. The question of love and pain is mainly a question of emotional
dynamics.
In attaining this view of our subject we have learned that any impulse of
true cruelty is almost outside the field altogether. The mistake was indeed
obvious and inevitable. Let us suppose that every musical instrument is
sensitive and that every musical performance involves the infliction of pain
on the instrument. It would then be very difficult indeed to realize that the

pleasure of music lies by no means in the infliction of pain. We should
certainly find would-be scientific and analytical people ready to declare that
the pleasure of music is the pleasure of giving pain, and that the emotional
effects of music are due to the pain thus inflicted. In algolagnia, as in music,
it is not cruelty that is sought; it is the joy of being plunged among the
waves of that great primitive ocean of emotions which underlies the
variegated world of our everyday lives, and pain—a pain which, as we have
seen, is often deprived so far as possible of cruelty, though sometimes by
very thin and feeble devices—is merely the channel by which that ocean is
reached.
If we try to carry our inquiry beyond the point we have been content to
reach, and ask ourselves why this emotional intoxication exerts so
irresistible a fascination, we might find a final reply in the explanation of
Nietzsche—who regarded this kind of intoxication as of great significance
both in life and in art—that it gives us the consciousness of energy and the
satisfaction of our craving for power.[154] To carry the inquiry to this point
would be, however, to take it into a somewhat speculative and metaphysical
region, and we have perhaps done well not to attempt to analyze further the
joy of emotional expansion. We must be content to regard the profound
satisfaction of emotion as due to a widespread motor excitement, the
elements of which we cannot yet completely analyze.[155]
It is because the joy of emotional intoxication is the end really sought that
we have to regard the supposed opposition between "sadism" and
"masochism" as unimportant and indeed misleading. The emotional value
of pain is equally great whether the pain is inflicted, suffered, witnessed, or
merely exists as a mental imagination, and there is no reason why it should
not coexist in all these forms in the same person, as, in fact, we frequently
find it.
The particular emotions which are invoked by pain to reinforce the sexual
impulse are more especially anger and fear, and, as we have seen, these two
very powerful and primitive emotions are—on the active and passive sides,
respectively—the emotions most constantly brought into play in animal and
early human courtship; so that they naturally constitute the emotional
reservoirs from which the sexual impulse may still most easily draw. It is
not difficult to show that the various forms in which "pain"—as we must

here understand pain—is employed in the service of the sexual impulse are
mainly manifestations or transformations of anger or fear, either in their
simple or usually more complex forms, in some of which anger and fear
may be mingled.
We thus accept the biological origin of the psychological association
between love and pain; it is traceable to the phenomena of animal courtship.
We do not on this account exclude the more direct physiological factor. It
may seem surprising that manifestations that have their origin in primeval
forms of courtship should in many cases coincide with actual sensations of
definite anatomical base today, and still more surprising that these
traditional manifestations and actual sensations should so often be
complementary to each other in their active and passive aspects: that is to
say, that the pleasure of whipping should be matched by the pleasure of
being whipped, the pleasure of mock strangling by the pleasure of being so
strangled, that pain inflicted is not more desirable than pain suffered. But
such coincidence is of the very essence of the whole group of phenomena.
The manifestations of courtship were from the first conditioned by
physiological facts; it is not strange that they should always tend to run pari
passu with physiological facts. The manifestations which failed to find
anchorage in physiological relationships might well tend to die out. Even
under the most normal circumstances, in healthy persons of healthy
heredity, the manifestations we have been considering are liable to make
themselves felt. Under such circumstances, however, they never become of
the first importance in the sexual process; they are often little more than
play. It is only under neurasthenic or neuropathic conditions—that is to say,
in an organism which from acquired or congenital causes, and usually
perhaps both, has become enfeebled, irritable, "fatigued"—that these
manifestations are liable to flourish vigorously, to come to the forefront of
sexual consciousness, and even to attain such seriously urgent importance
that they may in themselves constitute the entire end and aim of sexual
desire. Under these pathological conditions, pain, in the broad and special
sense in which we have been obliged to define it, becomes a welcome tonic
and a more or less indispensable stimulant to the sexual system.
It will not have escaped the careful reader that in following out our subject
we have sometimes been brought into contact with manifestations which
scarcely seem to come within any definition of pain. This is undoubtedly so,

and the references to these manifestations were not accidental, for they
serve to indicate the real bearings of our subject. The relationships of love
and pain constitute a subject at once of so much gravity and so much
psychological significance that it was well to devote to them a special study.
But pain, as we have here to understand it, largely constitutes a special case
of what we shall later learn to know as erotic symbolism: that is to say, the
psychic condition in which a part of the sexual process, a single idea or
group of ideas, tends to assume unusual importance, or even to occupy the
whole field of sexual consciousness, the part becoming a symbol that stands
for the whole. When we come to the discussion of this great group of
abnormal sexual manifestations it will frequently be necessary to refer to
the results we have reached in studying the sexual significance of pain.

[154]
See, for instance, the section "Zur Physiologie der Kunst" in
Nietzsche's fragmentary work, Der Wille zur Macht, Werke, Bd.
xv. Groos (Spiele der Menschen, p. 89) refers to the significance
of the fact that nearly all races have special methods of procuring
intoxication. Cf. Partridge's study of the psychology of alcohol
(American Journal of Psychology, April, 1900). "It is hard to
imagine," this writer remarks of intoxicants, "what the religious
or social consciousness of primitive man would have been
without them."

[155]
The muscular element is the most conspicuous in emotion, though
it is not possible, as a careful student of the emotions (H. R.
Marshall, Pain, Pleasure, and Æsthetics, p. 84) well points out,
"to limit the physical activities involved with the emotions to such
effects of voluntary innervation or alteration of size of blood-
vessels or spasm of organic muscle, as Lange seems to think
determines them; nor to increase or decrease of muscle-power, as
Féré's results might suggest; nor to such changes, in relation of
size of capillaries, in voluntary innervation, in respiratory and
heart functioning, as Lehmann has observed. Emotions seem to
me to be coincidents of reactions of the whole organism tending
to certain results."

THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN WOMEN.

A special and detailed study of the normal characters of the sexual impulse
in men seems unnecessary. I have elsewhere discussed various aspects of
the male sexual impulse, and others remain for later discussion. But to deal
with it broadly as a whole seems unnecessary, if only because it is
predominantly open and aggressive. Moreover, since the constitution of
society has largely been in the hands of men, the nature of the sexual
impulse in men has largely been expressed in the written and unwritten
codes of social law. The sexual instinct in women is much more elusive.
This, indeed, is involved at the outset in the organic psychological play of
male and female, manifesting itself in the phenomena of modesty and
courting. The same elusiveness, the same mocking mystery, meet us
throughout when we seek to investigate the manifestations of the sexual
impulse in women. Nor is it easy to find any full and authentic record of a
social state clearly founded in sexual matters on the demands of woman's
nature.
An illustration of our ignorance and bias in these matters is furnished by the
relationship of marriage, celibacy, and divorce to suicide in the two sexes.
There can be no doubt that the sexual emotions of women have a profound
influence in determining suicide. This is indicated, among other facts, by a
comparison of the suicide-rate in the sexes according to age; while in men
the frequency of suicide increases progressively throughout life, in women
there is an arrest after the age of 30; that is to say, when the period of most
intense sexual emotion has been passed. This phenomenon is witnessed
among peoples so unlike as the French, the Prussians, and the Italians. Now,
how do marriage and divorce affect the sexual liability to suicide? We are
always accustomed to say that marriage protects women, and it is even
asserted that men have self-sacrificingly maintained the institution of
marriage mainly for the benefit of women. Professor Durkheim, however,
who has studied suicide elaborately from the sociological standpoint, so far
as possible eliminating fallacies, has in recent years thrown considerable

doubt on the current assumption. He shows that if we take the tendency to
suicide as a test, and eliminate the influence of children, who are an
undoubted protection to women, it is not women, but men, who are
protected by marriage, and that the protection of women from suicide
increases regularly as divorces increase. After discussing these points
exhaustively, "we reach a conclusion," he states, "considerably removed
from the current view of marriage and the part it plays. It is regarded as
having been instituted for the sake of the wife and to protect her weakness
against masculine caprices. Monogamy, especially, is very often presented
as a sacrifice of man's polygamous instincts, made in order to ameliorate the
condition of woman in marriage. In reality, whatever may have been the
historical causes which determined this restriction, it is man who has
profited most. The liberty which he has thus renounced could only have
been a source of torment to him. Woman had not the same reasons for
abandoning freedom, and from this point of view we may say that in
submitting to the same rule it is she who has made the sacrifice." (E.
Durkheim, Le Suicide, 1897, pp. 186-214, 289-311.)
There is possibly some significance in the varying incidence of insanity in
unmarried men and unmarried women as compared with the married. At
Erlangen, for example, Hagen found that among insane women the
preponderance of the single over the married is not nearly so great as
among insane men, marriage appearing to exert a much more marked
prophylactic influence in the case of men than of women. (F. W. Hagen,
Statistische Untersuchungen über Geisteskrankheiten, 1876, p. 153.) The
phenomena are here, however, highly complex, and, as Hagen himself
points out, the prophylactic influence of marriage, while very probable, is
not the only or even the chief factor at work.
It is worth noting that exactly the same sexual difference may be traced in
England. It appears that, in ratio to similar groups in the general population
(taking the years 1876-1900, inclusive), the number of admissions to
asylums is the same for both sexes among married people (i.e., 8.5), but for
the single it is larger among the men (4.8 to 4.5), as also it is among the
widowed (17.9 to 13.9) (Fifty-sixth Annual Report of the Commissioners in
Lunacy, England and Wales, 1902, p. 141). This would seem to indicate that
when living apart from men the tendency to insanity is less in women, but is
raised to the male level when the sexes live together in marriage.

Much the same seems to hold true of criminality. It was long since noted by
Horsley that in England marriage decidedly increases the tendency to crime
in women, though it decidedly decreases it in men. Prinzing has shown
(Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, Bd. ii, 1899) that this is also the case in
Germany.
Similarly marriage decreases the tendency of men to become habitual
drunkards and increases that of women. Notwithstanding the fact that the
average age of the men is greater than that of the women, the majority of
the men admitted to the inebriate reformatories under the English Inebriates
Acts are single; the majority of the women are married; of 865 women so
admitted 32 per cent, were single, 50 per cent, married, and 18 per cent,
widows. (British Medical Journal, Sept. 2, 1911, p. 518.)
It thus happens that even the elementary characters of the sexual impulse in
women still arouse, even among the most competent physiological and
medical authorities,—not least so when they are themselves women,—the
most divergent opinions. Its very existence even may be said to be
questioned. It would generally be agreed that among men the strength of the
sexual impulse varies within a considerable range, but that it is very rarely
altogether absent, such total absence being abnormal and probably more or
less pathological. But if applied to women, this statement is by no means
always accepted. By many, sexual anesthesia is considered natural in
women, some even declaring that any other opinion would be degrading to
women; even by those who do not hold this opinion it is believed that there
is an unnatural prevalence of sexual frigidity among civilized women. On
these grounds it is desirable to deal generally with this and other elementary
questions of allied character.

I.

The Primitive View of Women—As a Supernatural Element in Life—As
Peculiarly Embodying the Sexual Instinct—The Modern Tendency to
Underestimate the Sexual Impulse in Women—This Tendency Confined to
Recent Times—Sexual Anæsthesia—Its Prevalence—Difficulties in
Investigating the Subject—Some Attempts to Investigate it—Sexual

Anesthesia must be Regarded as Abnormal—The Tendency to Spontaneous
Manifestations of the Sexual Impulse in Young Girls at Puberty.

From very early times it seems possible to trace two streams of opinion
regarding women: on the one hand, a tendency to regard women as a
supernatural element in life, more or less superior to men, and, on the other
hand, a tendency to regard women as especially embodying the sexual
instinct and as peculiarly prone to exhibit its manifestations.
In the most primitive societies, indeed, the two views seem to be to some
extent amalgamated; or, it should rather be said, they have not yet been
differentiated; and, as in such societies it is usual to venerate the generative
principle of nature and its embodiments in the human body and in human
functions, such a co-ordination of ideas is entirely rational. But with the
development of culture the tendency is for this homogeneous conception to
be split up into two inharmonious tendencies. Even apart from Christianity
and before its advent this may be noted. It was, however, to Christianity and
the Christian ascetic spirit that we owe the complete differentiation and
extreme development which these opposing views have reached. The
condemnation of sexuality involved the glorification of the virgin; and
indifference, even contempt, was felt for the woman who exercised sexual
functions. It remained open to anyone, according to his own temperament,
to identify the typical average woman with the one or with the other type;
all the fund of latent sexual emotion which no ascetic rule can crush out of
the human heart assured the picturesque idealization alike of the angelic and
the diabolic types of woman. We may trace the same influence subtly
lurking even in the most would-be scientific statements of anthropologists
and physicians today.[156]
It may not be out of place to recall at this point, once more, the fact, fairly
obvious indeed, that the judgments of men concerning women are very
rarely matters of cold scientific observation, but are colored both by their
own sexual emotions and by their own moral attitude toward the sexual
impulse. The ascetic who is unsuccessfully warring with his own carnal
impulses may (like the voluptuary) see nothing in women but incarnations
of sexual impulse; the ascetic who has subdued his own carnal impulses
may see no elements of sex in women at all. Thus the opinions regarding

this matter are not only tinged by elements of primitive culture, but by
elements of individual disposition. Statements about the sexual impulses of
women often tell us less about women than about the persons who make
them.
The curious manner in which for men women become incarnations of the
sexual impulse is shown by the tendency of both general and personal
names for women to become applicable to prostitutes only. This is the case
with the words "garce" and "fille" in French, "Mädchen" and "Dirne" in
German, as well as with the French "catin" (Catherine) and the German
"Metze" (Mathilde). (See, e.g., R. Kleinpaul, Die Räthsel der Sprache,
1890, pp. 197-198.)
At the same time, though we have to recognize the presence of elements
which color and distort in various ways the judgments of men regarding
women, it must not be hastily assumed that these elements render
discussion of the question altogether unprofitable. In most cases such
prejudices lead chiefly to a one-sided solution of facts, against which we
can guard.
While, however, these two opposing currents of opinion are of very ancient
origin, it is only within quite recent times, and only in two or three
countries, that they have led to any marked difference of opinion regarding
the sexual aptitude of women. In ancient times men blamed women for
concupiscence or praised them for chastity, but it seems to have been
reserved for the nineteenth century to state that women are apt to be
congenitally incapable of experiencing complete sexual satisfaction, and
peculiarly liable to sexual anesthesia. This idea appears to have been almost
unknown to the eighteenth century. During the last century, however, and
more especially in England, Germany, and Italy, this opinion has been
frequently set down, sometimes even as a matter of course, with a tincture
of contempt or pity for any woman afflicted with sexual emotions.
In the treatise On Generation (chapter v), which until recent times was
commonly ascribed to Hippocrates, it is stated that men have greater
pleasure in coitus than women, though the pleasure of women lasts longer,
and this opinion, though not usually accepted, was treated with great respect
by medical authors down to the end of the seventeenth century. Thus A.

Laurentius (Du Laurens), after a long discussion, decides that men have
stronger sexual desire and greater pleasure in coitus than women. (Historia
Anatomica Humani Corporis, 1599, lib. viii, quest, ii and vii.)
About half a century ago a book entitled Functions and Disorders of the
Reproductive Organs, by W. Acton, a surgeon, passed through many
editions and was popularly regarded as a standard authority on the subjects
with which it deals. This extraordinary book is almost solely concerned
with men; the author evidently regards the function of reproduction as
almost exclusively appertaining to men. Women, if "well brought up," are,
and should be, he states, in England, absolutely ignorant of all matters
concerning it. "I should say," this author again remarks, "that the majority
of women (happily for society) are not very much troubled with sexual
feeling of any kind." The supposition that women do possess sexual
feelings he considers "a vile aspersion."
In the article "Generation," contained in another medical work belonging to
the middle of the nineteenth century,—Rees's Cyclopedia,—we find the
following statement: "That a mucous fluid is sometimes found in coition
from the internal organs and vagina is undoubted; but this only happens in
lascivious women, or such as live luxuriously."
Gall had stated decisively that the sexual desires of men are stronger and
more imperious than those of women. (Fonctions du Cerveau, 1825, vol. iii,
pp. 241-271.)
Raciborski declared that three-fourths of women merely endure the
approaches of men. (De la Puberté chez la Femme, 1844, p. 486.)
"When the question is carefully inquired into and without prejudice," said
Lawson Tait, "it is found that women have their sexual appetites far less
developed than men." (Lawson Tait, "Remote Effects of Removal of the
Uterine Appendages," Provincial Medical Journal, May, 1891.) "The sexual
instinct is very powerful in man and comparatively weak in women," he
stated elsewhere (Diseases of Women, 1889, p. 60).
Hammond stated that, leaving prostitutes out of consideration, it is doubtful
if in one-tenth of the instances of intercourse they [women] experience the
slightest pleasurable sensation from first to last (Hammond, Sexual

Impotence, p. 300), and he considered (p. 281) that this condition was
sometimes congenital.
Lombroso and Ferrero consider that sexual sensibility, as well as all other
forms of sensibility, is less pronounced in women, and they bring forward
various facts and opinions which seem to them to point in the same
direction. "Woman is naturally and organically frigid." At the same time
they consider that, while erethism is less, sexuality is greater than in men.
(Lombroso and Ferrero, La Donna Delinquente, la Prostituta, e la Donna
Normale, 1893, pp. 54-58.)
"It is an altogether false idea," Fehling declared, in his rectorial address at
the University of Basel in 1891, "that a young woman has just as strong an
impulse to the opposite sex as a young man.... The appearance of the sexual
side in the love of a young girl is pathological." (H. Fehling, Die
Bestimmung der Frau, 1892, p. 18.) In his Lehrbuch der Frauenkrankheiten
the same gynecological authority states his belief that half of all women are
not sexually excitable.
Krafft-Ebing was of opinion that women require less sexual satisfaction
than men, being less sensual. (Krafft-Ebing, "Ueber Neurosen und
Psychosen durch sexuelle Abstinenz," Jahrbücher für Psychiatrie, 1888,
Bd. viii, ht. I and 2.)
"In the normal woman, especially of the higher social classes," states
Windscheid, "the sexual instinct is acquired, not inborn; when it is inborn,
or awakes by itself, there is abnormality. Since women do not know this
instinct before marriage, they do not miss it when they have no occasion in
life to learn it." (F. Windscheid, "Die Beziehungen zwischen Gynäkologie
und Neurologie," Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie, 1896, No. 22; quoted by.
Moll, Libido Sexualis, Bd. i, p. 271.)
"The sensuality of men," Moll states, "is in my opinion very much greater
than that of women." (A. Moll, Die Konträre Sexualempfindung, third
edition, 1899, p. 592.)
"Women are, in general, less sensual than men," remarks Näcke,
"notwithstanding the alleged greater nervous supply of their sexual organs."

(P. Näcke, "Kritisches zum Kapitel der Sexualität," Archiv für Psychiatrie,
1899, p. 341.)
Löwenfeld states that in normal young girls the specifically sexual feelings
are absolutely unknown; so that desire cannot exist in them. Putting aside
the not inconsiderable proportion of women in whom this absence of desire
may persist and be permanent, even after sexual relationships have begun,
thus constituting absolute frigidity, in a still larger number desire remains
extremely moderate, constituting a state of relative frigidity. He adds that he
cannot unconditionally support the view of Fürbringer, who is inclined to
ascribe sexual coldness to the majority of German married women. (L.
Löwenfeld, Sexualleben und Nervenleiden, 1899, second edition, p. 11.)
Adler, who discusses the question at some length, decides that the sexual
needs of women are less than those of men, though in some cases the
orgasm in quantity and quality greatly exceeds that of men. He believes, not
only that the sexual impulse in women is absolutely less than in men, and
requires stronger stimulation to arouse it, but that also it suffers from a
latency due to inhibition, which acts like a foreign body in the brain
(analogous to the psychic trauma of Breuer and Freud in hysteria), and
demands great skill in the man who is to awaken the woman to love. (O.
Adler, Die Mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des Weibes, 1904, pp. 47,
126 et seq.; also enlarged second edition, 1911; id., "Die Frigide Frau,"
Sexual-Probleme, Jan., 1912.)
It must not, however, be supposed that this view of the natural tendency of
women to frigidity has everywhere found acceptance. It is not only an
opinion of very recent growth, but is confined, on the whole, to a few
countries.
"Turn to history," wrote Brierre de Boismont, "and on every page you will
be able to recognize the predominance of erotic ideas in women." It is the
same today, he adds, and he attributes it to the fact that men are more easily
able to gratify their sexual impulses. (Des Hallucinations, 1862, p. 431.)
The laws of Manu attribute to women concupiscence and anger, the love of
bed and of adornment.

The Jews attributed to women greater sexual desire than to men. This is
illustrated, according to Knobel (as quoted by Dillmann), by Genesis,
chapter iii, v. 16.
In Greek antiquity the romance and sentiment of love were mainly felt
toward persons of the same sex, and were divorced from the more purely
sexual feelings felt for persons of opposite sex. Theognis compared
marriage to cattle-breeding. In love between men and women the latter
were nearly always regarded as taking the more active part. In all Greek
love-stories of early date the woman falls in love with the man, and never
the reverse. Æschylus makes even a father assume that his daughters will
misbehave if left to themselves. Euripides emphasized the importance of
women; "The Euripidean woman who 'falls in love' thinks first of all: 'How
can I seduce the man I love?"' (E. F. M. Benecke, Antimachus of Colophon
and the Position of Women in Greek Poetry, 1896, pp. 34, 54.)
The most famous passage in Latin literature as to the question of whether
men or women obtain greater pleasure from sexual intercourse is that in
which Ovid narrates the legend of Tiresias (Metamorphoses, iii, 317-333).
Tiresias, having been both a man and a woman, decided in favor of women.
This passage was frequently quoted down to the eighteenth century.
In a passage quoted from a lost work of Galen by the Arabian biographer,
Abu-l-Faraj, that great physician says of the Christians "that they practice
celibacy, that even many of their women do so." So that in Galen's opinion
it was more difficult for a woman than for a man to be continent.
The same view is widely prevalent among Arabic authors, and there is an
Arabic saying that "The longing of the woman for the penis is greater than
that of the man for the vulva."
In China, remarks Dr. Coltman, "when an old gentleman of my
acquaintance was visiting me my little daughter, 5 years old, ran into the
room, and, climbing upon my knee, kissed me. My visitor expressed his
surprise, and remarked: 'We never kiss our daughters when they are so
large; we may when they are very small, but not after they are 3 years old,'
said he, 'because it is apt to excite in them bad emotions.'" (Coltman, The
Chinese, 1900, p. 99.)

The early Christian Fathers clearly show that they regard women as more
inclined to sexual enjoyment than men. That was, for instance, the opinion
of Tertullian (De Virginibus Velandis, chapter x), and it is clearly implied in
some of St. Jerome's epistles.
Notwithstanding the influence of Christianity, among the vigorous
barbarian races of medieval Europe, the existence of sexual appetite in
women was not considered to be, as it later became, a matter to be
concealed or denied. Thus in 1068 the ecclesiastical historian, Ordericus
Vitalis (himself half Norman and half English), narrates that the wives of
the Norman knights who had accompanied William the Conqueror to
England two years earlier sent over to their husbands to say that they were
consumed by the fierce names of desire ("sæva libidinis face urebantur"),
and that if their husbands failed to return very shortly they proposed to take
other husbands. It is added that this threat brought a few husbands back to
their wanton ladies ("lascivis dominabus suis").
During the medieval period in Europe, largely in consequence, no doubt, of
the predominance of ascetic ideals set up by men who naturally regarded
woman as the symbol of sex, the doctrine of the incontinence of woman
became firmly fixed, and it is unnecessary and unprofitable to quote
examples. It is sufficient to mention the very comprehensive statement of
Jean de Meung (in the Roman de la Rose, 9903):—

"Toutes estes, serés, ou fûtes
De fait ou de volunté putes."

The satirical Jean de Meung was, however, a somewhat extreme and
untypical representative of his age, and the fourteenth century Johannes de
Sancto Amando (Jean de St. Amand) gives a somewhat more scientifically
based opinion (quoted by Pagel, Neue litterarische Beiträge zur
Mittelalterlichen Medicin, 1896, p. 30) that sexual desire is stronger in
women than in men.
Humanism and the spread of the Renaissance movement brought in a spirit
more sympathetic to women. Soon after, especially in Italy and France, we
begin to find attempts at analyzing the sexual emotions, which are not
always without a certain subtlety. In the seventeenth century a book of this

kind was written by Venette. In matters of love, Venette declared, "men are
but children compared to women. In these matters women have a more
lively imagination, and they usually have more leisure to think of love.
Women are much more lascivious and amorous than men." This is the
conclusion reached in a chapter devoted to the question whether men or
women are the more amorous. In a subsequent chapter, dealing with the
question whether men or women receive more pleasure from the sexual
embrace, Venette concludes, after admitting the great difficulty of the
question, that man's pleasure is greater, but woman's lasts longer. (N.
Venette, De la Génération de l'Homme ou Tableau de l'Amour Conjugal,
Amsterdam, 1688.)
At a much earlier date, however, Montaigne had discussed this matter with
his usual wisdom, and, while pointing out that men have imposed their own
rule of life on women and their own ideals, and have demanded from them
opposite and contradictory virtues,—a statement not yet antiquated,—he
argues that women are incomparably more apt and more ardent in love than
men are, and that in this matter they always know far more than men can
teach them, for "it is a discipline that is born in their veins." (Montaigne,
Essais, book iii, chapter v.)
The old physiologists generally mentioned the appearance of sexual desire
in girls as one of the normal signs of puberty. This may be seen in the
numerous quotations brought together by Schurig, in his Parthenologia,
cap. ii.
A long succession of distinguished physicians throughout the seventeenth
century discussed at more or less length the relative amount of sexual desire
in men and women, and the relative degree of their pleasure in coitus. It is
remarkable that, although they usually attach great weight to the supposed
opinion of Hippocrates in the opposite sense, most of them decide that both
desire and pleasure are greater in women.
Plazzonus decides that women have more sources of pleasure in coitus than
men because of the larger extent of surface excited; and if it were not so, he
adds, women would not be induced to incur the pains and risks of
pregnancy and childbirth. (Plazzonus, De Partibus Generationi
Inservientibus, 1621, lib. ii, cap. xiii.)

"Without doubt," says Ferrand, "woman is more passionate than man, and
more often torn by the evils of love." (Ferrand, De la Maladie d'Amour,
1623, chapter ii.)
Zacchia, mainly on a priori grounds, concludes that women have more
pleasure in coitus than men. (Zacchia, Quæstiones Medico-legales, 1630,
lib. iii, quest, vii.)
Sinibaldus, discussing whether men or women have more salacity, decides
in favor of women. (J. B. Sinibaldus, Geneanthropeia, 1642, lib. ii, tract. ii,
cap. v.)
Hornius believed that women have greater sexual pleasure than men,
though he mainly supported his opinion by the authority of classical poets.
(Hornius, Historic Naturalis, 1670, lib. iii, cap. i.)
Nenter describes what we may now call women's affectability, and
considers that it makes them more prone than men to the sexual emotions,
as is shown by the fact that, notwithstanding their modesty, they sometimes
make sexual advances. This greater proneness of women to the sexual
impulse is, he remarks, entirely natural and right, for the work of generation
is mainly carried on by women, and love is its basis: "generationis
fundamentum est amor." (G. P. Nenter, Theoria Hominis Sani, 1714, cap. v,
memb. ii.)
The above opinions of seventeenth-century physicians are quoted from the
original sources. Schurig, in his Gynæcologia, (pp. 46-50 and 71-81),
quotes a number of passages on this subject from medical authorities of the
same period, on which I have not drawn.
Sénancour, in his fine and suggestive book on love, first published in 1806,
asks: "Has sexual pleasure the same power on the sex which less loudly
demands it? It has more, at all events in some respects. The very vigor and
laboriousness of men may lead them to neglect love, but the constant cares
of maternity make women feel how important it must ever be to them. We
must remember also that in men the special emotions of love only have a
single focus, while in women the organs of lactation are united to those of
conception. Our feelings are all determined by these material causes."
(Sénancour, De l'Amour, fourth edition, 1834, vol. i, p. 68.) A later

psychologist of love, this time a woman, Ellen Key, states that woman's
erotic demands, though more silent than man's, are stronger. (Ellen Key,
Ueber Liebe und Ehe, p. 138.)
Michael Ryan considered that sexual enjoyment "is more delicious and
protracted" in women, and ascribed this to a more sensitive nervous system,
a finer and more delicate skin, more acute feelings, and the fact that in
women the mammæ are the seat of a vivid sensibility in sympathy with the
uterus. (M. Ryan, Philosophy of Marriage, 1837, p. 153.)
Busch was inclined to think women have greater sexual pleasure than men.
(D. W. H. Busch, Das Geschlechtsleben des Weibes, 1839, vol. i, p. 69.)
Kobelt held that the anatomical conformation of the sexual organs in
women led to the conclusion that this must be the case.
Guttceit, speaking of his thirty years' medical experience in Russia, says:
"In Russia at all events, a girl, as very many have acknowledged to me,
cannot resist the ever stronger impulses of sex beyond the twenty-second or
twenty-third year. And if she cannot do so in natural ways she adopts
artificial ways. The belief that the feminine sex feels the stimulus of sex less
than the male is quite false." (Guttceit, Dreissig Jahre Praxis, 1873, theil i,
p. 313.)
In Scandinavia, according to Vedeler, the sexual emotions are at least as
strong in women as in men (Vedeler, "De Impotentia Feminarum," Norsk
Magazin for Laegevidenskaben, March, 1894). In Sweden, Dr. Eklund, of
Stockholm, remarking that from 25 to 33 per cent. of the births are
illegitimate, adds: "We hardly ever hear anyone talk of a woman having
been seduced, simply because the lust is at the worst in the woman, who, as
a rule, is the seducing party." (Eklund, Transactions of the American
Association of Obstetricians, Philadelphia, 1892, p. 307.)
On the opposite side of the Baltic, in the Königsberg district, the same
observation has been made. Intercourse before marriage is the rule in most
villages of this agricultural district, among the working classes, with or
without intention of subsequent marriage; "the girls are often the seducing
parties, or at least very willing; they seek to bind their lovers to them and
compel them to marriage." In the Köslin district of Pomerania, where
intercourse between the girls and youths is common, the girls come to the

youths' rooms even more frequently than the youths to the girls'. In some of
the Dantzig districts the girls give themselves to the youths, and even
seduce them, sometimes, but not always, with a view of marriage.
(Wittenberg, Die geschlechtsittlichen Verhalten der Landbewohner im
Deutschen Reiche, 1895, Bd. i, pp. 47, 61, 83.)
Mantegazza devoted great attention to this point in several of the works he
published during fifty years, and was decidedly of the opinion that the
sexual emotions are much stronger in women than in men, and that women
have much more enjoyment in sexual intercourse. In his Fisiologia del
Piacere he supports this view, and refers to the greater complexity of the
genital apparatus in women (as well as its larger surface and more protected
position), to what he considers to be the keener sensibility of women
generally, to the passivity of women, etc.; and he considers that sexual
pleasure is rendered more seductive to women by the mystery in which it is
veiled for them by modesty and our social habits. In a more recent work
(Fisiologia della Donna, cap. viii) Mantegazza returns to this subject, and
remarks that long experience, while confirming his early opinion, has
modified it to the extent that he now believes that, as compared with men,
the sexual emotions of women vary within far wider limits. Among men
few are quite insensitive to the physical pleasures of love, while, on the
other hand, few are thrown by the violence of its emotional manifestations
into a state of syncope or convulsions. Among women, while some are
absolutely insensitive, others (as in cases with which he was acquainted) are
so violently excited by the paradise of physical love that, after the sexual
embrace, they faint or fall into a cataleptic condition for several hours.
"Physical sex is a larger factor in the life of the woman.... If this be true of
the physical element, it is equally true of the mental element." (Dr.
Elizabeth Blackwell, The Human Element in Sex, fifth edition, 1894, p. 47.)
"In the female sex," remarks Clouston, "reproduction is a more dominant
function of the organism than in the male, and has far larger, if not more
intense, relationships to feeling, judgment, and volition." (Clouston,
Neuroses of Development, 1891.)
"It may be said," Marro states, "that in woman the visceral system reacts, if
not with greater intensity, certainly in a more general manner, to all the

impressions, having a sexual basis, which dominate the life of woman, if
not as sexual emotions properly so called, as related emotions closely
dependent on the reproductive instinct." (A. Marro, La Pubertà, 1898, p.
233.)
Forel also believed (Die Sexuelle Frage, p. 274) that women are more erotic
than men.
The gynecologist Kisch states his belief that "The sexual impulse is so
powerful in women that at certain periods of life its primitive force
dominates her whole nature, and there can be no room left for reason to
argue concerning reproduction; on the contrary, union is desired even in the
presence of the fear of reproduction or when there can be no question of it."
He regards absence of sexual feeling in women as pathological. (Kisch,
Sterilität des Weibes, second edition, pp. 205-206.) In his later work (The
Sexual Life of Woman) Kisch again asserts that sexual impulse always exists
in mature women (in the absence of organic sexual defect and cerebral
disease), though it varies in strength and may be repressed. In adolescent
girls, however, it is weaker than in youths of the same age. After she has
had sexual experiences, Kisch maintains, a woman's sexual emotions are
just as powerful as a man's, though she has more motives than a man for
controlling them.
Eulenburg is of the same opinion as Kisch, and sharply criticises the loose
assertion of some authorities who have expressed themselves in an opposite
sense. (A. Eulenburg, Sexuale Neuropathie, pp. 88-90; the same author has
dealt with the point in the Zukunft, December 2, 1893.)
Kossmann states that the opinion as to the widespread existence of frigidity
among women is a fable. (Kossmann, Allgemeine Gynæcologie, 1903, p.
362.)
Bloch concludes that "in most cases the sexual coldness of women is in fact
only apparent, either due to the concealment of glowing sexuality beneath
the veil of outward reticence prescribed by conventional morality, or else to
the husband who has not succeeded in arousing erotic sensations which are
complicated and with difficulty awakened.... The sexual sensibility of
women is certainly different from that of men, but in strength it is at least as
great." (Iwan Bloch, Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit 1907, ch. v.)

Nyström, also, after devoting a chapter to the discussion of the causes of
sexual coldness in women, concludes: "My conviction, founded on
experience, is, that only a small number of women would be without sexual
feeling if sound views and teaching prevailed in respect to the sexual life, if
due weight were given to inner devotion and tender caresses as the
preliminaries of love in marriage, and if couples who wish to avoid
pregnancy would adopt sensible preventive methods instead of coitus
interruptus." (A. Nyström, Das Geschlichtsleben und seine Gesetze, eighth
edition, 1907, p. 177.)
We thus find two opinions widely current: one, of world-wide existence and
almost universally accepted in those ages and centers in which life is lived
most nakedly, according to which the sexual impulse is stronger in women
than in men; another, now widely prevalent in many countries, according to
which the sexual instinct is distinctly weaker in women, if, indeed, it may
not be regarded as normally absent altogether. A third view is possible: it
may be held that there is no difference at all. This view, formerly not very
widely held, is that of the French physiologist, Beaunis, as it is of Winckel;
while Rohleder, who formerly held that sexual feeling tends to be defective
in women, now believes that men and women are equal in sexual impulse.
At an earlier period, however, Donatus (De Medica Historia Mirabili, 1613,
lib. iv, cap. xvii) held the same view, and remarked that sometimes men and
sometimes women are the more salacious, varying with the individual.
Roubaud (De l'Impuissance, 1855, p. 38) stated that the question is so
difficult as to be insoluble.
In dealing with the characteristics of the sexual impulse in women, it will
be seen, we have to consider the prevalence in them of what is commonly
termed (in its slightest forms) frigidity or hyphedonia, and (in more
complete form) sexual anesthesia or anaphrodism, or erotic blindness, or
anhedonia.[157]
Many modern writers have referred to the prevalence of frigidity among
women. Shufeldt believes (Pacific Medical Journal, Nov., 1907) that 75 per
cent, of married women in New York are afflicted with sexual frigidity, and
that it is on the increase; it is rare, however, he adds, among Jewish women.
Hegar gives 50 per cent, as the proportion of sexually anesthetic women;