Arrest of Mental Development.
Sexual life in idiots is, in general, but slightly developed. It is wanting entirely in idiots of high grade. In such instances the genitals are frequently small and deformed, and menstruation is late or does not occur at all. There is impotence, or sterility, as the case may be. Even in idiots of low grade, sexuality is not prominent. In infrequent cases it is manifested with a certain periodicity, and then with greater intensity. It may then be expressed impulsively, and be violently satisfied. Perversions of the sexual instinct do not occur at the lowest levels of mental development.
When the desire for sexual satisfaction is opposed in these cases, great passion is excited, with danger of murderous assault on the persons attacked. It is to be expected that idiots should not exercise choice, and they attempt to satisfy the sexual instinct on their nearest relatives.
Thus Marc-Ideler reports the case of an idiot who attempted to rape his sister, and had almost strangled her when he was discovered.
Friedreich reports an analogous case (Friedreich’s Blätter, 1858, p. 50).
I have repeatedly had occasion to give opinions in cases of attempts to rape little girls.
Giraud (Annal. méd. psych., 1885, Nr. 1) also reports a case of this kind. Consciousness of the significance of the act is always wanting; an instinctive knowledge that such obscene acts are not publicly permitted is often present, and causes the attempted sexual act to be undertaken in a deserted place.
In imbeciles the sexual instinct is usually developed as in normal individuals. The moral inhibitory ideas are cloudy, and, therefore, the sexual impulse is more or less openly manifested. For this reason imbeciles are sources of disturbance in society. Abnormal intensity and perversion of the sexual instinct are infrequent.
The most frequent manner of satisfaction of the sexual desire is onanism. The weak-minded seldom make sexual attacks on adults of the opposite sex.
Sexual satisfaction with animals is frequently attempted. The great majority of cases of injury (sexual) to animals must be attributed to imbeciles. Children are quite often their victims.
Emminghaus (Maschka’s Handb. iv., p. 234) draws attention to the frequency of open manifestation of sexual instinct, which comprises open masturbation, exhibition of the genitals, attacks on children and those of the same sex, and sodomy.
Giraud (Annal. méd. psychol., 1855, Nr. 1) has reported a whole series of immoral attacks on children:—
1. H., aged 17, imbecile, enticed a little girl into a barn, by giving her nuts. There he exposed her genitals and showed his own, making movements of coitus on the child’s abdomen. He had no idea of the moral significance of the act.
2. L., aged 21; imbecile; degenerate. While he was watching cattle, his sister of eleven years, with a playmate of eight years, came and told him how some unknown man had attempted to do them violence. L. led the children to a deserted house and attempted coitus with the younger child, but let her go because no emission occurred, and because the child cried out. On the way home he promised to marry her if she would not say anything. At the trial he thought that by marriage he could right the wrong he had done.[[119]]
3. G., aged 21, microcephalic, imbecile, has masturbated since his sixth year, and practiced active and passive pederasty. He has repeatedly tried to perform pederasty with boys, and attacked little girls. He was absolutely without an understanding of his acts. His sexual desire was manifested periodically and intensely, as in animals.[[120]]
4. B., aged 21; imbecile. While alone in a forest with his sister of nineteen, he demanded that she allow coitus. She refused. He threatened to strangle her, and stabbed her with a knife. The frightened girl fondled his penis, and he then left her and quietly went on with his work. B. has a deformed, microcephalic skull, and has no sense of the significance of his act.
Emminghaus (op. cit., p. 234) reports the case of an exhibitionist:—
Case 146. A man, aged 40, married, had for sixteen years been accustomed to exhibit himself in parks, at dusk, to little girls and servants, and drew their attention to himself by whistling. After having been frequently punished for it, he avoided the places, but he carried on his practice elsewhere. Hydrocephalus. Mental weakness of slight degree. Mild sentence passed.
Case 147. X., of tainted family; imbecile; defective and perverted in intellect, feeling, and will. For help and protection he was brought before an officer. It was complained that he had repeatedly exposed his genitals to servant-girls, and had shown himself at windows with the upper portion of his body naked. No other manifestations of sexual instinct. No onanism reported. (Sander, Archiv f. Psych., i, p. 655.)
Case 148. Pederasty with a Child.—On April 8, 1884, at ten o’clock A.M., while X. was sitting on the street, holding a boy of eighteen months on her lap, a certain Vallario approached and took the child from X., saying he was going to take it for a walk. He went the distance of half a kilometre, and returned, saying that the child had fallen from his arms, and thus injured its anus. The anus was torn, and blood was pouring from it. At the place where the deed was done, traces of semen were found. V. confessed his horrible crime, and, at his final trial, he acted so strangely that an examination of his mental condition was made. He had impressed the prison attendants as being an imbecile. V., aged 45, mason, defective morally and intellectually, is dolicho-microcephalic; has narrow, deformed facial bones, and the halves of the face and the ears are asymmetrical; the brow is low and retreating; genitals normal. V. shows general diminution of cutaneous sensibility, is imbecile, and has no ideas. He lives in the present, has no ambition, and does nothing of his own will. He has no desires and no emotional feeling. He has never had coitus. Nothing more could be ascertained about his vita sexualis. Proofs of intellectual and moral idiocy, due to microcephaly; the crime is referred to a perverse, uncontrollable sexual impulse. Sent to an asylum. (Virgilio, il Manicomio, V. year, No. 3.)
A case mentioned by L. Meyer (Arch. f. Psych., Bd. i, p. 103) shows how female imbeciles may indulge in shameless prostitution and immorality.[[121]]