Some of those acts of violence, however, must be considered from an entirely different point of view.
In Primitive Races real achievement was always associated with violence. The "real man" was the victorious fighter and killer. Even in Roman days, gladiator duels terminated with the death of the defeated man, unless he were a popular ring idol whom the mob saved for further encounters.
The robber, designated by more flattering names, of course, gained more glory by stealing goods or gold than the merchant who, in ways more socially acceptable, accumulated goods and gold.
Civilisation has changed those things. In neurotic states, however, we always observe a return to archaic modes of action which are more direct. We nowadays kill off a competitor thru advertising. Instead of levying tribute on the defeated rival, we compel him to sell out to us at our price, etc. The neurotic kills or steals, as archaic heroes did.
Animal Love Fights. Also, as far as animals are concerned, the more or less playful fights with which they prelude their mating is not, as Wulffen suggests, due to gonadal drunkenness. On the contrary, it is meant to produce a stronger outpouring of gonadal secretions in both male and female, thereby increasing the energy of the male and assuring the pregnancy of the female.
Fights preceding animal mating increase, among other things, the secretions of the adrenal cortex which impart to all the muscles (among them the sexual muscles) a considerable tension.
Let us bear in mind that physiological detail while interpreting the fact that many neurotics are only potent sexually with women who resist them. We see how a certain amount of struggle, producing perhaps slight anger (and possibly leading to acts of violence), would strengthen the sexual faculties of the weak neurotic and enable him to possess his mate. From that type of neurotic, who requires glandular excitement of the adrenal type, to the sadist, typified by the famous Marquis, and up to the Ripper who disembowels his victims we see merely a series of gradations in glandular insufficiency, not as Wulffen said, in glandular hyper-secretion.
A Neurotic Trait. Furthermore, sadism should not be considered as a phenomenon of purely sexual character. Sadism is merely a detail of the neurotic make up. It is one of the neurotic short cuts whereby an inferior individual acquires a temporary superiority.
The section foreman who takes pleasure in driving his men at a killing pace, the detective engaged daily in the task of man hunting, the so-called "strict" parent who beats his children, the surgeon who never tires of performing operations, the futile reformer who is constantly trying to deprive some one of some form of enjoyment, the jealous husband who deprives his wife of many pleasures, the jealous wife who relishes the thought that her husband is giving up his club or his former associates for her sake, are sadists, some of them partly normal and useful, some of them morbid or ridiculous.
The Mob. Sadism is one of the great "mob characteristics." Why do we run to fires and to the scene of an accident? To help? No. To enjoy the sight of some one's life or property being destroyed. If our impulses were humane or charitable we should be relieved, nay exultant, when we learn that the conflagration has only destroyed a curtain or a shade, when we see the man bowled over by a taxi getting up and walking away, little the worse for the experience.