The above statements refer chiefly to men. Among women, alcoholism is less common, at least in continental Europe; in England, however, drunken women are often seen in the streets. Among prostitutes, however, alcoholism is almost universal. Proxenetism makes use of alcohol to compromise and seduce girls and thus lead them to prostitution. When they have once fallen they often drink to forget the horror of their situation.
The action of alcohol on the feminine sexual appetite is very peculiar. The appetite is generally exalted, while the power is not affected, owing to the passive role of woman in coitus. At first, paralysis of the psychic inhibitions and their higher irradiations (love, duty, modesty, etc.) by alcohol deprives the woman of nearly all power of resistance against the sexual desire of the man. It results from this that an intoxicated woman becomes the easy prey of a man whose sexual appetite is excited. The following case is instructive from this point of view:
A young girl of good position married a man of weak and vulgar character. Both were rather fond of drink. When she became pregnant the wife took large quantities of wine, by the doctor's orders, and this led her to inebriety. The friends and acquaintances of the husband found this amusing, and began to flirt with her to such an extent that she fell a victim to their sexual appetites, in her continual state of semi-intoxication. The husband at first had not the courage to put an end to this and did not wish to divorce her, for pecuniary reasons; for the wife had the money. He finally decided to send her to an asylum which I superintended, to cure her alcoholism.
From the antecedents of the patient, I expected to see a cynical and erotic woman; but she was nothing of the kind. Although hardly sober, this woman was modest and well-behaved. What struck me most was her extreme of modesty, which at first made it difficult for me to investigate her psychological state. Her conduct was exemplary the whole time, and she eventually confided to me that it was not so much sexual desire as the profound indifference and feebleness developed by inebriety which had caused her to give way. Before leaving the asylum she joined a total abstinence society, returned to her husband and succeeded in converting him also to total abstinence. She kept to her pledge and lived afterwards in conjugal peace and happiness, without ever relapsing into her old infidelity. I saw her several years afterwards with her husband, happy and flourishing.
I have mentioned this case to show that, even in women, sexual excess does not necessarily destroy the character, the sentiments of modesty, nor the will. It all depends on their cause. If there is congenital weakness of character, the evil is irreparable; but if it is only due to external forces which can be eliminated in time, its effect may often be permanently suppressed. Some female inebriates are sexually cold and repulse men; but others are erotic and even nymphomaniacs.
Whosoever has the welfare of humanity at heart, and takes the trouble to reflect on the ravages caused by alcohol in human society, should have the courage to make a slight effort and renounce all alcoholic drink—say for six months at first, as an experiment—in order to combat the social alcoholic misery by force of example, instead of empty phrases. He will then discover, like all abstainers, that the usage of alcohol (including wine, cider and beer) however small the quantity consumed, only serves to maintain a habit which is vicious and disastrous to society, by giving the contagious example of so-called moderation, to which a great number of persons cannot restrict themselves. He will then abstain for the rest of his days, and it will become more and more incomprehensible to him how humanity has been led, first by the spirit of imitation, later by the conservation of prejudices, to develop, maintain and defend such a social abuse by the aid of a legion of sophisms.
SEXUAL ANOMALIES AND PERVERSIONS BY SUGGESTION AND AUTO-SUGGESTION
The role of the phenomena of suggestion in sexual life is much greater than is generally supposed. I shall return to this subject in a special chapter, but I may state here that there is a category of sexual perversions and anomalies of all kinds which are not hereditary but acquired, and which Krafft-Ebing, although he cites striking examples, wrongly attributes to the effect of sexual excess and depravity, or which he compares to ordinary psychopathia, while in reality they are only the direct effect of strong suggestion or auto-suggestion.
I place in this category the cases where a man, whose sexuality has hitherto been normal, suddenly becomes pathological as the result of some circumstance which produces on him a profound impression. For instance, the sexual appetite of an individual may be strongly excited, in a brothel or elsewhere, by an erotic woman whose feet or shoes are especially elegant. The sight of this well-fitted foot exalts his sexual desire to a high degree. From this moment feminine shoes, by subjective association, exercise on him an irresistible erotic power, which dominates everything else and transforms him into a fetichist; the female body no longer elicits his appetite, the latter having become the slave of the image of shoes only. (Shoe fetichism.)
Sexual inversion may also be acquired by suggestion, when a normal man becomes excited by acts of masturbation or pederasty, or simply by some psychic image with a strongly suggestive action. He may thus lose his normal sexual appetite for women and become homosexual.