Legrand describes the case of a girl, fifteen years of age, who seduced her brother to all manner actionum voluptificarum in se.
His other case is that of a woman of thirty-six who, although married, indulged in abusing her brother, a boy of eighteen. The same woman was otherwise abnormal, suffering from the anomaly known as exhibitionism, which is seldom found in women, except among the insane in asylums. She often exposed her breasts from the window to attract men.
In another case of the same author, a mother, thirty-nine years of age, practised incest with her own son and ab eo comprehendit.
Tardieu cites a case of a woman whose victim of criminal attack was no other than her own son, a boy of nine years of age.
[CHAPTER XVIII]
PARAESTHESIA
Paraesthesia sexualis covers all possible forms of perversion or perversity of sexual feeling and sexual activity.
Perverse sexual activity with normal feeling and inclination is present in the anomalies, masochism, sadism, fetichism, and exhibitionism.
Masochism.—One of the most peculiar phenomena in the perverse vita sexualis is met with in patients with a desire for unlimited submission to the will of a person of the opposite sex. This anomaly was named masochism by Krafft-Ebing after Sacher-Masoch, whose romances have as their particular object the description of this perversion. Schrenk-Notzing recommends the name “Algolagnie.” The distinguishing symptom of masochism is the wish of the patient to suffer pain at the hands of, and be subjected to force by the beloved person, to be this person’s complete slave. This mixture of pleasure and pain is one of the most peculiar and remarkable psycho-sexual anomalies. Pain, whether real or imaginary, becomes here a source of pleasure. Whether the subjection is expressed merely in symbolic acts or whether there is absolute desire to suffer pain at the hands of the beloved one, is a matter of subordinate importance. The characteristic of the perversion of masochism is that pain and submission, which to the normal individual causes a certain degree and anguish, are in these patients turned into a source of lust.
The submission to pain or subjugation in itself is in no wise pathognomonic of masochism. It may not be pathological at all. Even entire sexual bondage is not, properly taken, pathological, if it be only the means of obtaining or retaining possession of the coveted person. It is not perversion, if fear of losing the companion and the desire to keep him or her always amiable, content, and inclined to love, are the motives for submission. The henpecked man is not a pervert. It is not abnormality, but cunning if, to satisfy selfish desires, the person in subjugation performs acts of bondage at the command of the ruling individual, but in its innermost is rebelling against this enforced slavery. Sexual bondage becomes pathological only when in itself the loss of all independent will-power and the unlimited submission awaken lustful sexual feelings, and this submission is hence desired. It then represents a pathological degeneration.
In masochism the motive, underlying the suffering of the person in question, is the charm afforded by the tyranny in itself. The acts performed at the command of the ruling person are an end in themselves. The very acts of tyranny are the immediate object of gratification, not the concubitus that may be received as a recompense. The idea of being treated as by a master, of being completely and unconditionally subjected to the will of the lover, of being humiliated and abused by him or her; this idea in itself is colored by lustful feelings.
The masochistic man has a perfect longing for subjection to any person whatsoever, especially to a woman. He craves to be dominated, controlled and abused by somebody. He is not fastidious in his choice. He revels in the thought of subjugation, without inclination to a particular woman. The following cases will serve as an illustration of these types of patients.
A man of forty, happily married, father of three children, college-bred and wealthy, was as a child already often punished for his cruelty to small animals. He would delight in tearing out the wings and cutting off the heads of flies. Later when he attended school he found great pleasure when he could see boys whipped.
At the time of puberty he began to practice flagellation upon himself. These practices induced ejaculation and orgasm. Towards the end of this period he began sese stuprare manu but he could not find any satisfaction except he imagined himself being whipped by a young woman in nudas nates.
For the last ten years habet meretricem in a luxuriously furnished apartment whom he visits once a week and whose duty it is to flog him in nudas nates until the skin is covered with bloody weals. At this moment ejaculation occurs. Thereupon he dresses and leaves the woman. He never has any concarnatio cum ea.
A similar case has been described by Pascal. A man forty-five years of age was used to visit regularly a priestess of the Venus vulgivaga, whom he paid ten francs for the following services:
While the windows were darkened, by letting down the blinds, the girl had to undress him completely. She then bound his feet and hands, hoodwinked him, and in this helpless condition led him to a lounge where he remained lying for about half an hour. After this time the girl loosened his fetters. He then dressed and left her satisfied.
The following case, similar to the author’s first one, is worth recording for the pronounced masochistic imagery. A young married man of thirty-five, father of two healthy children, visits regularly once a month, for the last ten years, fornicem. There he picks out pulcherrimam puellam to give him a flogging in nudas nates. This procedure gives him satisfaction. He never has any carnal connection with the woman. His relation to her is that of the slave to the mistress whom he would not dare to touch even in his imagination.
During his childhood he had quite remarkable masochistic ideas, which, however, have never been put into effect by him. As a small boy he loved to see animals or children whipped. At the time of puberty he began manu stuprum and during these acts he revelled in his imagination in scenes of cruel subjugation. He imagined lying on his abdomen, and a pretty, very strong girl applying a cane or whip upon his naked back and nates. Post castigationem, puella, induta solum in interula, ponente in pectore suo pedem nudum, quem vehementissime osculat et gratias puellæ agit pro castigatione. Nonnunquam imaginabatur puellam in pectore suo sedere, capite inter puellæ femora ita, ut vulva tangeret os suum. Tum linguam suam in vaginam intromisit, labia minora suxit et clitoridem puellæ lambit. Denique anum osculavit.