The most remarkable cases are those of urolagnic and coprolagnic fetichism, almost exclusively found in men, of which Burton says: “Immo nec ipsum amicae stercus foetet.” But occasionally such cases are also found in women, as proven by the case reported by Magnan.
The patient, a young girl of eighteen, of good intellectual development, but of alcoholic heredity, seduced a boy younger than herself ad stuprandum mutuum. On one occasion, lying on the ground et tollens vestes petivit eum ut commingeret in eam.
Moraglia relates the case of a beautiful woman, eighteen years of age, who, married about a year, experienced only very little libido in initu et præferrebat stuprum manu. She became highly excited by the odor of fermented urine. So strong was this fetich that when she passed a street urinal she was often obliged to go aside se stuprare manu. Once she went for this purpose into the urinal itself and was almost discovered in the act. On another occasion stuprandum ei manu in ecclesia. Her perversion caused her much worry because of the fear of detection. She preferred, when she could, to obtain a bottle of urine, which must be old and of a man’s, and to shut herself up in her room, holding the bottle in one hand and repeatedly se stuprare with the other.
Such cases are exceptional in women. As a rule, fetiches of women do not relate to inanimate objects or to certain parts of the body, but to the whole individual. In such cases an impulsive desire complexus venerei with a certain man imperatively demands gratification.
In Magnan’s case the young woman, mother of three children, told her husband frankly one day that she was in love with a certain other man and that she would kill herself if her relations with him were interfered with. She promised to return to her husband and children after six months if only permission were given her to live with this man for this period in order to quench the fire of her passion. As she was then, husband and children had no place in her heart.
In another case of Magnan’s the patient, a woman twenty-two years of age, mother of two children, one day met a boy of thirteen, a pupil of the public school, and immediately fell in love with him. Driven by an irresistible passion, she put all modesty aside and asked permission of the boy’s parents conjungendi cum puero. By way of reply, the family promptly drove her from their house and broke off all relations with her. The patient then passed her time before the school of her beloved boy, watching for the opportunity to see him and speak to him.
When a sexual preference has reached such a degree of intensity and power, the condition is of a pathological nature.
While the pathological condition lasts, there is absolute indifference and even hatred for husband and children, if the woman happens to be married. She jeopardizes the dignity of her wife- and motherhood in order to satisfy her desires. The unmarried girl of the best family elopes with her father’s coachman, the crown-princess of an important state elopes with the teacher of her children and sacrifices her future and her family’s standing and reputation in the quest of gratification of her sexual impulse. The man exercises over her a fetich-like charm, which is entirely out of proportion with the normal attraction of sex. When a cultured woman like the princess Chimay leaves husband and children, abandons her refined associations, gives up her exalted position in society, so dear to the feminine heart, and marries an ignorant gypsy, such an action transcends the limits of the normal love-charm.
When the fetich takes possession of the patient she generally becomes sexually frigid toward all other men except the fetich.
Krafft-Ebing records two cases, where there was absolute impotency of experiencing libido and of voluptas toward the husband, while the mere touch of the beloved man’s hand produced orgasm, and commixtio with him the acme of pleasure.
Such phenomena can only be explained by the fetich-like charm the lover exercises over the patient. She is not suffering from sexual hyperaesthesia, for she is indifferent toward any other man except her fetich. She is not a libidinous Messalina, for she is the mistress of one man only, and her intercourse is strictly monogamic. On the other hand, the irresistibility and impulsiveness wherewith the patient expresses her desire prove that she is not attracted by the normal charm that love generally exerts.
Exhibitionism.—The patient suffering from the perversion of exhibitionism finds sexual satisfaction by exposing virilia aut muliebria to the sight of persons of the opposite sex. Sometimes the exposure is preliminary to or associated with stupro manu.