Here a method of mental treatment—hypnotic suggestion—is all that can bring benefit.
The following case is interesting; and it is an example of successful auto-suggestion that gives encouragement for the milder forms of the anomaly:—
Case 133. Autobiography of a Psychical Hermaphrodite. Successful Struggle against Homo-sexual Inclinations made by the Patient himself.—“My father once had a stroke, but has recovered save for paralysis of the face. My mother was very anæmic and melancholic. Both suffered severely with hæmorrhoids, and my father ascribed to this trouble the lumbar pain with which he suffered from time to time after his marriage.
“I am, if I may so express myself, a passive character. When a child, I indulged in all kinds of fancies, religious as well as others. I suffered with incontinence of urine, and it is said that in sleep I handled my genitals, so that my father fastened my hands to the bed! (I was then a mere child, and had not masturbated.) I was always very shy and embarrassed in social intercourse. When about fourteen or fifteen years old, I was seduced into onanism. The impulse and desire for women, occurring in connection with the awakening sexual feeling, were, in reality, only of a platonic nature; I was also without the society of ladies. When about eighteen, I attempted to satisfy my sexual desire in the natural way, more in obedience to a feeling of curiosity than from inner longing. Since that time, without having experienced any real inclination for women, as often as possible I have satisfied my desire by means of sexual intercourse.
“Soon after puberty I became very anæmic, and appeared much older than I really was. Then came melancholic and peculiar ideas. It was a delight to me to fancy myself humiliated in the extreme. It may be of interest to add that, at that time, I was troubled with religious doubts, and only later found the courage to rise above religions. I fell in love with young men. At first I opposed these ideas; later they became so powerful that I became a genuine urning. Women seemed to me to be human beings of the second class. I was in a state of despair. My sickened soul was filled with tædium vitæ and thoughts inimical to humanity. One day I read: ‘What will it come to?’ And ere I knew it, I was a socialist; but an ideal one. Life again had value for me, for I had an ideal,—the joyous struggle for the social elevation of the proletariat. This caused a powerful revolution in me. As in my best years (from the age of sixteen to seventeen), I took interest in art, particularly in dramatic art. I am, at the present time, writing a play and a story, and I am occupied with the grandest thoughts. I read a remark of Schlegel’s concerning Sophocles, who was indebted to his physical exercise for his energy and creative power, and to music for his artistic proportions. In another place I read: ‘The dramatist must, above all things, be mentally intact.’ This depressed me; for my contrary sexual feelings could not arise in a perfectly normal mind.
“I thought of having myself treated hypnotically; but shame held me back. Then I said to myself that I was a weakling, indeed, to have so little confidence in myself, and began in earnest to combat my abnormal desires. At the same time, I struggled against my nervousness by leading the proper kind of a life. I rowed, fenced, and was much in the open air; and I was delighted when, at last, I awoke and seemed to be an entirely different man. When I thought of the time from my twentieth to my twenty-sixth year, it seemed to me that, during those years, a strange and depressive being had been dwelling within me.
“I was astonished that the handsomest rider or the trimmest waiter excited in me almost no interest; even the muscular masons had no effect on me. I was disgusted when I thought that, at one time, such men had seemed handsome to me. My self-respect increased; I am good-natured, but my character is entirely active. Since my twentieth year my appearance has steadily improved. My appearance now corresponds perfectly with my years. There were recurrences of my abnormal inclinations, to be sure; but I struggled against them energetically. I satisfy my libido only by means of natural intercourse, and I hope that, by continuing to lead a proper life, my pleasure in natural coitus will increase.”
As a rule, only suggestion coming from a second person, and that by means of hypnosis, promises any success. In such cases, the object of post-hypnotic suggestion is to remove the impulse to masturbation and homo-sexual feelings and impulses, and to encourage hetero-sexual feelings with a sense of virility. A prerequisite is, of course, the possibility to induce hypnosis of sufficient intensity. It is, unfortunately, in these very cases of neurasthenia that this is impossible, since they are often excited, embarrassed, and in no condition to concentrate their thoughts.
Thus, in a case reported by me in the International. Centralblatt für die Physiologie und Pathologie der Harn- und Sexualorgane, Bd. i, Heft 2, p. 58, it was impossible for me to induce hypnosis, though the patient desired it, and did everything to make it successful. By reason of the great benefit that can be given to such unfortunates, and with Ladame’s case in view (v. infra), in the future, in all such cases, everything should be done to bring about hypnosis,—the only means of salvation. The result, in the three following cases, was satisfactory:—
Case 134. Contrary Sexual Instinct Acquired through Masturbation.—Mr. X., merchant, aged 29. Father’s parents healthy. Nothing nervous in father’s family. Father was an irritable, peevish old man. One brother of the father was a man-about-town, and died unmarried. Mother died in third confinement, when the patient was six years old; she had a deep, rough, masculine voice, and coarse appearance. Of the children, one brother is irritable, “melancholic,” and indifferent to women.