In daily hypnosis, which never goes beyond lethargy, the patient accepts the suggestions. On July 24th, he announces that he has had pleasure in coitus; and the male servants no longer interest him. At the same time, he still finds men more beautiful than women. On August 1, 1889, it was necessary to discontinue treatment. Result: Completely potent; entire indifference for men, but also for women.
The same treatment met with decided success in a case of psycho-sexual hermaphroditism, reported by me in vol. i of the Internat. Centralblatt für die Physiol. u. Path. der Harn- und Sexualorgane.
Case 139. Mr. von X., aged 25, landed proprietor. He comes of a neuropathic, passionate father. Father is said to have been normal sexually. His mother was nervous, as were her two sisters. Maternal grandmother was nervous, and his maternal grandfather was a roué, much given to venery. Patient is like his mother, and an only child. From birth he was weak, suffered much with migraine, and was nervous. He passed through several illnesses. At fifteen he began masturbation, without having been taught it.
Until his seventeenth year he says he never had feeling for men, or, in fact, any sexual inclination; but at this time desire for men arose. He fell in love with a comrade. His friend returned his love. They embraced and kissed and indulged in mutual onanism. Occasionally patient practiced coitus inter femora viri. He abhorred pederasty. Lascivious dreams were concerned only with men. In the circus and theatre males alone interested him. The inclination was for those of about twenty years. Handsome, tall forms were enticing to him. Given these conditions, he was quite indifferent to other characteristics of the men. In his sexual affairs with men his part was always that of a man.
After his eighteenth year the patient was always a source of anxiety to his highly respected parents, for he then began a love-affair with a male waiter, who fleeced him and made him an object of remark and ridicule. He was taken home. He consorted with servants and hostlers. He caused a scandal. He was sent away for travel. In London he got into a “blackmailing scrape,” but succeeded in escaping to his home.
He profited in no way by this bitter experience, and again showed disgraceful inclinations toward men. Patient was sent to me to be cured of his fatal peculiarity (December 12, 1888). Patient is a tall, stately, robust, well-nourished young man, of masculine build; large, well-formed genitals. Gait, voice, and attitude are masculine. He has no pronounced masculine passions. He smokes but little, and only cigarettes; drinks little, and is fond of confectionery. He loves music, arts, æsthetics, flowers, and moves in ladies’ society by preference. He wears a moustache, the face being otherwise cleanly shaved. His garments are in nowise remarkable. He is a soft, blasé fellow, and a do-nothing. He lies abed mornings, and can scarcely be made to rise before noon. He says he has never regarded his inclination toward his own sex as abnormal. He looks upon it as congenital; but, taught by his evil experiences, he wishes to be cured of his perversion. He has little faith in his own will. He has tried to help himself, but always begins to masturbate. This he finds injurious, inasmuch as it causes slight neurasthenic symptoms. There is no moral defect. The intelligence is a little below the average. Careful education and aristocratic manners are apparent. The exquisite neuropathic eye betrays the nervous constitution. The patient is not a complete and hopeless urning. He has hetero-sexual feelings, but his sensual inclinations toward the opposite sex are manifested weakly and infrequently. When nineteen, he was first taken to a brothel by friends. He experienced no horror feminæ, had efficient erections, and some pleasure in coitus, but not the instinctive delight he experienced while embracing men.
Since then, patient asserts that he has had coitus six times, twice sua sponte. He gives the assurance that he is always capable of it, but he does it only faute de mieux, as he does masturbation, when the sexual impulse troubles him, as a substitute for intercourse with men. He has thought of the possibility of finding a sympathetic lady and marrying her. He would regard marital cohabitation and abstinence from intercourse with men as hard duties.
Since there were rudiments of hetero-sexual feelings present, and the case could not be looked upon as hopeless, it seemed that treatment was indicated. The indications were clear enough, but there was no support for them in the will of the indolent patient, so unconscious of his own position. It lay near to seek support for the moral influence in hypnosis. The fulfillment of this hope seemed doubtful, because the famous Hansen had tried several times, in vain, to hypnotize him.
At the same time, by reason of the most important social interests of the patient, it was necessary to make another attempt. To my great surprise, Bernheim’s procedure induced immediately a condition of deep lethargy, with possibility of post-hypnotic suggestion.
At the second sitting somnambulism was induced by merely looking at him. The patient is obnoxious to suggestions of all kinds; indeed, contractures are induced by stroking him. He is awakened by counting three. Awakened, patient has amnesia for all the events of the hypnotic state. Hypnosis is induced every second or third day for the communication of hypnotic suggestions. At the same time, moral and hydro=therapeutic measures are employed.