Until his twenty-fifth year his sexual indulgence consisted of masturbation by the beloved man about once a month. At this time he last felt attracted to a woman. It was to a young peasant-girl. She would not accede to his wishes. Since his lover was also unattainable, the patient began to masturbate alone. With this, his neurasthenia increased. For this reason he was unable to finish his studies; he became shy, dysthymic, abulic, and now vainly tried cures at various hydropathic establishments. On account of continued severe (cerebro-spinal) neurasthenia, the patient came to me for advice, in the latter part of February, 1890.
A tall, slim man, of aristocratic and decidedly masculine manners. Neuropathic appearance; large ears, the lobes of which run into and lose themselves in the skin of the cheeks. Genitals perfectly normal. The usual picture of cerebro-spinal neurasthenia of moderate degree. Great depression; complaint of being dissatisfied with life, even to tædium vitæ; he is pained by his sexual anomaly, especially because he is urged by his family to marry.
He is interested in women only mentally, not physically. Sexually, his only interest is in men of distinction. His dreams have never been about persons of the opposite sex, but of those of his own sex. In these lascivious dreams he has always seen himself in the rôle of a woman.
The most refined woman has never been able to induce erection or even libido in him.
His sexual intercourse with men has consisted of passive or mutual masturbation. He had practiced solitary onanism only infrequently and faute de mieux. During the last five months he had abstained, and had had no male intercourse since August, 1889.
An attempt at hypnosis, after Bernheim’s method, failed; prolonged stroking of the brow induced deep lethargy, with catalepsy.
This method is used, in order to carry out suggestive treatment of this patient, who is so worthy of compassion. The hypnotic state is always the same; he cannot be brought into a state of somnambulism.
At the third sitting the patient is given the suggestions: ever despise onanism and male love; find women beautiful, and dream of them.
After the sixth sitting (March 10th) a moral transformation takes place in his mind. The patient becomes quieter, feels more free, and dreams now and then of women, and no longer of men, finding that the latter have become indifferent to him. He gratefully states that he has no more inclination to masturbation. He approaches women, but he notices that they have not the least attraction for him.
On March 19th, business called the patient home; so that the treatment had to be discontinued.