Libido sexualis may also be induced by stimulation of the gluteal region (castigation, whipping).[[26]]
This fact is not unimportant for the understanding of certain pathological manifestations. It sometimes happens that in boys the first excitation of the sexual instinct is caused by a spanking, and they are thus incited to masturbation. This should be remembered by those who have the care of children.
On account of the dangers to which this form of punishment of children gives rise, it would be better if parents, teachers, and nurses were to avoid it entirely.
Passive flagellation may excite sensuality, as is shown by the sects of flagellants, so wide-spread in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. They were accustomed to whip themselves, partly as atonement and partly to kill the flesh (in accordance with the principle of chastity promulgated by the Church,—i.e., the emancipation of the soul from sensuality).
These sects were at first favored by the Church; but, since sensuality was only excited the more by flagellation, and the fact became apparent in unpleasant occurrences, the Church was finally compelled to oppose it. The following facts from the lives of the two heroines of flagellation, Maria Magdalena of Pazzi and Elizabeth of Genton, clearly show the significance of flagellation as a sexual excitant. The former, a child of distinguished parents, was a Carmelite nun in Florence (about 1580), and, by her flagellations, and, still more, through the results of them, she became quite celebrated, and is mentioned in the Annals. It was her greatest delight to have the prioress bind her hands behind her and have her whipped on the naked loins in the presence of the assembled sisters.
But the whippings, continued from her earliest youth, quite destroyed her nervous system, and perhaps no other heroine of flagellation had so many hallucinations (“Entzückungen”). While being whipped her thoughts were of love. The inner fire threatened to consume her, and she frequently cried, “Enough! Fan no longer the flame that consumes me. This is not the death I long for; it comes with all too much pleasure and delight.” Thus it continued. But the spirit of impurity wove the most sensual, lascivious fancies, and she was several times near losing her chastity.
It was the same with Elizabeth of Genton. As a result of whipping she actually passed into a state of bacchanalian madness. As a rule, she rested when, excited by unusual flagellation, she believed herself united with her “ideal.” This condition was so exquisitely pleasant to her that she would frequently cry out, “O love, O eternal love, O love, O you creatures! cry out with me, love, love!”
It is known, on the authority of Taxil (op. cit., p. 175), that rakes sometimes have themselves flagellated, or pricked until blood flows, just before the sexual act, in order to stimulate their diminished sexual power.
These facts find an interesting confirmation in the following experiences, taken from Paullini’s “Flagellum Salutis” (1st ed., 1698; reproduction, Stuttgart, 1847):—
“There are some nations, viz., the Persians and Russians, where the women regard blows as a peculiar sign of love and favor. Strangely enough, the Russian women are never more pleased and delighted than when they receive hard blows from their husbands, as John Barclay relates in a remarkable narrative. A German, named Jordan, went to Russia, and, pleased with the country, he settled there and took a Russian wife, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was always kind in everything. But she always wore an expression of dissatisfaction, and went about with sighs and downcast eyes. The husband asked the reason, for he could not understand what was wrong. ‘Aye,’ she said, ‘though you love me you do not show me any sign of it.’ He embraced her and begged to be told what he had carelessly and unconsciously done to hurt her feelings, and to be forgiven, for he would never do it again. ‘I want nothing,’ was the answer, ‘but what is customary in our country,—the whip, the real sign of love.’ Jordan observed the custom and accustomed himself to it, and then his wife began to love him dearly. Similar stories are told by Peter Petrius, of Erlesund, with the addition that the husbands, immediately after the wedding, among other indispensable household articles, provide themselves with whips.”