If both these constituent elements occur together,—the abnormally intensified impulse to a violent reaction toward the object of the stimulus, and the abnormally intensified desire to conquer the woman,—then the most violent outbreaks of sadism occur.
Sadism is thus nothing else than an excessive and monstrous pathological intensification of phenomena,—possible, too, in normal conditions in rudimental forms,—which accompany the psychical vita sexualis, particularly in males. It is, of course, not at all necessary, and not even the rule, that the sadistic individual should be conscious of his instinct. What he feels is, as a rule, only the impulse to cruel and violent treatment of the opposite sex, and the coloring of the idea of such acts with lustful feelings. Thus arises a powerful impulse to commit the imagined deeds. When the actual motive of this instinct is not comprehended by the individual, the sadistic acts have the character of impulsive deeds.
When the association of lust and cruelty is present, not only does the lustful emotion awaken the impulse to cruelty, but vice versâ; cruel ideas and acts cause sexual excitement, and in this way are used by perverse individuals.[[49]]
A differentiation of original and acquired cases of sadism is scarcely possible. Many individuals, tainted ab origine, for a long time do everything to conquer the perverse instinct. If they are potent, at first they are able to lead a normal vita sexualis, often with the assistance of subjective ideas of a perverse nature. Later, after the opposing motives of an ethical and æsthetic kind have been gradually overcome, and after the constantly repeated experience that the natural act does not bring complete satisfaction, the abnormal instinct bursts forth. Owing to this late expression, in acts, of an originally perverse disposition, the appearances are those of an acquired perversion. As a rule, it may be safely assumed that this psychopathic state exists ab origine.
Sadistic acts vary in monstrousness with variation in the power of the perverse instinct over the individual afflicted, and with variation in the strength of opposing ideas that may be present, which almost always are more or less weakened by original ethical defect, hereditary degeneracy, or moral insanity. Thus there arises a long series of forms which begins with capital crime and ends with silly acts which afford the perverse desires of the sadistic individual merely symbolic satisfaction.
Sadistic acts may be further differentiated with reference to their nature: either as they are indulged in after consummated coitus by which the libido nimia remains unsatisfied; or, with diminished virility, as they are used to stimulate the diminished power; or, finally, where virility is absolutely wanting, as they become an equivalent for the impossible coitus, for the induction of ejaculation. In the last two cases, notwithstanding the impotence, there is still intense libido; or there was, at least, intense libido in the individual at the time when the sadistic acts became habitual. Sexual hyperæsthesia is always to be regarded as the basis of sadistic inclinations. The impotence which occurs so frequently in the psychopathic and neuropathic individuals here considered, as a result of excesses indulged in from early youth, is usually dependent upon spinal weakness. Often, too, there is a kind of psychical impotence, induced by concentration of thought on the perverse act with simultaneous fading of the idea of normal satisfaction. No matter what the external form of the act may be, the mentally perverse predisposition and instinct of the individual are essential to an understanding of it.
(a) Lust-Murder[[50]] (Lust Potentiated as Cruelty, Murderous Lust Extending to Anthropophagy).—The most horrible example, and one which most pointedly shows the connection between lust and a desire to kill, is the case of Andreas Bichel, which Feuerbach published in his “aktenmässige Darstellung merkwürdiger Verbrechen.”
B. puellas stupratas necavit et dissecuit. With reference to one of his victims, at his examination he expressed himself as follows: “I opened her breast and with a knife cut through the fleshy parts of the body. Then I arranged the body as a butcher does a beef, and hacked it with an axe into pieces of a size to fit the hole which I had prepared up in the mountain for burying it. I may say that while opening the body I was so greedy that I trembled, and could have cut out a piece and eaten it.”
Lombroso, too (“Geschlechtstrieb und Verbrechen in ihren gegenseitigen Beziehungen.” Goltdammer’s Archiv, Bd. xxx), mentions cases falling in the same category. A certain Phillipe indulged in choking prostitutes, post-actum, and said: “I am fond of women, but it is sport for me to choke them after having enjoyed them.”
A certain Grassi (Lombroso, op. cit., p. 12) was one night seized with sexual desire for a relative. Irritated by her remonstrance, he stabbed her several times in the abdomen with a knife, and also stabbed her father and uncle who attempted to hold him back. Immediately thereafter he hastened to visit a prostitute in order to cool his sexual passion in her arms. But this was not sufficient. He then murdered his father and slaughtered several oxen in the stable.