To be sure, Rousseau was himself in error in supposing that this impulse to be humiliated before a woman had arisen by association of ideas from the idea of flagellation:—
“N’osant jamais déclarer mon goût, je l’amusais du moins par des rapports qui m’en conservaient l’idée.”[[66]]
It is only in connection with the numerous cases of masochism, the existence of which has now been established, and among which there are so many that are in nowise connected with flagellation, showing the primary and pure psychical character of this instinct of subjection,—it is only in connection with these cases that a complete insight into Rousseau’s case is obtained, and the error detected into which he necessarily fell in the analysis of his own condition.
Binet (Revue Anthropologique, xxiv, p. 256), who analyzes Rousseau’s case in detail, also justly calls attention to its masochistic significance, when he says: “Ce qu’aime Rousseau dans les femmes, ce n’est pas seulement le sourcil froncé, la main levée, le regard sévère, l’attitude impérieuse, c’est aussi l’état émotionnel, dont ces faits sont la traduction extérieure; il aime la femme fière, dédaigneuse, l’écrasant à ses pieds du poids de sa royale colère.”[[67]]
The solution of this enigmatical psychological fact Binet finds in his assumption that it is an instance of fetichism, only with the difference that the object of the fetichism—i.e., the object of individual attraction (fetich)—is not a portion of the body, like a hand or foot, but a mental peculiarity. This enthusiasm he calls “amour spiritualiste,” in contrast with “amour plastique,” as manifested in ordinary fetichism.
This deduction is acute, but it gives only a word with which to designate a fact, not a solution of it. Whether an explanation is possible will later occupy our attention.
There were also elements of masochism (and sadism) in the celebrated, or notorious, French writer, C. P. Baudelaire, who died insane.
Baudelaire came of an insane and eccentric family. From his youth he was mentally abnormal. His vita sexualis was decidedly abnormal. He had love-affairs with ugly, repulsive women,—negresses, dwarfs, giantesses. About a very beautiful woman, he expressed the wish to see her hung up by her hands, and to kiss her feet. This enthusiasm for the naked foot also appears in one of his glowing poems as the equivalent of sexual indulgence. He said women were animals who had to be shut up, beaten, and fed well. The man displaying these masochistic and sadistic inclinations died of paretic dementia. (Lombroso, “The Man of Genius.”)
In scientific literature, the conditions that constitute masochism have not received attention until recently. All there is to mention is that Tarnowsky (“die Krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinns,” Berlin, 1886) relates that he has known happily married, intellectual men, who from time to time felt an irresistible impulse to subject themselves to the coarsest, cynical treatment,—to scoldings or blows from passive or active pederasts, or prostitutes. It is worthy of remark that, in Tarnowsky’s observation, in certain cases blows, even when they draw blood, do not bring the result desired (virility, or at least ejaculation during flagellation) by those given to passive flagellation. “The individual must then be undressed by force, his hands tied, fastened to a bench, etc., during which he fancies that he makes opposition, scolds, and pretends to resist. Only under such circumstances do the blows induce excitement that leads to ejaculation.”
O. Zimmermann’s work, “Die Wonne des Leids,” Leipzig, 1885, also contributes much to this subject,[[68]] taken from the history and literature.