When he became mature, he attempted to satisfy himself in coitus with puellis. He induced powerful erection by kissing the hair, but could not induce ejaculation. Therefore, he was unsatisfied by coitus. At the same time, his favorite idea was coitus with kissing of hair; but even this did not satisfy him, because it did not induce ejaculation. Faute de mieux, he once stole the combings of a lady’s hair, put it in his mouth, and masturbated while calling its owner up in imagination. In the dark a woman could not interest him, because he could not then see her hair. Flowing hair also had no charm for him; nor did the hair about the genitals. His erotic dreams were all about hair. Of late the patient had become so excited that he had a kind of satyriasis. He was incapable of business, and felt so unhappy that he sought to drown his sorrow in alcohol. He drank large quantities, had alcoholic delirium, an attack of alcoholic epilepsy, and required hospital treatment. After the intoxication had passed away, under appropriate treatment, the sexual excitement soon disappeared; and when the patient was discharged, he was freed from his fetichistic idea, save for its occasional occurrence in dreams. The physical examination showed normal genitals and no degenerative signs whatever.
Such cases of hair-fetichism, which lead to attacks on female hair, seem to occur everywhere, from time to time. In November, 1890, according to reports in American newspapers, several cities in the United States were troubled by such hair-despoilers.
(b) The Fetich is an Article of Female Attire.—The great importance of adornment, ornament, and dress, in the normal vita sexualis of man, is very generally recognized. Culture and fashion[[97]] have, to a certain extent, endowed woman with artificial sexual characteristics, the removal of which, when woman is seen unattired, in spite of the normal sensual effect of this sight, may exert an opposite influence.[[98]] It should not be overlooked that female dress often shows a tendency to emphasize and exaggerate certain sexual peculiarities,—secondary sexual characteristics (bosom, waist, hips). In most individuals the sexual instinct awakes long before there is any possibility or opportunity of intimate intercourse, and the early desires of youth are concerned with the ordinary appearance of the attired female form. Thus it happens that not infrequently, at the beginning of the vita sexualis, ideas of the persons exerting sexual charms and ideas of their attire become associated. This association may be lasting—the attired woman may be always preferred—if the individuals dominated by this perversion do not in other respects attain to a normal vita sexualis, and find gratification in natural charms.
In psychopathic individuals, sexually hyperæsthetic, as a result of this, it actually happens that the dressed woman is always preferred to the nude female form. It may be recalled that in Case 48 the woman was not to take off a garment, and that in Case 51, equus eroticus, the woman was preferred dressed. In Case 89, of the sixth edition,—that of a man manifesting contrary sexuality,—the same preference is expressed.
Dr. Moll (op. cit.) mentions a patient who could not perform coitus with puella nuda; the woman had to have on a chemise, at least. The same author (op. cit., p. 129) mentions a man affected with contrary sexuality, who was subject to the same dress-fetichism.
The reason for this phenomenon is apparently to be found in the mental onanism of such individuals. In seeing innumerable clothed forms, they have cultivated desires before seeing nudity.[[99]]
A more marked form of dress-fetichism is that in which, instead of the dressed woman, a certain kind of attire becomes a fetich. One can understand how, with an intense and early sexual impression, combined with the idea of a particular garment on the woman, in hyperæsthetic individuals, a very intense interest in this garment might be developed.
Hammond (op. cit.) reports the following case, taken from Roubaud (“Traité de l’impuissance,” Paris):—
Case 81. X., son of a general. He was raised in the country. At the age of fourteen he was initiated into the joys of love by a young lady. This lady was a blonde, and wore her hair in ringlets; and, in order to avoid detection in sexual intercourse with her young lover, she always wore her usual clothing,—gaiters, a corset, and a silk dress.
When his studies were completed, and he was sent to a garrison where he could enjoy freedom, he found that his sexual desire could be excited only under certain conditions. A brunette could not excite him in the least, and a woman in night-clothes could stifle every bit of love in him. In order to awaken his desire, a woman had to be a blonde, and wear gaiters, a corset, and a silk dress,—in short, she had to be dressed like the lady who had first awakened his sexual desire. He was always compelled to give up thoughts of matrimony, because he knew he would be unable to fulfill his marital duty with a woman in night-clothes.