III
So long as the last ember of a passion still glows in the heart it is easier to rouse a new passion than if the cure is complete.
La Rochefoucauld.
The last case has shown us that cryptic sexual goals which remain hidden make for unrest and in spite of frequent sexual experiences bring about a state of sexual insatiety, endless hunger, longing and unrest. Man’s unsatisfied instinct drives him like a motor to all sorts of symbolic acts; it induces him to taste all gratifications which are not under the sway of inhibition, robbing him of sleep and rest.
All the symptomatic acts we have mentioned, trying the doors,—looking under the bed, etc.—were due to the subject’s fear of homosexuality. The doors of his soul must be hermetically sealed so that the terrible enemy should find no entry.
The subject also displayed a number of other symptomatic acts which richly symbolized his inversion. He turned around certain objects from the left to the right. He felt more satisfied after doing so. Why did he do it? Because in consciousness the right side always stands for what is permitted, while the left symbolizes the forbidden. Some things he turned around and upside down to see whether they would keep their balance. If they tumbled it filled him with uneasiness, if they stood up, he felt satisfied. Occasionally he found a vessel that kept its balance when turned upside down. But he was satisfied if it did not break.
His phantasy played with the possibility of turning sexuality upside down. If the change involved no mishap it carried to him the meaning: even if you are homosexual, you need not lose your balance, you can keep up and stand on your feet. After such a symbolic act he experienced promptly erection and ran to his wife who only disappointed him because she did not gratify him enough. These men have a strong yearning for great heterosexual passion which shall make them forget their homosexuality. Usually imagination comes to their aid and they find women who give them so much spiritually, that they overlook the absence of physical attractiveness. They sublimate their homosexuality, heighten the meaning of sexuality by endowing it with spiritual erotism, and by means of spiritual ecstacy they make up for the lack of physical lure.
If this transposition does not take place, if the flame blazes only upon the physical sphere, a permanent love hunger becomes established known as satyriasis. This condition must be differentiated from priapism which is caused solely by organic conditions and consists of a more or less continuous state of erection.
Priapism is often brought about by diseases of the corpora cavernosa, by diabetes and diseases of the spinal cord, and is a condition very unpleasant to the sufferer. Here the instinct is not brought into play, the excited organ requires nothing,—it is merely unwell. The psychic impulse is entirely lacking. The subjects feel their condition as something painfully unpleasant, they cohabit merely to get rid of the troublesome erection. On the other hand, the victim of satyriasis is continually impelled to seek gratification and it often happens that he is unable to carry on intercourse because erection fails him. The impulse is psychic rather than physical. Satyriasis is an attempt to exhaust a psychic impulse through the physical channel. A transference of priapism into the psychical sphere, that is, the establishment of a disposition along this path on the basis of a priapistic excitation, is something I have not encountered.
Satyriasis may be produced in a number of ways. We have seen already that persons with sadistic fancies, necrophiliac tendencies and with all sorts of infantile misophilias may be addicted to masturbation. In all these cases, if onanism is given up, a condition develops resembling satyriasis. What these persons seek is a transference of their libido upon the normal path. At the same time my observations enable me to declare that the various conditions mentioned are overshadowed by the significance of latent homosexuality. The most important as well as the most powerful driving force is homosexuality. But I also know of a homosexual in whom the latent heterosexuality has broken forth as a satyriasis directed along homosexual channels.