The hypothesis that the morning erections are due to a full bladder will be discussed more fully in my work on Male Impotence. I do not believe that erection is due to reflex action from the bladder.[34] But it is an incontestable fact that the dream operates until the existing psychic inhibitions are overcome. Hirschfeld’s patient is able to have sexual intercourse with his wife only mornings, because through the day and evenings he is under the domination of inhibitions which make him impotent with women.
That the impotence in such cases does not always denote weakness is illustrated by the following case:
C. H., a homosexual physician, tells me that he abstains from touching all drinks because he fears he might commit criminal acts. He is homosexual since childhood and had never felt any inclination towards women. Masturbation began at 9 years of age. It began when his uncle once lifted him upon the shoulder. That gave him a strong pleasurable feeling and soon after that he began rubbing his genitals and while doing so he always fancied that his uncle or some other man was carrying him. He had never felt any desire to be carried similarly by a woman. Such a thing would strike him as degrading and vulgar. His experience in houses of prostitution, from 19 to 24 years of age, filled him with disgust for all women who can be hired. Perhaps he might have been able to have intercourse with a girl of better class but a certain timidity prevented him from ever approaching such a girl. Emancipated women fill him with horror. He maintained relations with a certain colleague for some time. Coitus inter femora. At 28 years of age, after a carousal, he met a girl whom he took to a hotel. Powerful erection and prompt coitus. But with the onset of the orgasm he felt an overwhelming inclination to strangle the girl. Suddenly a tremendous hatred mounted in his soul against the poor creature. He hurried away from the scene as rapidly as possible. He thought he wanted to revenge himself because through the act of coitus she degraded him.
Here we see a sadistic attitude towards woman under the cover of timidity. He really feared himself, his criminal tendencies. Problems rising out of the struggle between the sexes (specifically, out of man’s instinctive sex hatred of woman) play a certain role in this case. The significance of this attitude will be explained fully later. This case shows the outbreak of a heterosexual-sadistic instinct under the influence of alcoholic drink. Alcohol seems to dissolve here the defences raised by consciousness against the sadistic tendencies.
Very interesting is the case reported by Moll in his work on The Contrary Sexual Feeling (3rd edition). I give here the case in brief extracts from its history, as it contains points of significance in connection with our present subject:
Miss X. is 26 years of age. Her father she describes as a healthy but very irritable man. Already at the age of 5 she had carried on certain sexual plays with a small boy. She admits having attempted intercourse at the time with the boy who was four years of age. The intercourse consisted of mutual cunnilingus. At six years of age she was sent to school and here she soon began intimate relations with small girls. With a number of them she carried on mutual cunnilingus as she had done with the boy. From the time when she first began this with the girls her heterosexual inclination disappeared completely; after that she never again went through a similar experience with a boy. We shall see that later she did allow herself to be used occasionally by men; but we must note in that connection that the heterosexual acts took place without the cooperation of sexual feelings on her part. At 12 years of age she began to menstruate. At that time she had as playmates the children of a neighborly family who had a governess with whom she soon entered into close intimacy. The governess prevailed upon her to carry on sexual acts, particularly cunnilingus, and the active part was taken now by each in turn from time to time. In the course of these relations she experienced for the first time sexual gratification, so far as she is able to recall. Their intimacy lasted for some time. Miss X. differs from other women of her type in that she is not averse to other forms of gratification. Soon she sought also anus feminarum amatarum lambere, in addition to the genitals. The thought of carrying out such an act with a man was repulsive to her. Just as we know that occasionally perverse men want urinam feminæ dilectæ in os proprium immittere so we see that Miss X. likes to have the same thing done to her by other girls. For a number of years already Miss X. has been in the habit of allowing fæces amicæ in os proprium iniciire; the act produces in her gratification and orgasm. She had first indulged in these acts during her intercourse with the governess above mentioned, which lasted several years. Miss X. is also tremendously roused when she sanguinem menstruationis amicæ lambit et devorat; but, she explains that she is able to carry out these disgusting acts only when there is complete mutual confidence and only if the relationship has endured for some time. She declares further that she is sexually roused also when she is struck with a whip. When asked how she came to acquire this habit she answered that she knew a man who required to be thus treated by a former sweetheart. But, to secure her any sexual excitement the whiplashes must fall upon her from the hands of a woman. She has allowed herself very often to be flagellated by her friend with whom she has also been carrying on the disgusting acts mentioned above. It may be mentioned also that when they kiss each other Miss X. wants to be bitten by her friend, preferably upon the ear lobe. This may be carried so far as to actually cause pain and swelling of the ear.
It is necessary to delineate more clearly the attitude of Miss X. towards the male sex. She does not remember having ever felt any attraction towards the male. But during a celebration where much drinking was had a man prevailed upon her to spend the night with him. She had always wondered why she never felt any attraction towards the male sex and the desire to find out definitely about this as well as the don’t-care-attitude brought on by drink induced her to spend that night with the man. Coitus brought her no satisfaction. Some time later another man became interested in her and fell in love with her but she did not reciprocate his feeling in the least. Nevertheless she wanted to try once more whether she could learn to care for a man’s embrace. She therefore permitted herself to be induced by that man to have intercourse a few times; again she found that ordinary coitus did not rouse the least sexual feeling in her. She requested the man to carry on cunnilingus with her. This roused her sexually and thereupon she experienced gratification; but, without being asked specifically about it, she declares at the same time, that it was necessary for her to imagine that the person performing cunnilingus on her was a woman; otherwise even cunnilingus would have yielded her no satisfaction. The thought of carrying on any of the disgusting acts mentioned above with a man, Miss X. found in the highest degree repulsive. (Moll, l.c, p. 565.)
This case appears to me very noteworthy. It supports my contentions regarding the influence of alcohol upon the homosexual. Miss X. beclouds the fact and thinks she was actuated by the desire to find out definitely whether man had any attraction for her. Absence of orgasm during her intercourse with the first man shows clearly that even indulgence in alcohol was unable that time to release the inhibitions. But she allows herself the experience a second time and this time cunnilingus by the man yields her gratification. It is interesting that her first experience of this kind was with a boy. This corresponds exactly with my observations. In other ways, too, man plays in her condition a greater role than she is willing to recognize. Flagellation she adopts because she knew a man who was treated that way by his previous sweetheart. The relationship of this paraphilia to the strong, irritable father is fairly obvious. Her misophilic acts with women show that she does not want to belittle herself before man, but that she looks upon subjecting herself to woman as a manner of paying homage to her sex. In my study on Masochism I go further into this subject. The other acts indicate a sexual infantilism, rarely seen in a more discreet polymorph-perverse form.