Naturally there are also other forms of jealousy. But when it appears in this pathologic form, it is never difficult to trace the homosexual factor and with it the criminal tendencies back of it. The last case given above is particularly convincing and the friend’s behavior very characteristic.
Our subject feels impelled to think of the woman’s lovers driven thereto by his homosexual longing. He thinks of them in a roundabout way, so to speak, through and around the woman. Jealousy enables him to dwell on the picture of the naked man; he thinks of the phallus of his rival, compares it with his own; he drinks in the bliss which his beloved must have tasted through another man; he places himself entirely in the woman’s rôle, so that, in his fancy, he is the woman. He hates the woman in himself and transfers that hatred upon his second self, his beloved. He hates the woman also because she cannot successfully substitute the man for him. Before that liaison he spent his nights in cafès and wine rooms in the exclusive company of men. He no longer does that. He does not leave his beloved alone any more, thus lacking the excitation of manly company. He tortures his mother as he does his beloved whenever he goes home for a few days. He loves her so dearly that he cannot live through a day without calling her up from Vienna all the way to Berlin, where she lives, to talk to her. If he is somewhere where he cannot be reached by telephone his mother must wire him daily. It is very interesting how this love of the mother covers the deeper love of the father. He plays the love of his mother as his trump card against the father. He flees from the sexual love of the father, while yet he has been repeatedly conscious of his incest phantasies towards the mother. He always adds to his mother Imago some kind of a father. He was most jealous of an attorney, already grey haired and a married man, who therefore stood as a symbol of the father. He has even gone so far as to look up that man to demand an explanation from him, thereby making himself ridiculous. His jealousy was particularly suitable as a means for his latent sadism to become manifest. It enabled him to dwell on bloodcurdling phantasies, it made it reasonable for him to injure his beloved sweetheart, and to justify that insane deed as due to excess of love. The analysis brought about a distinct improvement in the situation. He joined again his comrades at the public houses and peace was seldom disturbed after that.
How difficult it is at times to ferret out the homosexual root of jealousy in such situations is shown by the next case, in which jealousy is again masked before the subject’s consciousness.
76. Miss K. N. consults me for a peculiar trouble about her sleep. She is extremely sensitive to noise. She lives with her sister who keeps a very small apartment where one little room is rented to a gentleman. Her nervousness consists of uncontrollable reflections, as soon as evening begins, about the lodger’s return home. If he returns and goes to sleep early, she herself is soon quiet and sleeps well through the night. But if he is away, she cannot sleep. She may fall into slumber but sleeps so lightly that she is awake at the least noise until she hears the lodger return at last to his room. Then a terrible feeling of dread comes over her and her heart begins to beat fast. Other noises also seem to disturb her. The house in which she lives is near a railroad track. But the trains do not disturb her, nor the electric cars. But voices in the next room, and the sound of steps on the floor above, keep her awake.
One would suppose that she wishes the lodger would come to her and is afraid of that. But she insists that the gentleman is indifferent to her, she would not kiss him if he gave her millions in money for it. She is an unlucky person. She will undoubtedly have to give up her sister’s lodging. She has already had a similar experience. She was the mother’s favorite, petted and fondled in every way. Her mother had a stroke of paralysis and lost consciousness. After she came to herself, she clung to the delusion that her favorite child had turned untrue to her and began terribly to torture the poor child.[[17]] She reproached her with occurrences wholly imaginary, scolded her as being cold, selfish and indifferent. The girl could do nothing and finally had to leave the house and go to live with strangers. She returned home only after the death of the mother. Meanwhile the father had also passed away. The two girls remained alone in the world and now only had each other. But things were at sixes and sevens between them and they seldom had a quiet hour between themselves.
At last the sister became actually abusive. She begged her sister “with uplifted hands” to dismiss the lodger. She was willing to cover the room rent out of her own pocket. She could not stand it any longer. She could not sleep nights and was going physically and mentally to pieces. But the sister became wild and started to scold her, using the same terrible terms which she had heard her mother hurl at her. They rushed at each other’s hair. She was so enraged she could have strangled her sister at the time.
After that scene she came again to me in despair. I advised her to move out. She cannot have everything her way and she must have quiet. But what was her answer.
“That I cannot do. I cannot.”
“Why not? Does not your sister let you?”
“Oh no, it isn’t that ... only yesterday sister said to me: ‘Move out. I will cherish the day when I will get rid of you.’”