HOMOSEXUALITY AND SADISM—THE ANALYSIS OF A HOMOSEXUAL—EARLIEST MEMORIES—FIRST ACCOUNT OF HIS ATTITUDE—FEAR OF TUBERCULOSIS—HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS PARENTS—FIRST DREAM—DREAMS OF URINALS—ANAL EROTICISM—COPROPHAGIA—THE MOTHER AS A TYRANT—TRANSVESTITISM—AN IMPORTANT DREAM—VOYEUR AND EXHIBITIONIST—OTHER DREAMS—POEMS TO THE MOTHER—MATERNAL BODY DREAMS—SADISTIC PHANTASIES—A SPERMATOZOAN DREAM—THE DREAM ABOUT WILD BEARS—SUMMARIZATION OF THE ANALYTIC DATA IN THE CASE—THE FORMULA OF HOMOSEXUALITY.
Man missversteht das Raubtier und den Raubmenschen (z. b. Cesare Borgia) gründlich, man missversteht die “Natur,” so lange man noch nach einer “Krankhaftigkeit” in Grunde dieser gesundesten aller tropischen Untiere und Gewächse sucht, oder gar nach einer ihnen eingeborenen “Hölle” wie es bis her fast alle Moralisten gethan haben.
—Nietzsche.
V
The nature of the wild beast and of predatory man,—Cesare Borgia, for instance,—is misunderstood, “Nature” herself is misunderstood, so long as we look for “morbidity” back of these healthiest of all monstrosities and excrescences, or for some “inner depravity” peculiar to them,—as most moralists have done thus far.
—Nietzsche.
Our investigation of the problem of jealousy has led us repeatedly to the relationship between homosexuality and sadism, a subject we have already considered briefly in connection with the repression-symptoms of the homosexuals. We have succeeded in proving the sadistic trend of homosexuals in most of the cases which we have examined. This relationship is so typical that I am surprised previous investigators have not been impressed by the regularity of its occurrence. The frequency of abnormal sexual cravings among homosexuals has been pointed out by many physicians and has been interpreted by them as indicative of a degenerative trend. But since the physicians were satisfied with their patients’ account and they were unfamiliar with the technique of psychoanalysis, this constant relationship escaped their observation. The next chapter will be devoted to a complete history of such cases and in that connection we shall see more clearly how unsatisfactory the patients’ first account of their own trouble must be. I have already mentioned that many investigators suspect that the homosexuals decidedly lack veracity. Moreover all neurotics drive their sadistic tendencies back into the unconscious. Their repressed tendencies are among the persistently overlooked features,—the unconsidered inventory,—of the homosexual’s psyche.
The sadistic tendency breaks to the foreground of consciousness only occasionally and then it lends its characteristic coloring to the paraphilic disorder. In such cases the sadistic trend is not directed only against the opposite sex. Sexual lust and cruelty are inextricably interwoven; the antisocial cravings cannot be sublimated;[[23]] the ailing individual becomes a danger to the community, he gets into conflict with the law, and lands in jail or in the asylum. For such cases show us a morbidly enlarged and distorted picture of the average homosexual.
The following observation by Fleischmann[[24]] may serve as an illustration of this fact:
82. “Physically the patient shows the early signs of Basedow’s disease. His temperament is very uneven, he shifts from one extreme to another. He is suspicious, very mendacious and very irritable—for instance, he struck his father in his rage. He is not particularly religious. His whole conduct shows a very weak will and lack of energy. Since his 17th year the patient has been addicted to excessive drink. His sexual history reveals the following facts: As a boy, 10 years of age, he came across a book containing an illustration of a scene of violence (beating) which gave him great pleasure. Ever since he thinks of that picture placing himself in the position of the one being beaten. The mere word ‘Peitschen,’ cuffing, has something appealing, something exciting about it to his mind. From the very beginning the patient thought this was an unhealthy trait and was uncomfortably self-conscious over it. At that time he took a journey into the country with his mother. They passed over a river and he saw standing on the shore a naked man who was bathing. That scene stuck in his mind for months. At 11 years of age the patient asked his father to punish him because he had an impure conscience, but did not attain his aim. His fancies were growing. He liked to put himself in Captain Dreyfus’ place, wanted to experience the latter’s degradation and suffering. So constantly was his mind preoccupied with his fancies that the boy neglected his school studies; he became distraught, and suffered headaches. At 15 years of age the boy began to enact his phantasies; he undressed in a room, tied his hands with a rope and suspended himself. He also tied weights to his lower limbs. This produced orgasm and ejaculation. An illustration of tortures which he found in an illustrated work on world history suggested to him new methods. He was specially fond of staging scenes of crucifixion. In all these scenes the boy fancied that he was the victim of all the imaginary tortures. He never connected these fancies of torture with one sex or the other. He had sexual gratification without reflecting particularly about sex. The gratifications led to orgasm and ejaculation. Then the craving for self-torture quieted down somewhat, his imagination cooled off and the patient began to seek sexual gratification through masturbation. He drew his penis downwards and backwards between his limbs and rocked his pelvis sideways. During these acts there arose the first homosexual fancies. While masturbating, which he did at first regularly once every four weeks, later daily and afterwards, five to ten times in succession,[[25]] he pictured to himself the hips of a young boy. At first that fancy, without any further details, was enough. Later he fancied carrying out coitus intra femora. His contrary sexual feelings showed themselves also in other ways. For instance, he took such a strong fancy to a younger comrade that he resolved to stay voluntarily back one year so as to sit in the same classroom with that boy. On account of his lack of veracity his father put him in a training institution; there his comrades initiated him into sex matters and he learned mutual masturbation. He was not aware of being untruthful because he had lost the faculty of discerning between phantasy and fact. At 17 years of age the patient picked up a peasant girl and induced her to sleep with him; but she did not allow coitus; the patient thinks that at that time he would have found coitus pleasurable.[[26]] During that period he was in the habit of abusing daily one of his best friends,—in his phantasy. He had the latter stand naked before his eyes and played with his private parts. In his phantasy he felt all over the fellow’s body, finally advancing to a complete homosexual act, always fancying a one-sided active immissio penis in anum; at the same time he masturbated in the manner described above. After one year he was no longer able to control himself. He prevailed on his friend to undress before him and lie, face down, on the sofa. Then the patient crawled on top and attempted immissio; he did not succeed on account of a sudden feeling of nausea. He desisted, but ejaculated ante portas; afterwards he was ashamed of it. The patient parted from this friend later as the result of a quarrel. Then the sadistic tendencies again came to surface. He imagined all sorts of tortures, reserving to himself merely the rôle of devising the punishment to be applied. The actual carrying out of the deeds he left to other imaginary persons conjured up for the purpose. He chose his victims preferably from among his younger comrades. Patient had devised 36 different kinds of torture assigning to each a written symbol. He selected by lot (drawing numbers) the intended victim, as well as the torture to be applied and the instruments therefor. The patient played this game for hours.