Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/104

86

The last two sections show that the suffering of any living being may become a source of perverse sexual enjoyment to sadistically constituted persons, and that there may be sadism with almost any [living] object. However, it would be erroneous and an exaggeration to try to explain by sadistic perversion all the remarkable and surprising acts of cruelty that occur; and, in the innumerable cruelties, as they here and there occur in history or in certain psychological manifestations among the people at the present time, it would be erroneous to assume sadism as a motive.

Cruelty arises from various sources, and is natural to primitive man. Compassion, in contrast with it, is a secondary manifestation, and acquired late. The instinct to fight and destroy, so important an endowment in prehistoric conditions, is long afterward operative; and, in the ideas engendered by civilization, like that of “the criminal,” it finds new objects, even though its original object—“the enemy”—still exists. That not simply the death, but also torture, of the conquered is demanded, is in part explained by the sense of power, which satisfies itself in this way; and in part by the insatiableness of the impulse of vengeance. Thus all cruelty and all historical enormities may be explained without recourse to sadism (which may often have been in operation, but which cannot be assumed, since it is relatively an infrequent perversion).

At the same time, there is still another powerful psychical element to take into consideration, which explains the attraction that is still exerted by executions, etc.; and that is, the pleasure there is in intense and unusual impressions and rare sights, in contrast with which, in coarse and blunted beings, pity is silent.

But undoubtedly there are individuals for whom, in spite of, or even by reason of, their lively compassion, all that is con-