Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/114

96 punishment, pricking with needles, etc. The scenes often end with coitus, but more frequently with ejaculation without it. Twice prostitutes have shown me heavy iron chains with handcuffs, which their patrons had made for them to put on them; and the dried peas, on which they kneeled; the seat set with needles, on which they sat at command; and many other similar things. Often the perverted man wishes the woman to tie his penis so tightly as to cause pain; to prick it with needles, make cuts in it with a knife, or beat it with a stick. Even the act of hanging is indulged in, it being cut short at just the right moment. Others have themselves scratched with a knife or dagger, but in the act the woman must threaten them with death. In all these things the symbolism of subjection is the most important factor. The woman is usually called ‘mistress’; the man, ‘slave.’

“A man of high social standing, dressed as a servant, sat on the box of a carriage and drove his mistress about. Here there may have been a conscious imitation of the ‘Venus in Furs.’ It seems to me that the writings of Sacher-Masoch have done much to develop this perversion in those predisposed. It is peculiar that the inexplicable enthusiasm for furs is so frequently combined with this perversion. It, as well as that for velvet, has been peculiar to me from my earliest youth.

“All these comedies with prostitutes are for masochists only troublesome substitutes. Whether there is such a thing as a realization of masochistic dreams in love relations or not, I do not know. If it occur, it is certainly very infrequent; for this taste in women (sadism in women, as described by Sacher-Masoch) is very difficult to find; and, too, the expression of sexual abnormalities finds greater obstacles in the modesty of women, etc., than in men. I myself have never noticed the slightest indications of anything of this kind, and have never been able to attempt an actual realization of my fancies. Once a man confidingly told me of his masochistic perversion, and said he had found his ideal.”

The two following cases are similar to the foregoing:—

Case 45. Mr. Z., aged 29, technicist, came for consultation because of a fear of tabes. Father was nervous and died tabetic. Father’s sister was insane. Several relatives are very nervous and peculiar. On closer examination the patient is found to have sexual, spinal, and cerebral asthenia. He presents no symptoms of tabes dorsalis, nor does he give a history of them. Questions concerning abuse of the sexual organs bring out a confession of masturbation practiced since youth. In the course of the examination the following interesting psycho-sexual anomalies came out: At the age of five the vita sexualis began with the impulse to whip himself, as well as with the desire to see others whipped. In this he never thought of individuals as of one sex or the other. Faute de mieux he practiced flagellation on himself and, in time, this induced