Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/128

110 4. An example of masochistic ideas follows: “She” is a peasant woman,—a rough, tall, large-boned woman of forty or fifty years. She is the possessor of a small, remote farm, which she works with the help of her slave alone. The work begins before sunrise. At four o’clock in the morning she opens the shed where she has kept me shut up over night, and wakens me, as I lie on the ground, with a kick; then she leads me out and harnesses me to a milk-cart bound for town. She leads me by a halter, and urges me along. On the road she gets on the heavily-loaded wagon, and sleeps until the destination is reached. There, in the open market-place of the town, still harnessed to the wagon, I lie down on the bare ground to rest. Those passing knock against me or step on me, without giving me any attention. After the stock is sold, we start homeward. After a short rest the work begins again, always under the direction of the mistress, who holds me by the halter and urges me on. At seven or eight o’clock at night I am put up to rest, and sleep until the next morning, when the same thing begins again. Work and blows, blows and work; no pleasure, no recreation, day in and day out!

Another time I fancy myself in the rôle of a paid lover of an elderly female roué, who makes use of me, sexually, in the most reckless manner; and in this direction makes the most shameful demands on me. If I do not submit to these willingly, I am beaten and punished; and, at the same time, she despises me unspeakably; gives me the lowest housework to do; and on every occasion shows me how low an opinion she has of my manhood.

I cannot clothe the character of masochism in any better formula than the following: A real masochist, without reflection, prefers the kick of a low woman to the embrace of a Venus.

5. In reading Sacher-Masoch, it struck me that in masochists, now and then, there was also an undercurrent of sadistic feeling. Too, I have now and then discovered in myself sporadic feelings of sadism. I must remark, however, that the sadistic feelings are not so marked as the masochistic; and that, aside from the fact that they are infrequently accessory, the sadistic fancies never leave the sphere of abstract feeling, and, above all, never take the form of concrete, connected ideas (like those above mentioned). The effect on libido, however, is the same with both.

If this case is remarkable on account of the complete development of the psychical state that constitutes masochism, the following one is noteworthy because of the great extravagance of the acts resulting from the perversion. The case is also particularly suited to make clear the reason for the subjection and humiliation at the hands of the woman, and the peculiar sexual coloring of the resulting situations:—