Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/209

Rh lustful feelings, and awaken corresponding desires. This decidedly degenerate reaction is the beginning of a process of physical and mental transformation, a description of which is attempted in what follows, and which is one of the most interesting psychological phenomena that has been observed. This metamorphosis presents different stages, or degrees.

I. Degree: Simple Reversal of Sexual Feeling.—This degree is attained when persons of the same sex have an aphrodisiac effect, and the individual has a sexual feeling for them. Character and feeling, however, still correspond with the sex of the individual presenting the reversal of sexual feeling. He feels himself in the active rôle; he recognizes his impulse toward his own sex as an aberration, and finally seeks aid. With episodical improvement of the neurosis, at first even normal sexual feelings may re-appear and assert themselves. The following case seems well suited to exemplify this stage of the psycho-sexual degeneration:—

Case 94. Acquired Contrary Sexual Instinct.—“I am an official, and, as far as I know, come of an untainted family. My father died of an acute disease; my mother is living and is ''quite nervous. A sister has been very intensely religious for some years.''

“I myself am tall, and, in speech, gait, and manner, give a perfectly masculine impression. Measles is the only disease I have had; but since my thirteenth year I have suffered with so-called nervous headache. My sexual life began in my thirteenth year, when I became acquainted with a boy somewhat older than myself, with whom I took pleasure in mutual fondling of the genitals. I had the first ejaculation in my fourteenth year. Seduced to onanism by two older school-mates, I practiced it partly with others and partly alone; in the latter case, however, always with the thought of persons of the female sex. My libido sexualis was very great, as it is to-day. Later, I tried to win a pretty, stout servant-girl who had very large mammæ; id solum assecutus sum, ut me praesente superiorem corporis sui partem enudaret mihique concederet os mammasque osculari, dum ipsa penem meum valde erectum in manum suam recepit eumque trivit.

“Notwithstanding my urgent demand for coitus, she would not allow it; but she finally permitted me to touch her genitals.

“After going to the University, I visited a brothel and succeeded without especial effort.

“There an event occurred which brought a change in me. One