Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/406

388 onanism. He was a neurasthenic man, shy, torpid, and easily became embarrassed and confused. He was sexually always much excited. Frequently he dreamed that he was running about with exposed genitals, or that, dressed only in a shirt, he hung from a fence with his head downward, so that the shirt fell down, exposing his erected penis. His dreams would induce pollution, and he would then have rest for a few days or an entire week.

Also, in his waking state, the impulse would often come upon him, just as in his dreams, to run about with exposed genitals. As he was about to expose himself, he would become very hot, and then he would run aimlessly about. The member would become moist with secretion, but pollution was never induced. Finally, when it had become flaccid, he would put it up, and then come to himself, glad if no one had seen him. In such conditions of excitement he seemed to be in a dream; as if intoxicated. He had never had the intention to offend women. S. was not epileptic. His declarations had the impress of truth. He had actually never followed or spoken to women while in this condition. Frivolity and coarseness were excluded. In agreement with Westphal, the author regards S. as belonging "to a class of individuals of peculiar hypochondriacal tendencies, in whom the attention is constantly directed, in an abnormal way, to certain bodily sensations and processes; who brood over these, connecting all kinds of peculiar conceptions with them, at last making use of quite as strange means to combat the bodily sensations and ideas." At least, S.'s act was due to pathological sensation and idea, and S. was in a condition of pathological disturbance of mental action at the time of the commission of his acts. In the case of this exhibitionist, the manner of satisfaction of the sexual instinct may be considered as peculiar to the individual. (Liman, Vierteljahrsschrift für gerichtel. Med., N. F. xxxviii, Heft 2.)

Case 174. X., aged 38; married; father of one child. Always sullen and silent. Suffers frequently with headache. Very neurasthenic, though not insane. He is troubled much at night by pollutions. He has repeatedly followed shop-girls, for whom he had lain in wait, exposing and handling his genitals. In one case he even followed a girl into a shop. (Trochon, Arch. de l'anthropologic criminelle, iii, p. 256.)

In the following case the exhibition seems subsidiary to the impulsive desire to satisfy sudden, intense libido, by means of masturbation:—

Case 175. R., coachman, aged 49, Vienna; married since 1866; childless. Father neuropathic and given to sexual excesses; died of cerebral disease. He presents no degenerative signs.

At the age of twenty-nine he suffered a severe concussion by falling from a height. Up to that time the vita sexualis had been normal.