Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/430

 callings; he also learns that, in the world of urnings, as in the other, there is prostitution, and that men as well as women can be bought. Thus there is no longer any want of opportunity for sexual satisfaction. But here how differently the experience is gained from that obtained in the normal manner of sexual indulgence!

"Let us consider the happiest case. After longing all one's life, the friend of like feeling is found. But he cannot be approached openly, as a lover approaches the girl he loves. In constant fear, both must conceal their relations; nay, even intimacy that might easily excite suspicion—especially should they not be of like age, or should they belong to different classes—must be kept from the world. Thus, even in this relation, is forged a chain of anxiety and fear that the secret will be betrayed or discovered, which leaves them no joy in the indulgence. The slightest thing that would not affect others makes them tremble with fear that suspicion might be excited and the secret discovered, and destroy social position and business. Could this constant anxiety and care be endured without leaving a trace, without exerting an influence on the entire nervous system?

"Another less fortunate man does not find a friend of like feeling, but falls into the hands of a handsome man, who sought him until the secret was discovered. Now the most refined blackmail is extorted. The unfortunate, persecuted man, brought to the alternative of paying or of losing his social position, and bringing disgrace on himself and his family, pays; and the more he gives, the more voracious the vampire becomes; until at last there remains nothing but absolute financial ruin or dishonor. Who can wonder that nerves are not equal to such a terrible struggle!

"They give way; insanity comes on; and the miserable man at last finds the rest in an asylum that he could not find in the world. Another, in the same situation, driven to despair, finds relief in suicide. It cannot be known how many of the suicides of young men are to be attributed to this combination of circumstances.

"I do not think that I am in error when I declare that at least one-half of the suicides of young men are due to such conditions. Even in those cases where urnings are not persecuted by a heartless villain, but where a happy relation between two men exists, discovery, or even the fear of it, very often leads to suicide. How many officers, how many soldiers, having such relations with their subordinates or companions, in the moment when they have believed themselves discovered, have sought to escape the threatened disgrace by means of a bullet! And it is the same in all callings.

"Therefore, if it must be admitted that, among urnings, more mental abnormalities and more insanity are actually observed than among other men, yet this does not prove that the mental disturbance is a necessary accompaniment of the urning's condition, and that the latter induces the former.