Page:Psychopathia Sexualis (tr. Chaddock, 1892).djvu/431

 "According to my firm conviction, by far the greater number of cases of mental disturbance or abnormal disposition observed in urnings are not to be attributed to the sexual anomaly; but they are caused by the existing notions concerning urnings, and the resulting laws, and dominant public sentiment concerning the anomaly. Any one with an adequate idea of the mental and moral suffering, of the anxiety and care, that the urning must endure; of the constant hypocrisy and secrecy he must practice, in order to conceal his inner instinct; of the difficulties that meet him in satisfying his natural desire,—can only be surprised that more insanity and nervous disturbance does not occur in urnings. The greater part of these abnormal states would not be developed, if the urning, like another, could find a simple and easy way in which to satisfy his sexual desire,—if he were not forever troubled by these anxieties!"

De lege lata, as far as the urning is concerned, the paragraph with reference to pederasty must not be applied without the proof of actual pederasty; and psychical and somatic abnormalities must be examined by experts with respect of an estimate in the individual of the question of guilt.

De lege ferenda, the urnings wish a repeal of the paragraphs. The jurist could not consent to this, if he were to remember that pederasty is much more frequently a disgusting vice than the result of physical and mental infirmity; and that, moreover, many urnings, though driven to sexual acts with their own sex, are yet in nowise compelled to indulge in pederasty,—a sexual act which, under all circumstances, must stand as cynical, disgusting, and, when passive, as certainly injurious. Whether for reasons of expediency (difficulty of fixing the guilt, encouragement of blackmail, etc.), it would not be opportune to strike from the statutes the legal punishment of the male-loving man, and to protect youth by the use of the paragraphs concerning sexual abuses, is a future question for jurists.

What has been said concerning congenital contrary sexuality and its relation to the law is also applicable to the acquired abnormality. The accompanying neurosis or psychosis should have much diagnostic and forensic weight with reference to the question of guilt.

It only remains to describe acquired non-pathological pederasty,—one of the saddest pages in the history of human delinquencies:—